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outlandish AWF Admin 
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NORTHWEST MINNESOTA: DNR gears up to revisit Beltrami trail plan Official: Agency is committed to involving public in the process By Brad Dokken Herald Staff Writer The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continues to take comments on options for managing ATVs and other off-highway vehicles in Beltrami Island State Forest, and officials say they're committed to involving counties and local citizens in the process. "What we're going to get back into is, 'How are we going to take public input from different groups?' instead of saying, 'Look, here's how it's going to be,'" said Mike Carroll, regional director for the DNR in Bemidji. "We heard loud and clear up there that we need to do a better job of taking public input." ATV access in Beltrami forest has been a hot-button issue since last winter, when the DNR released a proposal that called for closing hundreds of miles of trails within the forest's boundary. The plan resulted from a legislative mandate that required the DNR to reclassify Minnesota's state forests from "managed" status to either "limited" or "closed." In the case of Beltrami, the DNR recommended limited status, a designation that meant roads and trails would be closed to motorized vehicles unless otherwise posted. Managed forests, by comparison, permit access unless the roads and trails are posted as closed. Local outcry The DNR proposal, which followed an extensive inventory of roads and trails within the forest boundary, triggered an uproar that culminated in a public meeting last February in Warroad, Minn., which drew more than 2,000 people. In response, DNR officials agreed to revisit the Beltrami proposal and extend the comment period. Meantime, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill that allows the DNR to retain managed status in state forests north of U.S. Highway 2. Rep. Maxine Penas (R-Badger, Minn.) and Sen. LeRoy Stumpf (DFL-Plummer, Minn.) played key roles in drafting and passing the legislation. Carroll said the DNR is internally reviewing the designation process and what the new legislation means for Beltrami forest. The agency still has the authority to close access in parts of the forest that can't support sustainable trail use, but the one-size-fits-all approach of the old legislation no longer applies. "The DNR with its cooperators still has to go through and identify where use is sustainable and where it isn't," Carroll said. "We still have the mandate to do that, and there's very strong support from some of the user groups and people up there saying, 'we understand if we are going to maintain this, we don't want to rip it up.'" Local involvement As part of that review process, Carroll says the DNR will work with local groups and county officials to look at all of the 1,135 miles of roads and trails in the forest inventory. The goal, he says, is to develop a plan that supports "managed use on managed trails" and sustaining public access to state forests, while at the same time protecting environmentally sensitive areas. Carroll says he's met with people in Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties and also plans to meet with residents in Marshall County. "They are the ones that can help us identify past use, and that's what we're looking at - getting a better idea of what has been some of the traditional uses," Carroll said. The process, he says, could take three to five years before a formal plan is in place. For now, the key words are "stay tuned." "It's an evolving process, and we've been impressed with the fact that people are interested," Carroll said. "There can be some polarized views, at times, but everybody shares interest that the recreational access needs to be maintained. We're never going to have consensus, but we need to reach some middle ground on sustainable use and get the public on board that they have had a clear voice in planning." Carroll says there's no deadline - at this point - for submitting comments on the Beltrami proposal. • On the Web: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/mgmtplans/ohv/designation/status.html.
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