MMR Round One:

Hi gang,

Much of the time I'm sending you alarming messages, so this is just a quick note to send a positive message, to report on Monday's (Jan 22) House Environmental Finance Committee hearing on motorized trail funding. This was not a hearing to respond directly to attempts to crush our sport. Rather, it was a hearing called by legislators genuinely interested in and concerned with the status of snowmobile and OHV trail development and funding. My thanks to the 20 or more dirt bike and ATV riders that were present to show our interest.

The DNR presented their overview of the subject, and representatives from MinnUSA (snowmobiles) and Polaris spoke, as well as representatives from ATVAM and ARMCA. Sonia Bartz gave an excellent presentation of ATVAM's history of involvement with managed trails, and I was able to add some short comments on ARMCA, which mirrored and reinforced her testimony.

All the testimony was well received by the committee, and they truly understood the importance of moving forward to establish a designated trail system as a foundation for addressing some of the present problems with trail proliferation, trail damage, cross country travel, etc.

An MRR representative testified also, and his testimony was not well received, partly because he was caught trying to deny that MRR had said that "ATV's have negligable economic benefit" to Minnesota. When a committee member read the statement copied from the MRR web site, his lame attempts to backpeddle drew a derisive laugh from both the committee and the audience.

In summary, round 1 belongs to us, but there's a long session ahead.

Don Youngdahl