The key points about the Draft Amendment are:
1. It's very good for the mountain bike trails at Blue Mound.
2. As a package, it ties our gain to a snowmobile trail that is undesirable to the folks who have offered to pay to keep Over Lode open.*
3. You are free to vote your conscience and write to the Natural Resources Board that you support the Draft Amendment as it is, or that you like the part about the bike trails, but don't want snowmobiles in the park. It may be worth considering that snowmobiles will continue to have a path through the park, amendment or no, using the same roadside right of way on Mounds Road they have been using for the last two years. The DNR appears to lack the authority to regulate use of the right of way, at least according to the state snowmobile association.
4. The NRB can approve the Draft Amendment as it is, or parts of it, ask for a rewrite, or reject it. If the Draft Amendment doesn't pass in a form that includes the bike trails, it may be a long time before Blue Mound will come up for another amendment. I don't know what happens to Over Lode (and Pokerville) in that case.
5. CORP is not against snowmobiles, snowmobile riders, or snowmobile trails.
*The changes we proposed to the DNR to meet their requirements include three switchback trail segments that are on extremely steep hillsides. Basically impossible to build by hand. The Friends of Blue Mound State Park have offered to pay the ~$11,000 it's going to take to pay a professional trail builder using an excavator to do the job.