by Matt Konkle
Creative Content Managing Editor
Over the past four years, Minnesota’s Tread Lightly Off-Road Club has participated in an annual trail clean-up event in the Lake Superior National Forest near Duluth, pulling trash and whatever other discarded stuff they could find from the woods over the course of one Saturday morning.
However, this year the club received one of 50 Quadratec '50-for-50 Trail Stewardship Grants' in coordination with Tread Lightly!, allowing it to extend that clean-up mission to include two full days in the forest, resulting in 200 miles of trail clean-up and 4,000 pounds of trash removed.
The TLOR Club, along with volunteers from the Cook County ATV Club, began at separate ends of the forest from August 13-14 and worked through gravel pits and dispersed campsites that stretched from the forest’s Arrowhead Trail to Sawbill Trail.
The volunteers pulled all sorts of things from the woods from standard discarded items all the way to a demolished car from one of the gravel pits.
“Quite a variety,” said Scott Benolkan, a member of Tread Lightly Off-Road. “From burnt-up lazy boy chairs to junk cars, propane tanks, and lawn mowers. A little bit of everything.”
Benolkan said he doesn’t particularly like cleaning up people’s garbage or trash, but he enjoys doing these events to make the woods a better and cleaner place.
“Although we’re a motorized activity group, we care about our environment and how it looks,” Benolkan said.
The car, a crushed Chevy Cavalier, was removed with help from Cook County Towing, which donated a tow truck to assist volunteers.
This trail event was the third of 50 Quadratec is sponsoring over the next 20-plus months all over the country.
The company kicked off its first trail maintenance project earlier this year at the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, helping install fencing and create pathways to better protect petroglyphs on the Kane Creek Trail.
Recently, numerous volunteers from the Colorado 4x4 Girls, JC’s British and Colorado 4 Wheel Drive Association utilized the grant to clean up an area of the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest in Clear Creek, Colorado.
So far, through its three supported projects, the '50 for 50 Trail Stewardship Grant' has generated 628 volunteer hours, cleaned up over 6,700 pounds of trash and improved 263 miles of trail.
The ’50-for-50’ stewardship grant fund helps project managers pay for equipment, fees, volunteer support, food, fuel, signage and other miscellaneous costs.
Quadratec has been a supporting partner of Tread Lightly! for more than 20 years, and a longtime fundraiser for Tread Lightly!’s stewardship programs. The company has also promoted Tread Lightly! and other trail restoration efforts through its Quadratec Cares ‘Energize the Environment’ program.
Clubs and individuals are required to be active, supporting members of Tread Lightly! to be eligible to apply for ’50-for-50’ grant funding. To learn more about the Quadratec ’50-for-50 program, visit Quadratec's 50 States - 50 Trails Stewardship Grant Initiative.
”As off-roading and outdoor recreation continue to grow in popularity, so does the impact on public land and trails,” said Quadratec Video Production Manager Rob Jarrell. “With the assistance of our grants, these stewardship projects provide a great opportunity for off-road groups to lead by example and give back to the trails and outdoors we all enjoy.”
Participating in the Lake Superior National Forest Cleanup:
- Tread Lightly Off-Road Club
- Cook County ATV Club
- Cook County Towing
“Without the help and supplies and trash bins that TL! and Quadratec donated, our 4th annual USFS Cleanup would not have been as successful as it was. We look forward to future partnerships to help improve Superior National Forest for motorized vehicles.” Benolken said.
