I and others are doing everything we can in our area to prevent the lockout activities of the government. Meetings, letters, input to the USFS, contacts with county and state and congressional representatives and senators. Letters and comments to magazines, newspapers and organizations to create awareness. What might you be doing in your area?............Tass

 

I have been interested in this topic since it has started and forgive me for not reading every post because of the number of posts, all the quoting of others, and bickering between posters. Again sorry if anyone has brought this question up......But will the manufacturers of ORV's have any influence in this plan? I mean they will most likely lose ALOT of money and may even close up shop if people who don't own land to ride on, and mostly ride public lands stop buying their products! I don't know very much about politics or economics or how this country is ran, I just live my life, obey laws that are pertinent to me, and pay taxes. However, I do know that US automobile manufacturers have had some pull in the past and probably present and future when it comes to having laws and regulations passed. Like the whole electric car thing, GM has had the technology since the 80's and maybe even before then, but they went and basically repoed all those prototype fully electric cars and would not give the leasers any explanation! We could have all been driving 100% electric cars right now. If quads and dirtbikes stop being built, then the government will lose money too because there will be less fuel being sold!

I am going to study this plan and do my part to raise awarness on the issue, and I appreciate everyone else that is taking part.

Like Bubba Sparxx said....."they can't arrest us all"!

 

Chickenlips01 there is one game reserve in TN called Prentess Cooper that anyone who want's to make the trip cross country ; to ride on over 500 to 600 miles of trail's that will be opened as long as a complete Gun control where anykind of hunting is banded !

But they are very strick about the rules of saftey , infact they're so strick the speed limit is 25 MPH , on the access road's that lead to the trail's ; and on the trail's also you're warned by big DOT type sign's telling you that ranger's are on the road's as well as the trail's with speed detection device's !

First offence: $50.00 second offence : $150.00 + a 6 month supention off riding privaledge Third Offence is the big one : $1500.00 quad confication and a short stay in the pokey and Baned for Life !

So i don't think the state of TN will ever giveup this cash cow , no matter what Laws are passed ; it's closed during during the hunting season but they have camp sites with out house toliets and well water with the old time hand pump's so i would carry bottled water for drinking and cooking !

And you're locked inside the gate's at 10:00 PM untill 8:00 AM but they have a ranger station maned 24 , 7, 365 Days a year for emergencies , they run and guard it like forth knox ; so it's the safest place you could ever ride trails on !

Helmet and proper riding gear is manditory no exceptions , no one under 16 without a valid drivers linsence without adult supervision ; but they don't fine kids just their guardians get the ticket !

It would take a month or more to ride all the trail system's me and my brother went there in the summer of 2006 we rode 70 miles of trail which were only 2 of the trail's , and there's supposed to be like 200 miles of main access road's that lead to the trail's and you can ride them on your quad with no permit or license plate on your quad are registration !

I really enjoyed riding there more than anywhere i've ever ridden because it's so safe , you won't get hurt as long as you obey all the rule's ; and if you get hurt it's from your wallet so i loved the place !

I've never ridden a sport quad and from what i've seen what can happen on one when you ride it at the speed that it run's coolest , you would get a ticket for sure ; but i haven't been back since the sumer of 2006 because my truck's torq converter is loose and rattling so i havt to fix it before i can do anywhere to ride on a long ride's !,......

 

You need to stop the "Sky is falling" mode and do something productive to save public ridin areas. Write your congressman, organize public awareness rallys and those things that will benefit you and your fellow riders.

 

Now you are talking papahouse, even the seemingly smallest effort can bring great attention because our idiot government agencies are absolutely not accustomed to someone saying "Wait a minute". In most cases there is no proof nor substance to the arguments used to get their way. It is simply the fact that if you say the lie often enough, and no one objects, it becomes truth.........................Tass

 

papahouse that's what i've been doing since i turned 18 yrs old enough to vote , that is why we still have the riding areas we still have today ; even after i lost my legs below the knees in 1975 and unable to ride bikes anymore i have fought the good fight to keep what me have !

As a matter of fact we didn't have any plubic land we could ride dirt bike's on only private lands that we got permission from the land owers , by way of offering the do work for them on their farm's to get their permission to hunt and ride on their land ; and we were sucessfull in getting these older land owner's to allow us to use their land !

