Oneida County forestry committee considers request for bridge dedication, multi-use trails

At its September meeting, the Oneida County forestry committee discussed separate agenda items regarding trails in the county. One was a request from the Pel-Cho Mudd Nutz ATV Club.

Steven Rochon came to the committee to ask to place a dedication plaque on the Enterprise Trail Bridge over Noisy Creek. The dedication would be to Mike Hopp, an integral member of the ATV Club who dedicated his time to the trails on a daily basis for many years. Rochon said Hopp was integral in trail development and had dedicated so much of his time to club endeavors and that such a dedication was well deserved in the minds of those in the ATV club.

There has been little precedent set as to the addition of dedication signage to trails such as this. However, there was a mention of a similar situation with the renaming of the Rainbow Flowage Bridge, which was denied. However, there are snowmobile bridges and sections of trail that have been renamed in honor of different individuals over time.

Overall, the committee expressed interest in pursuing the bridge dedication and asked Rochon to bring a photographic mock up of the proposed signage to the forestry department office so the committee could look at it at their next meeting. There was also a desire to have the signage be small and tasteful and to have it resemble a park sign so that it would fit into the landscape. Rochon said he would get that done in the next few days and bring it to the forestry department for the committee’s consideration at its next meeting.

Town of Monico ATV Trails

Committee member and county supervisor Robert Briggs also brought up the ATV trails in the Town of Monico, which are to be only for ATV traffic. However, trails in neighboring counties are listed as multi-use trails. 

He asked why those could be multi-use and the trails in Monico would be single use trails.  Specifically, Forest County allows for hiking, biking and other uses. But when people get to Oneida County, the trails are ATV only.

“It’s supposed to be,” Briggs told the committee. “There was gobs of bicycles on it this last weekend. And on the Pelican River Forest, they opened all those roads to UTVs now. So on that, who’s responsible for all that trail?” 

With all of those trails open to biking, hiking, and all other activities, Briggs’ asked why the trails in Monico are only opened as single use trails. 

According to. assistant forest director Eric Rady, snowmobile and ATV trails are dedicated-use trails in Oneida County. This was done for safety reasons. 

In winter, skiers and others are not allowed on the snowmobile trails, and in summer, hikers, bikers and other silent sports enthusiasts are not allowed on ATV/UTV trails, he said. The trails in Monico are fairly straight, but in the case of Enterprise, the trails there are more “twisty” and there is more opportunity for a faster-moving motorized vehicle to come upon a silent sports person, potentially causing an accident.

“I don’t think it’s a very good reason,” Briggs said. “I can see your point in the woods and that, but I don’t know if the counties have had any problems with that.” 

Other counties have a multi-use trail system as well as dedicated-use trails, others on the committee said. 

On the ATV trails coming into the county, there is signage telling travelers that other uses are not allowed. Should other user groups want to open these trails to their form of recreation, Briggs said, he would direct them to come to the committee and ask for those trails to be opened to multiple uses.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].