Save Tellico Now

[Trail_Fanatic]

Rescue Tellico



Save Tellico Now

Before There Is Nothing Left To Save
SFWDA, UFWDA, BRC files Law Suit
On Thursday, May 22, 2008, The Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (SFWDA) along with United Four Wheel Drive Associations (UFWDA) and the Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC) filed suit in US District Court Western District of North Carolina against the US Forest Service to restore access to improperly closed off-highway recreation trails located in the Upper Tellico Off-highway Vehicle (OHV) Area in North Carolina.
A Little Background
On June 28, 2007, Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed a "notice of intent to sue" the USFS on behalf of the North Carolina and Tennessee Councils of Trout Unlimited, as well as Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project. SELC's threat demanded that the Forest Service permanently close trails, and seasonally close the entire system.
Caving under the pressure of SELC and TU, the Forest Service announced on December 18, 2007 there would be a seasonal closure of the entire trail system and Trails Lower 2, 7, and 9 would be closed for a year to assess the condition of the trails to see what needs to be done.
Closing trails does not address the issues and SFWDA feels that the Forest Service took steps that are not correct. This lawsuit is intended to reopen the trails that were improperly closed.
SFWDA has worked with the US Forest Service in the Tellico OHV area for over 20 years, providing free maintenance and restoration work to address the agency-wide maintenance backlog estimated nationwide at over $100 billion. The trail maintance, clean up, and volunteer work we have donated to the area is well over $100,000 just in the past few years. SFWDA values the relationship we have with the US Forest Service and plan to continue the work, volunteering and cleaning up as we've done in the past.
What are the effects of the closures?
The impact of closing the trails has greatly wounded the economy in the area. Not only are there fewer places to ride in the Upper Tellico area, but local businesses have felt the impact. Cabin Rentals, Campgrounds, parts stores have all seen a decrease in business. Outside of the impact to the economy, this act sets a precedent for large special interest groups to bully our government to preferentially close access to public land to one user group.
What you can do
Frankly, law suits are not cheap. We need your donations. You can donate online at www.SFWDA.org (http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3280&MID=1025&LID=8)or Tax deductable at www.sharetrails.org/rescue-tellico (http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3281&MID=1025&LID=8)or donate tax deductable through the United Land Action Fund at P.O. Box 15696, Chesapeake, VA 23328. You can purchase Rescue Tellico Items at www.cafepress.com/rescuetellico (http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3282&MID=1025&LID=8). All proceeds are donated to the Rescue Tellico Fund.
At the very least we need your membership. If you are not a member of any or all the below mentioned groups we need you. Please join us so that you can have your voice counted in unison with ours. If you have always wondered, what does my membership get me, here is your answer. SFWDA, UFWDA, and BRC are fighting to keep trails open so we have places to ride.
Please spread the word. This is not only a 4x4 problem but ATV, Motorcycle and UTV's are affected as well.
Who's Who
The Blue Ribbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible use of public and private lands, and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1,200 organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. 1-800-258-3742. www.sharetrails.org (http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3283&MID=1025&LID=8)
United Four Wheel Drive Associations is an international organization comprised of four wheel drive enthusiasts, clubs, associations, and businesses dedicated to providing community services around the world, education in responsible land use and safe vehicle operation, and protection of our natural resources through conservation practices. 1-800-448-3932. www.ufwda.org (http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3284&MID=1025&LID=8)
Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (SFWDA) was founded in 1987 to promote responsible land use and to keep public lands accessible for motorized recreation. Since the formation of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, the focus and mission is to promote responsible land use and to help keep public lands open for motorized recreation. For more information on the activities and accomplishments of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, please visit www.sfwda.org (http://www.sharetrails.org/alertlist/redirect.cfm?ID=3285&MID=1025&LID=8)or contact us at 1483 N. Mt. Juliet Road, PMB # 222, Mt. Juliet, TN 37122

[timbercruiser]

Can trout unlimited be this stupid? Don't they know they are next? Have they not heard divide and conquer?

[phittie1100]

They take PayPal for donations!

[JohnnyJ]

This link will help you write a letter to the USFS to support keeping the trails in Tellico open.
http://www.sharetrails.org/letters/letter.php?id=14

Here's what they are suggesting closing:
1) Schoolbus GONE
2) Slickrock GONE
3) Lower 2 GONE
4) If Helicopter Pad bypass cannot be successfully bypassed... GONE
5) The Ledge at Peckerwood GONE

If you have ever been there, then you know that this is 99% of the trails that people go for. If you haven't gone, then know that they plan to take it from awesome to the equivalent of Michigan's off-road trails that you can do in 2wd.

Please support this

[WhiteRhino]

Thanks John.

