Throughout the forest preserve and other state lands, there is a fairly extensive network of state truck trails, which are dirt roads that a designed for motor vehicle travel. They are designed to get you across what sometimes is quite vast expanses of state land.

The thing is they have not been well maintained. They may be dirt roads, with minimal gravel cover and minimal bridges to allow logging trucks through. But they should have minimal maintance to keep bridges up and maintained, including replacing wooden decking when needed. They should fix the worst of the potholes and muddy sections, and where the road has washed out.

Yet, the state has repeatly failed to keep up these roads. When a bridge washes out, the state’s response has been to close the road. When a road become rough and rutted, the state does nothing at all — and just hopes folks’ pickup trucks have the clearance to make it.

There may be many priorities out there for the state. But for the many hunters, hikers, snowmobiles, and other users of state land, they should take more of an active effort to upkeep the state truck trails.