ARE THERE ANY PROPOSALS FOR DESIGNATED TRAILS EAST OF DELANCY ACROSS 19

[alafiaoutlaw]

I live in the ONF East of 19 and Delancy. I cannot even keep up with all the restrictions that are coming out lately. Does anyone know if riding trails in this area will be opened in the future. I also believe that access from the comunities to these trails should be opened. Alot of us have moved here just to have access to riding trails from our property. Now even the locals have to trailer their bikes and using your ATV to get to your hunting areas is pretty much out of the question.

[GrizzlyBear]

There are no trails east of 19 in the trail system.  You will need to contact Rick Lint, the head Ranger at the Seminole Ranger District office in Umatilla.  Sorry, but I do not have that # handy.

[lisa]

  That is okay Mr. Thompson, I am sure you will be able to find it sometime soon. After all, you are going to be in charge of the volunteer atvers....That is information that is necessary to have for that position. Since you don't seem to be able to locate that, I will help you.


Rick Lint- District Ranger
Ocala National Forest
40929 State Road 19
Umatilla, Florida 32784
352-669-3153  fax 352-669-2385
rlint@fs.fed.us

  Hope this helps! 

   Okay, okay, I just had to add this. I know I apologized for this kind of behavior before, but I just won't stand by and watch someone in a position of authority lie to ya'll and ignore a question! Mr. Thompson, you really should be ashamed that you haven't answered this question by now. I really think you could have found the information in the 4-days that you have had to respond to this.

   Either Mr. Thompson is inept and shouldn't be president of ONFA, or ya'll really should take a look at what he has said and done here and think really hard about whether you want to be represented by someone who has contact with Mr. Lint on a regular basis and claims to not have any information on him at all! Mr. Thompson has at least had Mr. Lint's email address! 

[stacktester]

Lisa,
I have a great idea. Why don't you just start your own organization to save the trails. With all the bs you've posted on Terry Thompson and how he hasn't done this or that then u jump on up and take the job. If you are the one who saves this whole ship from going down and you're the reason we have trail access when all this bs is said and done I will haul my quads to Croom (which I have never been to) or Durhamtown and limit my times to ride during the year. Do you sit in a corner with your back close to the wall because you're so paranioid? Quit complaining and start your own revolution if you don't agree with this one. I hate to be the one to finally say stfu to this woman but I am sick of her.

From what I gather from your posts is that the ONFA is putting up a smoke screen and just acting like they are on our side and then when we aren't looking they're going to pull off their masks and close all the forest down. I can't see Terry and the volunteers spending their free time to doing that.

If this keeps up I say we should call a meeting somewhere convenient for all who care, to meet and resolve this.

 If you or anyone on this forum disagrees I certainly hope to hear from you. I am for ONFA or whoever, to be successful in keeping legal trails in ONF for my family to safely enjoy and be responsible to take care of those trails whether it be paying a fee or group clean ups or whatever it takes to make this the best riding area available.

[lswjth2]

Folks, I personally know Lisa and you will not find anyone working harder to keep areas open. Trust me on this. I think the issue lies with us supporting some projects not knowing that there are forces working against us but pretending to be our friends. I personally falled victim to this with the everglades restoration project and the "picayune". I supported it and being a nature lover was for it. Unfortunately those same people that I supported, have now kept me and my children out of the only riding area we had south of the i-4 corridor. So let's stop the bashing, after all, we all want safe,legal riding areas. Let just be careful before we support any projects. My .02.....Rick

[GrizzlyBear]

The next time I go out of town for an extended period, hopefully I will carry every name and address with me.  I tried to give alaflaoutlaw what information I had with me.  Joan at Sewards has always helped me in the past and filled in what I miss, and I appreciate her help.

[lisa]

  Thanks Rick, that is exactly that. Had Mr. Thompson said that he would get back with that information, or even said that he was somewhere where he did not have that information, that would have been different. However, the way the reply was worded, and the fact that it had been 4-days led me, and probably the poster, to believe the answer was not going to be answered.

   I do not work closely with Rick Lint, however, I have Forestry's phone number programmed into my phone in case someone wants/needs information when I am not at home. Again, since Mr. Thompson is talking of heading up the volunteers, I would think this would be information that he would have at his finger-tips 24/7, no matter where he is; especially if he is out-of-town and would need someone of Rick's stature to handle a problem in person, that he (Mr. Thompson) could not.