It was the people we called old timers who were around the age that i am now that you could talk them into letting you access their land just by being considerent enough to ask and offer to help them out around their farm's , untill they passed away and their children inheirted the land from their parents ; was when fenches started going up and posted sign's started appearing in the woods !

And even then you could go with an older adult like my uncles who had worked for their parent's , would ask permission and it would be granted ; but people would see us hunting or fishing and riding and driving on the land's thought anyone was welcome without asking for permission !

And then sadly some of these young kid's out of control started litlering and doing damage to the land , by leaving gate's to their pasture's open where their cattle could get out and be killed by car's ; and crossing the pastures when they were wet getting stuck making rut's to appear on the land and starting fire's that they didn't have fully snuffed out ( and the list just kept getting bigger) untill no one was allowed on the land anymore !

So this is when we started campainnig to have access to public land's , but we were getting no where fast untill we started writing letters to elected offcial's demanding the privaledge to have access to public land's ; still we were given the runaround and told they wounld look into to it !

The final step was to get up pattions signed by everyone who wanted some where to ride , and still we didn't see or hear anything in the media from these elected officials ; it was only after we started casting our ballot at the poll's that's when they saw they were getting relected by a very small margin that they finally took action !

But we didn't back down we kept getting more and more names on these pettion 's and right before election time came around we had our land , and each year we got more untill we had more than we have now ; as soon as we stopped voting and the tree huggers and the greenies started their campain and they put their money where their pettions were !

It took them 8 yrs to turn the tide and we started losing land , it didn't take long before these groups started deliberently going out into these land's we were riding and started tearing up the land and destroying endangered species of plant and flora ; and blaming it on the ORV'ers !

They got together and started reading all the books on law and enviralmental issues , and they have never letup the fight going as far as they could ; by getting Actors and the intertainment industry on their side their rich and powerfull people handing out money and favor's like it was penny candy !

I'll be 55 yrs old on my birthday this year and i'm not ready to throw in the towel yet , but unless the good sportsfan's get involved we will lose all our priviledges for sure ; and as other's have stated in this thread about stopping the irresponsible people who ride doing something to stop this wanton destruction of our land's we will surly lose them for good !

How many people on these forums carry camera's when they ride ?
Hold up your mouse and say i do , and i am willing to use them to catch these rider's who are just adding fuel the fire ; i personally would like someone taking picture's and video of the way i ride !

To all the forum members who don't want to lose the previledge of keeping our land's that we still have at least get involved people , no matter what you may think laws can be overturned with the power of not just the pen and your money ; but the most powerfull tool we have left is the right to vote !

Like others have stated don't be just a paper tiger or a sheep led to the slawder house for packaging , use your pen , your pc , your cameras , your video recorders and most of all your right to vote ; if you can't be part of the solution please don't be part of the problem !

I could go on and on with this thread till my fingers bleed , and i will be just waisting my time if people that want to have a safe place you can get outdoors and enjoy the nature before we don't have it anymore ; it's easy to say join this club or that club and send them the money to fight the good fight but it's another to go out and vote after you send those signed pettions to Local , State and Federal Government those who have the power to overturn these law's we're typing about right now !

It won't be an easy task ahead of us all , but if we all do our part in this fight it can be won , just remember what you're fighting for everyday ; and when you're out riding stop and look around you and listen to the sound of the birds singing and the animals in the wood and think about what you will be missing when it's gone and watch out for this old man with no legs to walk back into these beautifull woodland trail's that are are so dear to us all !

I admit at times while riding with family and friends , to get on it a bit while trying to stayup with the people i'm with and i'm ashamed of myself when i think back at the times i could've gone around a mud hole but went on through just to impress someone who did the right thing ; by going around it to keep from making it a little deeper or wilder !

And i've gotten onto my brothers for runing off and leaving me when they were riding one of my quads , i know they just thought i got mad because i thought they were going to tear up my 1993 Suzuki LT 300 King Quad ; it was the only one i would let them ride because i wouldn't let them ride my Honda old Foreman 4x4 !

But it wasn't just that i was worried over the quad as much as i worried they would get hurt riding fast over the trail's , without riding over them slow first to make sure the trail's were clear of downed tree's from storm's ; are if the trail's were rutted up from storm's also !

