Two years ago a group of like-minded people met at Grandma Rays and formed a Tread Lightly Off- Road (TLOR) club.
The civic-minded club is dedicated to responsible off-roading.
Today TLOR has about 300 members, although not all of them live in Cook County.
Grand Marais resident Scott Benolken is the driving energy behind “Tread Lightly Off-Roaders,” a club he says is one of many family and service-oriented Jeep, land-rover and 4×4 touring clubs that have formed around the state.
Organizationally TLOR has, “A core group of about 10 people,” said Benolken, adding, “Some of them live in other parts of Minnesota.”
To join TLOR you need to be an OHV enthusiast or at least support it.
“When we formed about two years ago, I signed an agreement with the United States Forest Service (USFS) on behalf of TLOR, to be good stewards of our environment,” said Benolken.
The club’s first organized clean up was in July 2020. “We hauled out a 1000 pounds of garbage. We are doing another clean up October 3, for the fall season,” said Scott.
Assisting in that July cleanup was a lady who came from Bloomington, Minnesota, and a man from Duluth, said Benolken.
When asked how the club selects a project, Scott replied, “For areas to clean we work with Jon Benson and Ed Belmore of the US Forest Service and then volunteer in places that we know need some clean up.”
Tread Lightly
The Tread Lightly program is a national program. Tread stands for:
(T) Travel responsibly on roads and trails in permitted areas.
(R) Respect the rights of others including private property owners and all recreational trail users, campers and others to allow them to enjoy their recreational activities undisturbed.
(E) Educate yourself by obtaining travel maps and regulations from public agencies, planning for your trip, taking recreation skills classes, and knowing how to use and operate your safety equipment.
(A) Avoid sensitive areas such as meadows, lakeshores, wetlands, and streams.
Stay on designated routes.
(D) Do your part by modeling appropriate behavior, leaving the area better than you found it, properly disposing of waste, minimizing the use of fire, avoiding the spread of invasive species, and restoring degraded areas.
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