Sportsman’s Club does what they do best

Written by Kari Sundberg, Eagle Editor

Not many were enjoying the great outdoors last Thursday, February 13th. At one point in the day, thermometers read 33 below zero! But when you’ve got a VIP guest up in the area, and that guest was instrumental in making the impossible POSSIBLE, you bundle up, brave the temps and head to the woods - VIP guest in tow!

 “It was freezing, to put it mildly,” Richard Lee laughed. “But I enjoyed my time with the sportsman’s club members and was pleased to see the result of everyone’s work.”

Lee is specifically referring to the Dam 4 Connection up in the Beltrami Island State Forest. He is a Legislative Assistant, based out of Washington, D.C. and worked directly with United States Congressman Collin Peterson on a land exchange between the DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to connect two State forest roads. The trail access was officially opened in October of 2018 with a ribbon cutting ceremony that was attended by Peterson, who said, “Creating trail access is important for the many sportsmen throughout the region. Snowmobiling and off-road riding are economic driver in rural Minnesota, and we must insure local sportsmen have access to their local natural resources.” 

Lee was visiting from D.C. last week as he had work to do with Border Officials, extending the hours of the ports of entry at Lancaster and Roseau. That was the main gist of his visit, but he was eager to take a snowmobile trip with members of the Fourtown/Grygla Sportsman’s Club while he was here, as it would allow him to see the project firsthand. 

President of the Club, Jack Nelson, said Collin Peterson and Richard Lee were a huge help to the North Star Trail Alliance in getting these lands connected. The alliance is made up of the Fourtown/Grygla Sportsman’s Club and the Roseau/Lake of the Woods Sportsman’s Club. Nelson says, “We couldn’t have done that project alone. We had been turned down repeatedly before turning to Peterson’s office for help.” To which Lee responded, “Congressman Peterson wants to do everything in his power to help get the access necessary on these trails.” He added how wonderful it was to see how important these trail networks are to our clubs.

The group of sportsmen, along with Lee, met up at Bemis Hill. They snowmobiled south to Winner Silo where they ventured on to the Dam 4 Connection and then through Hayes Lake State Park. Nelson said the crew only put on about 30 miles (in the blistering cold), but they wanted to give Lee a visual of what they were after with this trail connection and give him a sense of the size of the forest, putting everything into perspective.