ORV trails are protected by landowner agreements and easements, two tools that are essential for keeping trails open and accessible for all users.  However, although our trail riding experience is incredible as-is, there's always room to grow.  Doing so requires willing landowners.  Miles of additional trails could be established if we can secure access to these parcels, opening up huge new areas to fish, hunt, camp, and explore during the summer and fall seasons.  Permanent access to the heart of the Keweenaw also prevents fragmentation of the landscape, ensuring existing trails aren't cut off by landowners unwilling to allow trails to cross their property.  Not every trail or two-track are protected by easements, and those that aren't can be lost for good.

 

We must act fast though, because each year we lose more and more land to privatization.  Every parcel lost is more work we must complete to establish new trail corridors, if these new landowners are even willing to listen.  A single investment firm owns tens of thousands of acres in the interior of Keweenaw County and has been slowly selling off chunks of land to satisfy their faraway fund managers.  Trail access is not at the front of their minds when profit margins must be met.  Securing local control of the vast investor-owned lands at the heart of the Keweenaw is crucial if we are to expand our ORV trail network in the years to come.  Help us open up new areas to explore by joining KORC today!