State increases funds for grooming snowmobile trails

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Aug. 3, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Snowmobilers across Minnesota will find the state's trails a little smoother this year thanks to a $3 million increase in trail grooming and maintenance funds.

According to Department of Natural Resources Trails and Waterways Regional Supervisor Butch Belcher, the department's snowmobiling budget will total about $6 million for the season, and $700,000 of it will be used in his region, which includes Beltrami County.

Belcher's Region One was allocated about $460,000 last snowmobiling season -- down from the previous winter -- and it will receive about an extra $240,000 this year for trail grooming and maintenance.

The money will be spread over the 21-county area which comprises Region One but about $140,000 will be distributed among Beltrami County's several trail systems. In all, Belcher said, the $700,000 will be used to maintain 3,100 miles of trails in his region.

The North Country Snowmobile Club based in Bemidji will receive $67,000 for grooming its 220 miles of trails, and the Northland Club of Blackduck will get $20,000 for its 85 miles in trails. Other trails systems in the are receiving money include the Lost River Trails near Kelliher getting $19,000; the Big Red Lake Bog Trails near Grygla and Fourtown getting $29,000; the Becida Trail getting $9,000; and the Paul Bunyan Trail getting $10,000.

The $3 million increase in the snowmobiling budget, effectively doubling that part of the state's budget, will be funded by four sources. First, the state's snowmobilers will be charged an extra $15 for a three-year license, raising the price from $30 for three years to $45 for the same period. Second, a $15 non-resident trail user fee will be assessed to those non-Minnesotans using the state's trails. Third, the gas tax for snowmobiling will increase from 0.75 percent to 1 percent for a two-year period. And finally, the state added an additional $600,000 to the trail budget from the general budget.

Belcher said the state Legislature was convinced to increase the budget mostly by the lobbying efforts of the state's organized snowmobiling clubs, but it also wanted to improve trail safety and expand the trail system.

"This was an excellent cooperation effort between snowmobilers, the public, the DNR and the state Legislature," he said Thursday. "The Legislature saw a need and fixed it, and this should increase the frequency of trail grooming."