Maybe This Will Be Our New Place To Ride

[digginfool]

The State of Florida just purchased the 70,000 acre Babcock Ranch and promised that every imaginable type of recreation will be available.  Check out this article that appeared in todays Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-731babcock,0,4164630.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

[Bleedsblue]

I wouldn't hold your breath on that. In the article they talk about environmental conservation and they usually look at any type of motorized offroad vehicle as the enemy.

[AintSkeered]

"tens of thousands of acres of wilderness inhabited by bears, panthers and other species were handed over to the state Monday in its largest-ever purchase of land for environmental preservation." CLOSED TO ATVS!

[bftclub]

the state and enviromenalist hate atvers,i read the article twice and didn't feel like it was anything positive for us....unless i was supposed to read between the lines...

[Mudneck]

only atv that will be there is from law enforcement!

[cheropride]

I agree, even though they say "people friendly", they also say to keep everything just perfect, so that more than likley means keeping us out.  What they consider recreation, is walking down a board walk so you can see native Florida.  But perhaps, just perhaps, they will give maybe just 10 acres to atvers, and that's if we are lucky. 

We have to see what will happen....

[pepsi]

not in a million years that will happen,the state is going say we have land for atv at ocala national forest

[digginfool]

A Quote from Eva Armstrong, the director of Division of State Lands....

"Armstrong said the land would be people-friendly too, with ``every type of recreation you could possibly want,'' and urged Floridians to visit it."

With 70,000 acres, the State can certainly find a couple thousand for OHVs.  The Florida Off Highway Vehicle Titling Act of 2002 was intended to create funds for providing public lands for OHV use.  North Florida got Tate's Hell, the first of the promised riding areas provided by the fund.  This may be a prime opportunity for us to get some of that land for use in South Florida.  We can naysay all we want or we can start now.  Let's push for some of this land.  It's already been used as cattle pasture for 100 years.  I plan to start writing a letter to Ms. Armstrong.  Are you?

[Numkut]

Why would they give us ten acres??? If they did that it would be impossible to keep everyone from going past the boundrys. Ten acres of public riding area is rediculous. 

[digginfool]

They may very well do this, especially if we pull together and show them that more than Digginfool cares about this subject.  Keep in mind that they gave us 2,600 acres of the Withlacoochee State Forest (a very pristine area, I might add) to ride in (aka Croom).  Read the letter I posted within Open Discussion and this forum that I sent to the Division of State Lands.  If we all send properly worded, polite, yet precise, letters of our wishes, we can get this done.  In 2002, the Florida State Legislature promised us places to ride.  Tate's Hell was the first.  Babcock Ranch, due to it's sheer size, just might be our second.  You can go to the Division of State Lands website and write your letter to be sent by email.  It only takes a few minutes and might get us a lifetime of enjoyment.

[rednipj]

This was brought up before.  There was a condition to the sale that Babcock did not want any of this land used for any OHV use.  A woman by the name of Lisa who belongs to the floridajeepers.net was looking for help in changing this before it was signed.  She went up to Tallehassee back in November of last year to get this changed.  If this was not changed than it would have in the deed that this land would be band to OHV use and can't be changed for 40 years or something like that.

Here is the thread.

http://www.atvflorida.com/forum/index.php/topic,8337.0.html

The floridajeeper post has been taken off already.

[Anoriginal]

I've worked closely on this one from the beginning. This property will not be open to ORV use of any kind. There will be designated trails for tagged vehicles with walk in hunt areas along with access for boat launches in some places. However, you're wasting your time and effort on this one as far as trying to secure a place to ride. This purchase was a struggle from the beginning with the militant enviromentalists (ie.- The Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, etc.) staking claims from the start. The Sierra Club is actually complaining about the proposed development on a small portion of the property retained by the developer.
Hunting and fishing were hard enough to secure from the beginning. Use your time and efforts to maintain what we have. Babcock is going to remain off limits.

[FORD4X4GIRL]

This might be a possibility but the same situation is going on at the Kissimee Upper Chain of Lakes... FWC owns property there & you can 'walk' hunt there & you can use airboats in the water, but you can' take an airboat near the shores where you are supposed to 'walk' hunt...