My letter is sent.

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for the link John, :thumb:

Everyone Please take 2 minutes to send your letter!

[rentalrider]

Thanks for the link. Message sent. Hopefully these are "heard".

[JohnnyJ]

I found the link on Pirate4x4.com under the Tellico section. That forum area is getting some activity as people are putting info there trying to get the masses to push back on the USFS.

From what I've read, Southern FWDA is getting copies of the letters we are sending and compiling them to make sure they aren't lost.

Here's a link directly to the Tellico section on pirate4x4. Unlike the chat and tech areas of pirate4x4.com, this area is flame free as people are fighting together to keep the area open:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=88

[JohnnyJ]

Awesome note on pirate4x4:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8407829&postcount=109



Well,

This may not be labeled as a "substantial comment" for the scoping letter. But I sure as hell will send a simular one in a little farther into the NEPA process.

And the numbers are bad-ass!

Sorry, my table did not line up right when I posted it..

Dear Mr. Lohr,

This letter is in response to the scoping letter written for the Upper Tellico OHV area. In your scoping letter, it is stated that you wish to amend the Forest Plan and remove the OHV density standard in Tellico. You plan on reducing the density of the available OHV area in order to stop potential sediment that is supposedly harming fish.

I would like to direct your attention to part of the Forest Service’s mission statement on the Forest Service website:

http://www.fs.fed.us/aboutus/mission.shtml

Is says in part: “The phrase, "CARING FOR THE LAND AND SERVING PEOPLE," captures the Forest Service mission. As set forth in law, the mission is to achieve quality land management under the sustainable multiple-use management concept to meet the diverse needs of people.”

Let’s focus on the phrase “sustainable multiple-use management concept to meet the diverse needs of the people.” Multiple-use means that our public lands should be made available for multiple uses, camping, hiking, fishing, OHV use etc. There are diverse needs and the mission statement says you will try to meet those needs on our public lands.

According to Asafishing.org there were 547,727 fishing licenses issued in North Carolina in 1997. While I realize that data is more than ten years old, I would like to point out that the data you are using on fish and sediment is 30 years old.

Let’s say we round up that number of fishing licenses to 600,000 in North Carolina. Just how much area do these fishermen have to fish?

There are 17 river basins in North Carolina.

Here is a table with the mileage of rivers and the acreage of lakes in those river basins:

NC River Basin Miles of Rivers Acres of Lakes
Neuse 2,880 16,414
Tar-Pamlico 2,566 3,977
Cape Fear 6,386 31,135
Lumber 2,233 8,966
Yadkin/Pee Dee 5,862 22,988
Roanoke 2,213 81,631
Catawba 3,285 50,768
New 918 0
Watauga 270 0
French Broad 3,985 1,736
White Oak 446 0
Broad 1,513 1,954
Pasquotank 474 0
Chowan 803 0
Savannah 176 0
Little Tennessee 2,565 0
Hiwassee 967 0
TOTALS 37,542 225,569


This data was taken from:

http://www.eenorthcarolina.org/publi...nteractive.htm (http://www.eenorthcarolina.org/public/ecoaddress/riverbasins/riverbasinmapinteractive.htm)

I have not included estuaries and the Coastlines in these figures. So for JUST stream, rivers and lakes, there is a total of (counting both sides of all rivers and streams available for fishermen to access) there are 75,084 potential miles of streams and rivers to fish on and 225,569 acres of lakes. I realize that not all of this mileage is on public land, or in areas “fish-able”, but even so, let’s compare that to the TOTAL amount of available public land in North Carolina available for OHV use:

There are 39.5 miles of routes in Upper Tellico, which may be reduced to 24 miles, all within a measly 6,000 acres.

According to the Forest Service there were 36 million OHV recreationists in the United States in 2000 and that number is growing. 72 percent of them ride on public lands.

Exactly HOW is the forest service meeting the “diverse needs” of the public by closing what is already an extremely small amount of land for an extremely large number of public land recreationists? The amount of available land for OHV use in North Carolina is a VERY small fraction of open area compared to the massive amount of water bodies available for fishing in North Carolina. Yet the Forest Service proposes to close even more OHV area in Upper Tellico.

If this small, critical area is cut to 24 miles, it is pure prejudice against a large number of OHV users. You cannot serve people and meet the diverse needs as it is, yet the forest service may bow down to a organization with “Elitist” values who wish to close families and recreationist out of one of the very few public areas left on the East Coast for OHV use.

I urge you to re-consider what you are doing in order to bow down to a law suit based on little facts and old studies.


Kurt Schneider

[WhiteRhino]

Wow, he put some good thought into that.

[phittie1100]

That guy did some serious homework.