Public Hearing Scheduled to Discuss Winter ATV use on Wild Goose State Trail

A public hearing is scheduled for
Wednesday on allowing ATV use during the winter on the Fond du Lac County
portion of the Wild Goose State Trail. ATVs and UTVs are currently permitted on
the Dodge County portion of the trail in the winter. With approval from the
County Board, ATVs would be permitted in the winter from the trailhead at
Rolling Meadows Drive in Fond du Lac to Highway 49 – at the Fond du Lac/Dodge
County Line.

 

Fond du Lac
County Director of Planning and Parks Sam Tobias tells us that winter ATV use
is currently allowed on the Eisenbahn State Trail, which runs south from Eden. He
says that while there are benefits to opening another trail in the county to ATV
use in the winter, there are some concerns when it comes to possible wear and
damage to the trail. “Although it hasn’t done any trail damage to speak of, I’m
afraid that with all of these town roads that are already open for ATV use
year-round, we’re going to get a lot of traffic and then we’re going to see the
wear problems,” Tobias said. He adds the trails were designed for walking,
running and biking and not with ATV use in mind, and that the price for
surfacing one mile of trail has gone up from around $6,000 in 1999 to around
$20,000 currently.

 

The public hearing is set for 6 pm Wednesday in rooms G and H on the
first floor of the City/County Government Center in Fond du Lac.