As I see it

The Herald ran a press release from Citizens for Sustainable Off-Roading, last week announcing the group had filed a Citizen’s Petition requesting a state environmental assessment of the proposed Border-to-Border Touring Route (B2B). They listed several reasons they think the public should be concerned, but neglected one key factor. The B2B is not an off-road project. There’s no new trail being cut. No route proposed that has not already been there for years and years. The Border-to-Border Touring Route is essentially the signing of existing legal roads where highway licensed vehicles already travel.

The B2B is a response to outreach efforts by the state to get new and diverse user groups into the great outdoors. It’s also a response to the fact that nobody drives a sedan anymore and people are looking to spend more time in the vast scenic places in our state with their all-wheel and four-wheel drive vehicles. This is especially true since the lock-down, when it’s been especially important to remember the calming benefits of our public lands should be able to be enjoyed by the many, and not just the favored few.

We started a local Jeep group several years ago, about the time Citizens for Sustainable Off-Roading first began drawing attention to the B2B. When they brought it to light, we thought the B2B would be a good project to support and forming a club would be a good way to support the community.

Our members are family oriented and community minded. We get special permits from the forest service once or twice a year and haul tons of trash out of the woods with each event. We sponsor Memorial Day rides for military veterans and distribute great looking, high-quality blankets that are hand-crafted by a military veteran partner at Seven Slots Posse, to residents of the Silver Bay Veterans Home.

People who drive Jeeps, Subaru’s and other overland vehicles are looking for adventure-riding opportunities, and the DNR is reaching out to try and provide them through groups like the MN Four-Wheel Drive Association, and my club – Tread Lightly. Touring routes bring welcome new revenues to deep rural areas, and they are very popular in other states, as they will be here.

It’s unfortunate a group like Citizens for Sustainable Off-Roading actually hired a lobbyist to kill a bill sponsored by MN4WDA to spend revenues from their own funds to do three good things – create a maintenance fund, hire a B2B administrator to build relationships with citizens and local governments along the route, and hire an accredited firm to complete a statewide master plan – the first of its kind by any user group and contrary to comments made by CSOR in their release. The master plan is to make sure the B2B, and any other project to come will have a well-thought out blueprint to follow. I’m glad they failed to kill the bill, and with so many people in support of the B2B and looking forward to its implementation, I hope their second attempt at slowing the project down is equally unsuccessful.