I'll never forget the time my cousin who was the original owner of the KQ , went riding over these pipeline's close to where his sister lived there were these trail's that were wide with a lot of curve's you could power slide around them because we knew them so well ; from riding them so much we knew them like the plam of our hand !

But there was something different about them this day , the woods had been clear cut for pulpwood and i alway's rode over any trail once slowly to make sure the trail's were clear before doing any fast riding ; i was in the lead as alway's when suddenly my cousin went around me like a bat of of you know where !

I had to gun my Foreman wide open to catch up to him screaming at the top of my lung's for him to stop , we always wore a helmet long sleeved jacket and gloves even in summer ; so it was a Miracle that he heard me in time and stopped when he did !

When i pulled up beside him he ask me what was wrong , i said don't you see how all the tree's have been cut down ; his reply was so what is wrong with that ?

I reminded him how i alway's went slow over every trail we had ever ridden on together , no matter how many time's we had ridden them before even if it had been the day before ; it made him a little hot under the collar to say the least and he said alright then you can lead the way !

I pulled away and he started following me , when we went less then a hundred yard's around this first cruve there was small tree that had been knocked down by one of the big tree's they had cut down ; and this small tree was shreaded off about 3 to 3and a half feet from the ground with this sharp end of the tree sticking out in the middle of the trail !

It sent cold chill's through my body at the sight and this was in the middle of july , i could just see this horrible sceen in my mind of my cousin with this sharp tree sticking through his chest and his quad runing out from under him ; leaving him hanging there with his feet a few inch's off the ground !

I turned my head around and looked back at my cousin , and the look on his face told me i didn't have to say a word to him ; because by the way he was shaking he knew i had just saved his life !

After he stopped shaking he eased up beside me , took his helmit off and leaned over and hugged me and told me " Willie from now on i'll never try to lead the way no matter who i ride with ; and he kept his word till the day he died !

So i'm not ready to give up the sport of riding my ATV , i love it to much to just give up with out a fight for the priviledge of getting to go riding in the mountain's ; even though i haven't been hunting in the past 5 yrs. i still want to know it's still there when and if i deside to go again before i leave this old world !

And if i'm denied access to the mountain's where i can hunt and fish with my atv , then i won't ever be able to hunt again because of my disability ; it's hard to get around on flat land in a wheelchair and impossible in the mountain's !..............

 

williebee - I think you get the prize for longest post ever!!!!!!

 

Hi DeeDawg,
We have an interesting meeting here in LaGrande tonight. It probably won't help any with our fight with the USFS over land lockup but Union County is entertaining an idea to purchase about 4000 acres on a nearby mountain to manage for recreational uses plus timber management. Who knows, might work.........Tass

 

Tass - how did the meeting go? A couple years ago in NW Mn where I am from there was a meeting regarding ATV land use where the entire community was pro-ATV and one anti-ATV guy from the Twin Cities area. Needless to say he had to have a police escort out of town. I think he neglected to do his research; both AC and Polaris have factories in the area, and EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE has family or friends that work at one of the two. It got so out of hand that now the Mn DNR has different rules for the north/south parts of the state.

 

DeeDawg i admire you for the job you do in the Armed forses for our country , i know you and all the other member's both male and female from all over this great country have given your all ; including your live's to keep this country free from the evil's of this world we live in and we tend to take it for granted !

I just wanted to thank you and all the men and women who serve our country with your live's to keep us safe and secure , and while we never know when something like 911 could happen again without warning ; i think all God fearing people all over this country and the world should keep you all in our prayer's and support our Armed Forses in the Army , Navy , Marines , and Air Forse !

Without you and all of our Military Forses we wouldn't be here where we do have the right to vote for the right to live in the USA , and not to forget your family and the families of all our young men and women who serve our country ; we just had one of our own Memorial service's for a young man who lost his life in when 2 suiside bomber's got past a check point in the area where an attack only hour's before had accured !

This your Sargent saved the live's of 24 of his team by placing hisself in front of his dispatchment , he was 26 yrs. old and was doing his job to protect the troup he led ; no greater sacrfice could be made than to lay down his life protecting the group he led !

We tend to forget what you and other's who serve their country , leave behind your families that are most time's forgotten ; their loss of a loved one who they depended upon life is cut short in the line of duty to this country i thank you all for keeping me safe at home with my loved one's and i'll keep you all in my prayer's !....