PANFISH TIME — With the warmth of the late-afternoon sun on his face, Chad Gerner of Waukesha admires a crappie pulled from the Three Lakes Chain on Sunday.--STAFF PHOTO

State forest ATV trails
would cost $12 million

By Kurt Krueger
News-Review Editor

It would cost $12.1 million to construct two trails covering 78.6 miles for all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in the state forest here, an estimate based on a feasibility study done by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The state would have to spend an additional $168,000 annually for maintenance and law enforcement — including the hiring of two rangers — and construction costs don’t include amenities such as trailheads, toilets, washing stations, loading ramps, shelters or challenge courses frequently requested by riders following development of a trail, the study said.

The 77-page report is the department’s final work on the controversial process used to determine the right location for such trails, if anyplace, on the 225,000-acre Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest (NHAL).

It documents the “high level of controversy” the issue has raised, especially in Vilas County, where the majority of residents oppose the 49-mile segment of trail that would run from Lake Tomahawk in Oneida County to Star Lake in Vilas.

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