Hello County Commissoners,
I am writing to you regarding the proposed Border to Border Off-Road Touring Route (B2B). By not supporting the B2B or opposing it can lead to detrimental effects to Cook County.
You may ask how so?
1: Loss of tourism dollars (People that enjoy motorized sports not feeling welcome here, so planning vacations elsewhere i.e. gas, food, lodging).
2: By opposing the B2B a clear message is sent “We, Cook County, don’t like you, we don’t want more tourism.”
3: These roads, that are open right now to all OHV, won’t be policed by the people that love to travel these little roads. Why wont they be policed you might ask. Answer: You might not believe or care to believe it, but a great majority of us love the scenic roads. We do not want to see them get destroyed by wayward travelers or litter. All the Off-Road clubs I am involved with are very good stewards of the land, we pick up garbage left by others, we don’t add to it.
You may have in your minds eye the picture of big bad monster mudding trucks tearing everything up. But the organized clubs do NOT just go willy nilly everyplace. There are places for that, placed designed and or areas where that is legal to do. We police our own, you break the rules you are never invited back, and the offenders name gets shared.
4: Buy not supporting the B2B you could very well eliminate funding for repairs and eliminate clubs using the system and fixing problems that are seen.
You may not be aware of it, but the local Off-road club Tread Lightly Off-Road, has signed an agreement with the U.S.F.S. to be good stewards of the roads and trails and has agreed to do maintenance, at no taxpayer cost. By the continued use of OHV on these roads and trails they stay open. Keeping them for EMS, USFS, and the DNR.
We learn the little used roads and trails, we learn them well. We learn our way around which can be a very big asset in an emergency, fire, windstorm, alternate ways around other washed out or blocked roads.
These roads and trails are used by others too, hikers, bikers, but when a tree falls across a road, I don’t think a person on a bike or a hiker has the means to remove the tree. We do, keeping the road open so that people stay on the established road and don’t go around the tree causing more damage.
These are public roads and are open to all. So please support the B2B and not eliminate another form of tourism here in Cook County.
Regards, Scott Benolken, Founder
Tread Lightly Off-Road
email: benolken.sa@gmail.com
Leave a Reply