   I know I am blunt, and that I do not always come across like I should. That is who I am. When talking to me in person, you can see my facial expressions and read my body language seeing that while the words may seem harsh, my body language says they are not to be taken as harshly as they are spoken. Even on the phone I do not come across as harshly.

   I do not know him personally and do not have a vendetta against him or the ONFA. I have seen, as lswjth2 pointed out, groups get started with the best of intentions, only to fall victim to propaganda spread by people like Rick Lint who is a paid, and trained professional. Paid and trained to lead great intentioned folks like the ONFA where he wants them to go, while giving folks like Mr. Thompson the feeling that they are "in charge".

   My methods may be harsh, but the intent is as good and solid as ONFA's, and Mr. Thompson. If you really disagree with me so much, why doesn't anyone refute, factually, what I have been saying about Mr. Lint? We won't know till after Phase II is implemented how many miles ya'll are going to lose in the South end, although ya'll have lost most, if not all, of the east....what has ONFA done to keep those trails to the East open, or to get them reopened? That is, after all, what this thread was started for, to see what trails are open on the east.....

[singleshot]

  That is okay Mr. Thompson, I am sure you will be able to find it sometime soon. After all, you are going to be in charge of the volunteer atvers....That is information that is necessary to have for that position. Since you don't seem to be able to locate that, I will help you.


Rick Lint- District Ranger
Ocala National Forest
40929 State Road 19
Umatilla, Florida 32784
352-669-3153  fax 352-669-2385
rlint@fs.fed.us

  Hope this helps! 

   Okay, okay, I just had to add this. I know I apologized for this kind of behavior before, but I just won't stand by and watch someone in a position of authority lie to ya'll and ignore a question! Mr. Thompson, you really should be ashamed that you haven't answered this question by now. I really think you could have found the information in the 4-days that you have had to respond to this.

   Either Mr. Thompson is inept and shouldn't be president of ONFA, or ya'll really should take a look at what he has said and done here and think really hard about whether you want to be represented by someone who has contact with Mr. Lint on a regular basis and claims to not have any information on him at all! Mr. Thompson has at least had Mr. Lint's email address! 

Why can't you give the guy a break and stop harassing him.  GrizzlyBear has done more than any person on this site to work with the Forest Officials to come to a solution that is implementable and works.  It may not be everything we all have hoped for, but it is a heck of allot better than what it could have been.  He is a person that has volunteered a significant amount of time to this and I do not believe he is getting anything in return financially.  So what if he does not have every piece of information at his finger tips at all times. This is information that anyone who can post a message can easily look up on the internet.  He is not required to monitor this site at all times and be able to respond to any question at a moments notice.

If you do not like what he is doing or how he is running ONFA than maybe you should donate $$ to join and try to get on the board.

[lisa]

  So if you have money, you can get on the Board? I don't have money, I spend all my time and money bringing information to you, the board and others. I pay for my ink cartriges, I pay for my gas to run all over the area to go to meetings, etc. I don't have an organization to submit expense budgets to.

   Hey, if ya'll want to blindly follow someone (Mr. Thompson) who won't even call others who have delt with Mr. Lint in the past so he (Mr. Thompson) knows what he (Mr. Lint) is up to, that is fine with me, lose your trails. Sounds like ya'll don't care Mr. Thompson is snowing you. Had ya'll backed me last year and the other times I asked you to back me in meetings, ya'll would have many more miles than what ya'll are settling for.

  The point you missed singleshot is not that he didn't have the information "at his fingertips" but he made no effort to help the person find the information, or even offer to post the information when he returned to where he had the information.

  Since you brought it up singleshot, I went and looked at the posts Grizz made after his resonse to the first post of the thread. It seems he made 5, with plenty of time between the first, last one, to look into his email for Rick's contact information, or even go online and find the information himself and post it up.

   Are you going to tell me he couldn't take five minutes to respond here? I would have, but then again, I don't claim to be president of a group that represents you. Ya'll come first, which is why I am back here. I left because no one was interested in attending meetings. I came back because I don't want to see ya'll get snowed! But hey, if you are telling me that is what you want, I will let you find out and come back and say: nanny, nanny boo boo, told you so! 

