ATV Florida Forum

At any of the ORV meetings has anyone offered to take any of the greenies on a family ride through the forest to show what responsible riders are all about.

The day before the last meeting in Ocala, I took all but 1 of the board members on a ride through the ONF on the new trail system.  They all had a very good time, and many favorable comments were received.

GrizzlyBear:
Thanks for your continued diplomacy and good efforts toward a successful recreational trail ATV venture in the Ocala National Forest.

We need to understand that this is a very difficult situation and we need to make the best out of it we can..  The entire ATV community is under attack from loss of use of public and private lands. Private land owners in and around the forest can no longer use their ATV for general transportation around the area.  Those who hunt on ATV's can no longer use their ATV's in a functional manner, either to and from hunting locations or as an active component of dog hunting. Campers, bird watchers and other outdoor recreational enthusiests can no longer travel in the forest by means of ATV and in many cases other OHV's have been impacted as well. It is clear that the issue is not damage done to the forest ecology by proper use of the ATV for transportation purposes, because we all know that a four wheel drive truck or jeep or other OHV is much heavier, wider, and burns more fossil fuel and carries into the forest more discardable trash than an atv and both used properly, the truck has more impact on the ecology.  We can see that as a result of decades of successful use of OHV's in the forest that the impact of proper use is minimal and can successfully coexist with other forest use and ecology. These vehicles have been successfully used in the forest for decades both on and off numbered roads.

A confined recreational trail system with no access to most of the forest does not answer many of these issues, however does provide a continuing opportunity for the occasional recreational ATV rider.