Snowmobile season set to begin
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With the cooperation of Mother Nature, the snowmobile season in the western Upper Peninsula begins Thursday.
While some snowmobiles have been used during the non-quiet hours of the firearms deer season, the snowmobile trail riding season officially opens on Dec. 1 -- if there is enough snow to open the trails that have an easement on private property.
While the grooming season has not started, snowmobile clubs throughout Keweenaw, Houghton, Ontonagon, and Baraga counties have been busy this fall.
"The clubs have had a lot to do this fall," said Ron Yesney, Michigan DNR Upper Peninsula Trails Coordinator. "The trails had a tough off-season with all the wind storms and rain. Many of the trails have sustained damage from high water. We are addressing a lot of issues associated with beaver, high water, and washouts."
"This fall we had over a dozen people working for a long time on clearing the windfall on the trails in both Ontonagon and Houghton county," said Keith Meyer of the Superior Snowmobile Club.
This summer and fall's weather not only created problems for the volunteer-based clubs, but the lack of snow last winter saw a decrease in both trail permits and snowmobile registration.
The DNR sold 123,147 trail permits in the 2015-16 season, down from 133,238 the previous year, a 9 percent decrease.
Trail permits this year are $48. Last year they were $45.
Michigan had 267,985 registered snowmobiles as of May 1 this year. That was down from 269,885 the previous year, a decrease of 1 percent.
The decrease in trail permits and registrations has an impact on the upcoming grooming season.
"The snowmobile budget for the state is down," Yesney said. "We had a very low snow year last year and trail permit numbers were down."
The snowmobile clubs not only have to face the impact of the weather and the decrease in program funding but also trail closures. Some are due to beaver dams, such as o Trail 12 between Ontonagon and White Pine.
"We are scrambling to keep Trail 12 open east of White Pine. There is a washout that we are working to address," Yesney said.
Other problems that force the closure of trails are due to snowmobilers going off trail.
"Over 50 percent of our trails are on private lands," Yesney said. "We have permission for the trail only. Stay on the trail. If folks are going to off-trail ride, they have to be sure they are on public land or private property that they have permission to be on. CFA land is not automatically open to snowmobiling."
Another issue the DNR wants to address this season is snowmobilers impeding the work of logging operations.
"Several logging companies had negative interactions with snowmobilers last year. We need to educate snowmobilers that loggers have the right of way on shared roads/trails," Yesney said. "We also had backcountry snowmobilers who were using logging roads as trailheads -- and obstructed the road from logging trucks. The logging companies couldn't get their equipment in and out. This caused a lot of problems."