   BTW, I went all the way down to Stuart last year to attend an OHV Committee meeting for ya'll. Did not get reimbursed for my almost $100.00 worth of expenses for that trip, including taking the day off work to do it! I am not asking for sympathy, but trying to show ya'll that I have worked for you many, many times. I scheduled off to go down to Picayune for a rally. Common sense and my husband prevail, and I can't make that long trip for a rally, no matter how bad I want to, without extra gas money coming in from somewhere.

   I have made phone calls, taken flack for standing for ya'll and know exactly what these folks think of you. I won't mince words, the forestry and the folks who are managing it hate you. They detest you. This is their philosophy: "The collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans."  —Dr. Reed F. Noss, The Wildlands Project

   This is the philosophy of the folks that you want us to "work with". You still believe you can work with someone who has spent a lifetime believing this? Someone who was taught this? Dr. Reed Noss has spent his entire adult life believing and living this idea. You must understand this is not a game. These problems I tell you about are happening now. They are not going to take 10-years to close down the trails, it will happen with record speed, and you will be standing there wondering what happened. You will be wondering why Mr. Thompson and ONFA didn't do anything to stop it. I am telling you why it will happen. You and the others won't have the excuse of ignorance.

[LeBlanc Outdoors]

     Everyone needs to look real hard at what the well intentioned people in charge did to OHV users, at both Big Cypress National Preserve, then at Picayune Strand.   
     At Big Cypress in one fell swoop, we went from total access to 10miles of trails, and were told that they fought for us to have access, as we really shouldn't have any.  Yes we have more there now, but only after years of political fighting.  I remember the picture in the Naples Daily News front page of the carnage OHV users were causing all over Big Cypress, it caused tremendous public sentiment in favor of the closing, unfortuately it was a picture of the main entrance of Bad Luck, which was privately owned at the time and had absolutely nothing to do with Big Cypress.  I personally asked the new head ranger at the time why they would do such a thing( I was working for the cable company at the time and was installing his cable).  His reply, did you see anywhere  were it said it was a picture of Big Cypress.
      At Picayune total access to nothing, then Forestry issuing permits as they were officially in charge of the area, then in usual fashion the feds said it is now a Fed issue and again zero, zilch access.
       They want us to have no, I re-iterate no access to these areas.   I believe Grizzly Bear has only the best of intentions when it comes to representing us, but listen to Lisa, she has been at the front lines, and under fire, fighting the fight.    It makes no sense to fight among ourselves, that is just playing into their hands.   

[lisa]

  Thanks LeBlanc. 

  I have been thinking about this whole thread and realizes no one asked me directly, and I haven't  yet made my point clear. I too believe Mr. Thomspon has good intentions for the OHV users, on one hand. On the other hand, he thinks the Forestry folks have a point too. That is what they (the Forestry folks) are going to use against him and ya'll. I have talked to Mr. Thompson on the phone and feel he is really riding the fence.

   My point on being hard on Mr. Thompson is this. Mr. Thompson, be honest and up front in all your dealings with these guys (folks on the message board.) Don't tell them you didn't have a chance to get Rick's contact information to someone. That is misleading and a lie in my book. You did have time to post 4 posts on the 5th and another on the 7th. While I am posting here, I can also access my email address and get contact information. You could have easily done the same. I trully believe you had no intention of posting that contact information. Just say that then. Don't give us a lame excuse. You were not incommunicado while you were gone. You had access to that information, as easily as anyone else. Just be honest about it. That is all I ask.

   I will say this too. If Mr. Thompson and I are in a meeting together, and he is standing for you, I will fight  hard on his side; as long as his side is standing for ya'll. However, I also believe that if my hard stance goes against Forestry, he will back Forestry, not me. Why? Because I don't know where he really stands. I am not the only one either folks. That is why I am being so hard on him. I thought maybe that it was he didn't know, it still might be (and probably is) but he needs to quit listening to the folks who want to take things away (Forestry) and start listening to those who have been in the fight and stabbed in the back by these guys. Been there done that with others like Mr. Thompson.

    Mr. Thompson, I would like to attend a meeting of the BoD of ONFA. You can duct tape my mouth (all the way around where it grabs my little hairs at the back of my neck if you want too  ) and tape me to a chair so you can be assured that I am quiet, but I would like to see exactly how hard a stance ya'll take. You want to shut me up and show me how hard you are fighting? You want me on your side instead of being so hard on you and ONFA? Let me know when the next BoD meeting is and let me watch you work.