Snowmobile trail proposal advances
Plan OK’d despite objections from silent sports enthusiasts
Over strenuous objections from crosscountry skiers, the Natural Resources Board Wednesday voted to proceed with plans to create a snowmobile trail at Blue Mound State Park in Dane County.
The action came after a longstanding dispute that pitted advocates of silent sports against the snowmobilers.
After approving the snowmobile trail a year ago, board members decided to take up the issue again at the request of the staff of the Department of Natural Resources after objections were raised about the board’s vote on a new master plan for the park.
Last year, opponents filed a complaint in Dane County that alleged board members violated the state open meetings law by discussing the issue at a private dinner in January 2016. The board initially approved the changes in the master plan on Jan. 27.
At Wednesday’s meeting in Madison, board members heard several hours of testimony about the planned 1.4-mile trail that would allow for snowmobile use for the first time in two decades inside the park.
Board members agreed to support the master plan, including the trail, on a 6-1 vote. Gary Zimmer of Rhinelander, assistant executive director of the Wisconsin County Forests Association, voted no.
The debate over the trail construction underscored a battle that has simmered for decades between two often conflicting groups of winter sports participants.
Nearly all of those who spoke voiced their objections to construction of the trail in the 1,150-acre park 25 miles west of Madison.
Opponents complained about noise and exhaust fumes of snowmobiles and questioned the effect the machines would have on the park’s ecosystem. They also complained that the DNR was ignoring public sentiment by adding snowmobiling, noting that the agency received more than 800 written comments opposing the trail.
Karl Heil, former longtime manager of the park, said it is a “major economic engine,” fueled by a cadre of hikers, cyclists and cross-country skiers.
Heil, co-founder of the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, a popular cycling event, said silent sports enthusiasts competing in the Horribly Hilly rides and a trail run generate $75,000 annually for the Friends of Blue Mound State Park, which opposed the snowmobile trail.
All told, the friends group has contributed $500,000 to recent projects at the park but are now being ignored, Heil said.
He told board members that in all of the meetings he attended, “I saw what I believe was a consistent totally pro-snowmobile trail ... bias being presented by the DNR staff.”
State Parks Director Ben Bergey denied that claim and said his staff had been “free of bias” during the planning.
Supporters of the trail said it will provide an important east-west passage for snowmobilers in the region and a link to Military Ridge Road, which runs along the southern border of the park,
After news reports about the open records complaint, the DNR said in October the agency would no longer host social dinners the night before regular meetings of the board.
Earlier last year, a lawyer for Heil filed an open records complaint saying DNR staff briefed board members on the trail at the dinner. The agency has said the events were not a violation of the law, but officials were canceling future dinners.