Oneida County forestry committee considers ATV season changes, memorials in parks

With the mild winter weather in the last few years, Oneida County supervisor Robert Briggs brought the idea of opening winter ATV/UTV trails under certain circumstances to the Oneida County forestry, recreation and land committee at their meeting this week. With much of the winter economy of the Northwoods based in tourism and, hence, snow accumulation, the lack of which, in recent years was a concern for the committee, as well as businesses in the area.

The issue with ATV/UTV use in the winter, other than on county roads and those town roads that are open to that type of traffic year round, is that most trails in the county are shared- use trails. They are groomed and maintained by ATV/UTV clubs in the summer and snowmobile clubs in the winter, other than 6.5 miles of trails in Enterprise, which are only ATV/UTV trails.

In 2000-01, the county tried to allow ATVs only on snowmobile trails, but it did not go over well, and that was the only year it had been attempted. UTVs were not allowed on those trails in winter, due to their size. 

Should the discussion go further, contact would have to be made with the snowmobile clubs, according to Oneida County ATV  coordinator Jake Truitt, as they would likely be the ones who would have to maintain the trails in the winter. Also, because land owner agreements are only with the snowmobile clubs, not ATV/UTV clubs, ATVs and UTVs would only be allowed on those trails otherwise designated for their use. They would not be allowed on snowmobile trails that crossed private property. The other caveat with winter ATV trails is that, when temperatures are above 28 degrees, ATVs and UTVs would not be allowed on those trails. ATV and UTVs would also need to be tired vehicles, as tracks would not be allowed. 

Committee chair Bob Almekinder asked Truitt if he would make contact with snowmobile clubs to gauge their reaction and get their thoughts on the matter. 

Briggs said he was not looking to open just the trails in his district, but to have the trails open in the winter throughout the whole county. He mentioned the Pelican River Forest.

“If their gate’s open, you can drive a pick up truck down there, and they opened all of their roads to ATV traffic now,” he said. 

“The problem with opening just our ATV system, our summer system is, how do you stop people?” Truitt said. “You can just keep going onto private land, because those snowmobile gates are open.” He said he felt it would be a bit of an enforcement nightmare from that standpoint.

I think one of the challenges we have is that we don’t know what’s happening with our climate,” said county forest director Jill Nemec. “we do know it’s shifting, and maybe it’s just shifting one month earlier or one month later, or whatever, but we don’t have sports, or snowmobiles, ATVs, when people want to use them.” She agreed that there are more ATVs/UTVs than snowmobiles.

Truitt said there were approximately 50 miles of ATV/UTV trails and 850 miles of snowmobile trails in the county. The question was, if the goal was to open up trails to let riders patronize area businesses, only to ATVs, only after the snowmobile trails had opened, and only when the temperature was below 28 degrees, would that really get riders to additional businesses. 

“I think the one spot where it would be ...  the connection between Lake Tomahawk and Woodruff,” Truitt said. The rest of the majority of ATV trails, he said, were in the woods with town roads on all sides of them. With many town roads open year round and county roads open as well, he felt the railroad grade from Lake Tomahawk to Woodruff would be the one place where opening would improve access to businesses in the winter. 

Nemec noted, however, that riders do not only patronize businesses while they are riding. Those who use the trails may stop somewhere to eat or patronize businesses at other times while they are visiting.

There was also some discussion about whether or not the gates on the snowmobile trails at private lands would keep ATVs off of the snowmobile trails in those areas. However, not all gates are closed during those times when snowmobile trails are temporarily closed during the season due to lack of snow. 

Almekinder said he felt the biggest issue would be private land owners. Without those people, he said, the county would have no recreational trail system at all. 

There was also some discussion about whether opening those trails only to ATVs would make sense. There has been a drastic rise in the number of UTVs, but the state has held the position that those vehicles could provide unsafe conditions due to their size.

Nemec said more people were coming to the Midwest and more people were recreating. She said the county should be able to figure something out for the future to be able to provide recreational opportunities.

There was also a discussion about funding. There was a request from the committee to bring back a map to the next meeting that would show the funded trails in the county. Trails that are open to vehicular traffic are not funded like the snowmobile and ATV/UTV trails are, so the committee wanted a better idea of the scope of the funded trails and where they were in order to get a better idea of what the ask actually was.

Memorial policy

The committee also took up the matter of memorials in county parks. In the last 10 months, six requests had come from the public for installing various memorials in county parks. The department put together a county forest memorial policy and brought a draft of that policy to the committee. 

The policy would allow three different options for individuals or groups that would like to have a memorial to a loved one in a county park or forest. Those options would be a memorial picnic table, a memorial park bench or a planted tree or shrub. Any memorials would be approved, installed and maintained by the department. Any non-conforming memorials would still require approval of the board, but not every request would need board approval under this new policy. 

The policy delineated two model options for memorial picnic tables. Both had six-foot seating benches included, but one model also had an extended top, for end accessibility. The Model XT table would require a $1,500 donation and the Model XT End Accessible option would require a $1,800 donation.

The bench selected by the county is a Barco Products Georgetown Bench. This memorial option would require a $1,000 donation.

The proposal asked for a $200 donation for a memorial tree or shrub, which would also include a memorial plaque, as would the other two options. When looking at the cost of maintaining that tree up until such time as it would no longer need fencing, mulching and attention from the county, the committee felt the cost might be more in the range of $400-500. The department felt the costs may not be that high and also had some concern that there may be a contingent of citizens who may not have $500 available to memorialize a loved one, and felt that may be a barrier for some. 

There was also a good deal of discussion about carrying capacity. Only so many memorials would fit into a park or facility and still keep the aesthetic for which the county was looking. Those would need to be spelled out prior to the policy being adopted. The draft memorial policy will return at the next meeting for further discussion.

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