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April
18, 2003
Dear Minnesota Senator:
First, let me introduce myself. I'm Roger Lueth. I've been a Minnesota
Conservation Officer since May 1975. I will retire shortly, this May 20th, with
28 years of DNR law enforcement service. I'm writing this letter as a citizen of
Minnesota, not as a DNR employee although most of what I say does relate to
experiences I've had while working for the state in that capacity These are MY
opinions and personal observations and they may or may not agree with the DNR's
position. There isn't a lot I haven't seen or done in these 28 years as an
officer but I'm not here to discuss that. I've been in on the ground floor of
the ATV movement. I'd hate to guess how many hours I've worked on ATV
enforcement. I've begged, bitched, pleaded, charged and warned a bunch of them
over the years. From what I see, for the most part, my efforts have fallen on
deaf ears. In fact, we are losing ground, we are in no way keeping pace with the
problems.
About 10 years ago, I pursued an ATV that ran thru a stop sign and then was
operating on the shoulder of a county road, both distinct violations. The
operator was wearing a helmet so I wasn't able to identify him. He eventually
ran the ATV into a gravel pit and came out the backside through some trees where
I couldn't follow him with my patrol vehicle. I pretended to leave the area but
didn't. I came back with my lights out and listened. About a quarter mile away,
I could hear the machine making it's way through the woods and was able to get a
fairly close location on it. I drove to within several hundred yards of where I
figured the ATV was at and listened again. I heard it for about a minute and
then the engine shut down. I quietly exited my vehicle with a flashlight. Not
wanting to spook the operator, I walked black (without any light) toward the
area where I last heard the engine. I knew I was getting fairly close to it when
I ran into an impenetrable "wall of trees". It was a very dark night and I had
walked into a patch of second growth aspen. Every direction I turned, I bumped
into a tree.
I turned on my flashlight to get thru this maze of trees. As soon as the light
turned on, I heard the ATV start about 25 yards from me. He took off thru a jack
pine area but then he ran into a thick patch of young aspen. I could now see
well by using the illumination from the ATV's headlights. I watched as the
windshield was torn off the ATV as he tried to go thru the young aspen. I
started running toward him and was able to catch-up with him. He had no idea
where I was as I grabbed both his shoulders with my hands. As soon as I touched
him, he squeezed the throttle, accelerating the machine. I hung onto him and
pulled his body horizontal but wasn't able to pull his hands from the
handlebars. I lost my footing and grip on his shoulders but did catch the
tubular rack on the ATV and hung on. The operator dragged me for about 50 yards
before he got into some thicker tree cover again. He had to slow down some and I
was able to regain my feet. I found that I could "steer him" by applying
pressure one direction or the other on the rear rack of the machine. As soon as
I realized this, and it didn't take long, we "skinned" one tree and the next one
I "aimed" for we hit dead center. That was the end of the chase and my being
dragged. Turned out the operator was a guy I knew well, in fact he had given me
good information several times in the past. Because of that, I gave him a deal,
charging him with the stop sign and operating on the roadway violations. I
didn't charge him with the fleeing violation. Outside of tearing the knees out
of my pants and losing my flashlight, I was none the worse for the wear. I did
retrace our journey together and recovered my flashlight.
The overwhelming reason for writing you isn't to bore or entertain you my past
experiences, it's that I am extremely concerned with the environmental
degradation being caused by ATVs in this state. Minnesota is a very beautiful
state. If something drastic isn't done in short order to control ATV damage,
it's going to be "Minnesota
Used to be a beautiful state".
I've been stationed at Lake George
since Oct. 1980. It's a wide spot on highway 71, located between Park Rapids and
Bemidji. Itasca State Park is 7 miles to the west of Lake George. Much of this
area is covered with jack pine forest and the soils are sandy in much of
northern Hubbard County. With the state park, the Mississippi river and our
abundance of resorts on area lakes, tourism is a major source of income for area
residents. Visitors come back year after year to enjoy the unspoiled forests,
lands and water we treasure in this area.
