How can a group promote all-terrain riding and call itself Concerned Citizens for the Forest? It doesn’t make sense. It should be called Concerned Citizens for ATVs.

If you get out into the forested areas in our region, including our hiking trails which are mentioned later in the May 13 issue of The St. Ignace News, you see the long-lasting marks left on the forest by the "Concerned Citizens." Everywhere there are quad trails chopped out of pristine forest, riders speeding along forest roads, wildlife populations disturbed, endangered, and displaced, lakes, ponds, and streams damaged and disturbed where access is available. No, not all ATVers are doing these things, I know.

To go out into our backcountry, which is still pretty wild here in the Eastern U.P, and only hear the wind for hours at a time is a joy. And the more room in which wildlife has to live, without repetitive disturbances, the more we'll see.

It is my hope, and the hopes of others who want to see our remaining wild lands kept wild, that the DNR will continue to keep these areas and others off limits to ATV use.

Lee Foster

Moran