Do we need bigger ATVs?

New legislation that would allow for significantly larger all-terrain vehicles on our region’s motorized trails should be the impetus for everyone to take a step back and ponder.
The new bill, authored by Rep. Rob Ecklund, would change the definition of an all-terrain vehicle from a maximum weight of 2,000 pounds up to 3,000 pounds. It would also eliminate the current requirement that the vehicles have low-pressure tires.
Under this definition, many small cars, depending on their trim packages, would qualify as ATVs. We don’t imagine that many people will opt to take their Ford Focus or Toyota Corolla off-roading. We point this out to note that the heavier the vehicle, the greater the impact.
We build up roads designed for cars with layers of gravel or pavement because we know that heavier vehicles cause damage unless they’re driven on these improved surfaces.
ATVs were supposed to be lighter on the land because they were lighter in general and had wide, low pressure tires that helped to further spread out their weight. In those early days, ATVs were sold as workhorses, a job to which they were well-suited. But work machines eventually evolved into recreational vehicles and, over time, morphed into the multi-passenger, alien-looking machines that we see today. Who knows what “ATVs” will be like 20 years from now, but it’s safe to say that there will be more of them.
Building ATVs is big business here in Minnesota, where some of the major manufacturers are located. It’s an industry with significant political clout in St. Paul, and we suspect the industry is behind the push for bigger and heavier machines. It’s also why the Department of Natural Resources has been so eager to promote putting many more ATVs out on the land, including right here in the North Country. We’re expecting the groundbreaking later this year on a new state ATV campground to be built just east of Soudan, as part of the Lake Vermilion State Park, a facility that is expected to attract large numbers of out-of-town off-roaders to our area for the first time.
The DNR and many ATV advocates in our region are working to make our region a national destination for off-roaders. Which would mean many more, and potentially much larger, ATVs in our woods than we see today.
Building up the hundreds of miles of ATV trails that already crisscross our region would be a significant financial investment by the state of Minnesota, in part because the trails will need to be built more like roads to facilitate vehicles that can weigh as much as a car.
We recognize that anything that attracts new visitors to our region brings economic pluses, which is one reason we’ve been supportive of the creation of new trails in our area. But like anything, there’s a point where it’s too much of a good thing. ATV advocates here point to the U.S. southwest, where vast numbers of off-roaders descend every year, as an example of the potential that off-roading could have in our region. Never mind that those throngs of off-roaders have many local residents in places like Colorado and Utah up in arms over the sheer numbers of vehicles and their impact on the local environment. Northeastern Minnesota is entirely different terrain, with thin and often saturated soils. Trails here can generally handle the usually light local traffic with a little hardening in places, and the occasional bridge over wetlands, but will that be enough for the levels of traffic, and the size of the vehicles, that some are hoping to see here?
Perhaps before the Legislature opts to authorize ever larger and faster machines on the state’s increasingly sprawling network of off-road trails, we should spend a little time thinking about the ultimate aim of the legislation. We suspect most of our local ATVers don’t want to see their trails overrun, either, with users from outside the area who may not understand the sensitive nature of our terrain or even care about the damage their bigger and heavier machines might cause. ATVs can be hard on the land even at relatively low numbers, which is why trails need to be hardened to prevent erosion. Bigger machines, and more of them, could well make what is now a manageable issue a much more serious concern, and could give the off-road community— even the responsible ones— a bad name.
One way to help limit those impacts is to keep the allowable size of an ATV right where it is today. The Legislature can do that, by taking no action on this legislation.