Years ago I watched the snowmobile industry develop and expand. As an officer,
we had substantial problems as this industry bloomed. Getting these folks to
license their machines and then keep them from operating them on the roadways
was a sizeable job. For the most part, snowmobilers now do a good job of
licensing their machines but there still tends to be way too many of them
operating on the highway road shoulders.
Many people tend or try to compare snowmobiles and ATVs. They are not comparable
machines. It's like comparing apples and oranges. The only similarity is that
they are both made of metal and plastic and have an engine, but the comparison
stops there. Snowmobiles operate during frozen conditions and mostly on a base
of ice and snow. For the most part, there is no machine contact with the ground.
In good snow years we run several hundred snowmobiles over our groomed trail
every weekend all winter long.
Come spring, when the snow and ice melt away, the trail surface is untouched. It
looks just like it did when the first snow fell the previous November. The ice
and snow totally absorbed the winter "beating" that the snowmobiles gave it.
ATVs, on the other hand, although capable of operating on frozen ground, for the
most part operate during the warmer times of the year. My experience has shown
that ATV engines are not good cold weather starters. The primary design of an
ATV, where it has the "solid" rear axle, is one of the main reasons it causes so
much damage everywhere it travels. With that unforgiving, solid rear axle, every
time the ATV is turned, a tension or pressure is setup within the rear axle. If
an operator turns his ATV to the left, the left or "inside" tire has less
distance to travel than the right or the "outside" tire. The "outside" tire has
more distance to cover to keep up thus has to turn faster than the inside tire.
This sets up the tension in the axle. The only way this tension is relieved is
when an axle breaks or one of the tires has to "skid or spin" to catch the other
tire. This differential turning rate between the two tires causes tremendous
damage to the surface the machine is being operated on. This same phenomena
would happen to a car if it had a solid rear axle. Many years ago car
manufacturers put a "differential" into the rear axle assembly. The differential
now adjusts and absorbs this axle tension so the tires don't have to. I'm amazed
that the ATV manufacturers haven't done this but it would add weight and
considerable expense to a machine. They don't do it, I suspect, in order to stay
cost competitive.
Although you may perceive that I'm totally anti ATVs, that's not the case. I am
against the damage we are allowing them to do. Like a firearm, it's the
irresponsible use of the item that creates the problem. I personally own a 2002
Honda Foreman 4 wheeled ATV. I'm not into hot-rodding, slinging mud or riding it
hard. They are a very useful implement around a homestead for moving firewood,
hay, or most any other not-too-heavy items. I have repeatedly noticed that even
slow, deliberate operation around my yard causes significant surface damage,
especially during any turning operations. It is just inherent in the machine for
the reason I mentioned above. A single machine moving slowly causes damage. Now
take that times 100 machines, times two thirds of them driving like there is no
tomorrow and well, you get the picture. They are rapidly turning a fair amount
of Minnesota
into a landscape that looks like Hell.
Look at the horrendous damage that is occurring in our road ditches. Look at the
erosion problems that have developed because an area is denuded of vegetative
cover. Look at the gulleys that have formed wherever there are any slopes
involved. When it gets intolerable and downright dangerous, highway departments
are going to have to address this damage and it's not going to be cheap to
rectify. I get numerous calls from irate landowners demanding who is going to
repair the "trenches" cut across their driveways. They've repaired them numerous
times already and are sick and tired of this damage occurring on a weekly basis.
I don't know what to tell them except that we "require" ATVs to operate in the
road ditches, they can't operate on the road surface. It absolutely makes sense
to me that whichever group is causing the damage should also be held financially
responsible for repairing it. I detest my general tax dollars being spent to
repair the damage caused by a small segment of our society, especially when so
many are opposed to many aspects of ATVing.
One of the statements often heard that bugs me to no end is "Well, it's only a
small percentage of the machines causing the problem, 95% of the operators are
well behaved and very conscientious". Even some uninformed people within the DNR
make those statements. That just plain isn't true. I've never kept exact figures
but a 75% irresponsible vs. a 25 % responsible ratio is much closer to what is
actually happening out here. The "average" rider I check is 16 to 30 years old.
He's driving a relatively new, high CC powered, 4 wheeler that he bought for
little down and no payments for X months. Many of the operators wear raingear
and their machines are covered with mud and aquatic vegetation.
