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On Tuesday, March 2, 2021, Citizens for Sustainable Off-roading (CSOR) announced the filing of a Citizen’s Petition requesting a state environmental assessment of the proposed Border-to-Border Touring Route (B2B). The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the administrator of the project, instructed by the State Legislature in 2015 to, “address off-road touring routes and other issues related to off-road vehicle activities.” CSOR believes an EAW is an excellent tool for scoping that effort.
The project seeks to promote nationally a touring route that would span northern Minnesota from the North Dakota border to Silver Bay on mostly unpaved roads through some of the state’s most sensitive natural places.
CSOR maintains there are better alternatives available than increasing high-impact travel on forest road systems that are often poorly maintained and not designed with today’s standards for environmental protection in mind. The route will cross a significant number of high quality waters: in Lake County alone the proposed route crosses 27 designated trout streams a total of 61 times. It passes within 1.25 miles of the BWCAW while crossing waters upstream of BWCAW lakes that share the same watershed. Add to this the impacts of high clearance, high horsepower vehicles, and the logical outcome is soil damage, erosion and sedimentation, a major cause of water degradation that also results in rising water temperatures, compounded by the warming due to climate change. Considering that over 50 percent of the state’s waters are now classified as impaired by the Minnesota Pollution Control agency, Minnesotans should be highly concerned.
Equally alarming in CSOR’s view is the fact that despite the DNR not having an accurate, up to date inventory of all statewide existing mileage already available for OHV use, additional motorized recreation projects are being planned or implemented throughout the state. Nor is there a comprehensive master plan guiding implementation and mandating controls to prevent the associated environmental risks. Without comprehensive review, the cumulative adverse impacts of expanding motorized recreation routes on our state’s natural resources cannot be understood, much less avoided.
The CSOR petition calls for careful scrutiny under current environmental law, which emphasizes prevention and least harmful alternatives.
These concerns are shared by a wide audience interested in protecting the quality of the state’s natural resources. During the summer of 2020, several prominent environmental groups including the Minnesota division of The Izaak Walton League, The North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, Northern Minnesotans for Wilderness as well as the House Chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee, all requested that Minnesota DNR Commissioner Strommen consider conducting an Environmental Assessment of this project. When the DNR refused these requests, CSOR felt compelled to file a petition. To request more information, please contact www.CSORMN.com.
Impaired waters links:
www.pca.state.mn.us/news/more-580-waters-added-states-impaired-waters-list
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