FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Blue Mound State Park Planning Survey

       I’m from the Madison Nordic Ski Club in southern Wisconsin (www.madnorski.org) and asking if people would complete a DNR survey regarding a snowmobile trail over an established cross country ski trail.

       The DNR is re-doing the Blue Mound State Park master plan, and the snowmobilers are requesting a trail to be built through the east part of the park (Pleasant Valley) where there is an actively used ski trail. The construction would involve moving the ski trail into the meadow and out of the trees. A nice forested area would be cut down, and skiers would have to cross the new snowmobile trail twice. Although we are not opposed to snowmobiles in general, we feel a snowmobile trail in this small space with lots of skiers would be a huge problem and incompatible with the quiet and exercise that draws many skiers.  Blue Mound State Park is about 25 miles west of Madison, a very popular park, and a ski mecca.

       The DNR survey expires March 26th. You have to specifically bring up the snowmobile issue in the general input boxes because it is not mentioned in the survey.

        DNR's page on BMSP planning is at https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Lands/PropertyPlanning/BlueMound/. You can submit your thoughts at https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/a44b9cf3153842f287857cd98864cb16 

       We would really appreciate this. We realize snowmobiles and skiers don’t conflict so much in large parks/lands with fewer skiers, but this park is smaller and near large population areas. There are safety issues here too and a lack of  appreciation for quiet spaces.

Thank you,

Nancy Wiegand