I guess it's because I've had to work for everything I've owned that I take
great care in keeping my property in good condition. I checked a group of six
ATVers about three weeks ago. The group was typical, all young males, all mud
covered and dragging aquatic vegetation. Several of the guys said "Hey, look at
that machine, it's only two days old": It had one of the footrest platforms tore
off. It had a board bolted to one of the front fenders to hold it on. He had
been in two accidents already. It was a brand new high CC machine. I mentioned
to him that people do get killed on these machines and that maybe he should keep
that in mind. I seriously doubt my remarks sunk in. Those are the ones that make
the short column on the interior of the paper usually with a nice picture on the
top preceded by which high school they graduated from and who survives them. Try
as I may, some people can't be stopped from destroying themselves.
I've made mention several times to mud and aquatic vegetation covering ATVs.
This isn't an isolated or seldom seen phenomena, it's pretty much the norm
especially when the group contains young males. I guess it must be the challenge
to see if their machine "is up to it", that is go thru mud and wetland areas.
I've seen numerous beautiful, cattail filled wetlands churned into a black bowl
of mud soup by ATVs. After they get done, there isn't a piece of green
vegetation visible, everything is mud and black. That wetland has just lost its
ability to filter and purify the water that passes thru it. I wonder if this has
anything to do with why Minnesota's water quality is declining? It's an
environmental felony what these machines and ruthless operators are being
allowed to do to this state.
Part of my patrol district is an extensive area of the Paul Bunyan State Forest
which lies SE of Lake George. There are many sections of state owned land within
this forest and much of it has seen extensive logging to harvest the over mature
trees. Many miles of new roads were built into this area to remove the harvested
timber. Lockable gates were installed on these new roads once the logging
activity was finished. I swear we must have many blind or illiterate ATVers in
this state because either they can't read or they can't comprehend signs that
say "NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT". You show me a locked gate
up here and I'll show you an ATV trail that goes around the end of the gate. It
is impossible to gate them out, berm them out or sign them out of an area. They
go wherever they want to regardless of signs, locked gates or regulations. They
are able to do this for the most part because their chance of getting caught is
almost zero, and that brings me to my next point.
Did you know that Minnesota ranks about 45th out of 50 states in the ratio of
the number of hunters and fishermen per Conservation Officer. Do you realize
that Minn. had 141 game wardens way back in 1941? Today we have 135 officers
working in the field. Right now, officers are stretched very, very thin over
Minnesota's landscape. We are involved in regulating just about every aspect of
outdoor activity in Minnesota running the gamut from feedlots to fish to fire
and everything in between. There are just too many demands; I can't spend enough
time on any one activity to do a quality job on it. There isn't a law on the
books that's worth the paper it's written on if there isn't someone to put some
teeth into it and enforce it. For my career, it's water over the dam at this
point, but Minnesota
desperately needs more Conservation Officers WORKING IN THE FIELD.
There is a mentality among a growing group of outdoor users these days that it's
impossible to do this or that activity without using a motorized vehicle. I
wonder how grandpa was able to do it? I wonder how your dad was able to do the
activity without an ATV. Too many people think they have to have a motor
strapped to their butt these days or they can't participate. If you don't
believe me, set in
Lake George on
highway 71 starting two days before the state deer season opens. It's incredible
the number of ATVs that are transported north to assist the deer hunters.
I could ramble on and on about this problem. I don't like any more laws and
regulations any more than you do. I think we're being regulated to death. I
sympathize with the responsible ATV operators in this state who are likely going
to feel the screws being tightened further. Ultimately everything I am able to
do and the impact I am able to make depends on the tools that you give me. I
stand (and work) at the exact spot where the "rubber meets the road". Law
enforcement has to untangle and understand the statutes you folks pass into law.
For the most part, laws are needed and do make sense. In fact, I think you're
getting better at turning out better thought out and researched laws. I tend to
be more concerned about the laws that don't get passed for various sundry
reasons.
Please, please, give us an ATV law with some strong provisions and penalties
where we have some effective tools to deal with these problems. For the most
part I strongly support the Marty/Ruud bill (SF 850), I hope you will too.
Thanks
for listening.
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