Posted By trucker ed on 15 Dec 2011 08:54 AM
if you use your snowmobile for hunting fishing or trapping ,you need to get a trail permit. they cost $45.00 this year.i think if you only use your sled for hunting, fishing, or trapping and not trail ridding we should be able to get something like a sportsmans permit say for $10..00 or$15.00 . this would help pay the snowmobile clubs for the grooming expence. i have sent my state representative steve foster an email on this ,and was wondering what everyone else had to say???
Let me preface by saying that although I do not own a snowmobile not that long ago I had a ring side seat to what I see as an unjust tax levied upon the now dwindling numbers of snowmobile owners who use their machines exclusively for hunting, fishing, trapping, checking their property, or merely for visiting a neighbor.
RANT
What I have to say is that an increasingly powerful snowmobile lobby made a lot of noise and got the legislature to authorize the higher fees for arguably self serving interests. Purely a case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease. The trail permit fee paid by non-trail users is subsidizing in one way or another every restaurant, bar, motel, gas stations and convenience stores in the North Country that caters to snowmobilers. Some grooming operations may also be benefiting from the non-trail using cash cows.
At one time the trail grooming program was handled by the DNR, then private clubs said they could do it better and at a lower cost and lobbied to get the program. So they did. Soon many clubs who originally had volunteers operating groomers started to run out of people willing to give up their free time to groom and lobbied for more money so they could pay people. Sticker prices went up. Then the clubs wanted fancier and fancier groomers that drank increasing amounts of ever higher priced fuel. Sticker prices went up. Storage sheds, larger bridges, wider smoother trails with fewer corners.......everything is expensive and the money had to come from somewhere.
If you are a hunter, trapper, etc. and are even mildly concerned about having to pay $45.00 for a trail permit drop a note to your state legislator and express your concern. In that same note ask him or her how much the various clubs are getting per mile per year for their efforts. I guarantee you will be shocked! They get paid per mile for brushing, even if there is little or no brush to remove, for signing, even if there are few signs to replace (the DNR provides the signs), and of course for grooming (the DNR also provides the groomers).
Many clubs have contracts to groom to a point where another club takes over. Even if the trail is sufficiently groomer on the first pass the original groomer is paid mileage to turn around and go back home, they are paid for two full grooms. If a lightly used trail gets groomed every day or every other day, whether it is really needed or not, the groomer gets reimbursed the full allocated amount.
Oh, forget to mention "special maintenance" projects. These are considered non-routine projects like new or replacement bridges many of which are off limits to everybody except those with trail passes. This might be somewhat understandable when these five and six figure bridges are constructed on private land (yes, I said private) but when on public land and you can drive to both sides of a gated bridge it makes one scratch your head.
It should be obvious that if non-trail users forced by law to purchase trail permits were allowed a “free ride” trail users would certainly have to pay even more to get what they are getting. Since hunters, fishermen, and trappers are so accustomed to paying the way for other outdoor users we wouldn’t want this to be the only exception, would we?