ATV Florida Forum

I absolutely cannot believe my eyes.  Here we sit, again, watching even more riding areas taken away and very few people are responding.  It's the same thing that happened at Badluck.  Same thing that happened at the Rally.  Everybody sat around waiting for somebody else to do something.  IF YOU DON'T SAY SOMETHING IT INDICATES YOU DON'T CARE!  They will take these areas away from you and you will never get them back.  Don't you people care?  You can make 150 responses about a kid who wore a backpack into 7-11 yet you don't make a response about something that affects each and every one of us.  Don't ride Holeylands?  What difference does it make?  They are closing WMAs off to us all over the state!  Don't ride at the WMAs now?  Where are you going to ride, FOR FREE, when your current riding areas are lost?  You cannot idly sit back thinking it doesn't affect you or it won't happen here.  We are losing riding areas everywhere.  God Bless Paul for what he's trying to accomplish, but do you want to drive 400 miles to pay to ride on 200 acres of land when there are 40,000 acres in your backyard you can ride for free?  That land he bought cost between $600,000.00 and $1,000,000.00.  It is a valiant effort and a colossal leap of faith, especially when you see the effort you people put out to secure your own riding areas.  The problem with Paul's plan is that you couldn't touch 20 acres for that amount anywhere near where the majority of us ride.  Paul's plan to create these riding areas all over the state will literally take 10s of millions of dollars.  We MUST fight these actions!  Please send a message to the FWC and let your fellow members know you care; post up your response and encourage everybody you know that rides to contact FWC as well.  Get off your lazy asses and fight for what is rightfully yours!!

P.S.  Paul, this is not a shot at you.  It is a reality check for the members.  You have my total respect for what you are trying to accomplish.

http://myfwc.com/commission/RuleChanges/ProposedRules0708.asp (http://myfwc.com/commission/RuleChanges/ProposedRules0708.asp)

I think its not up to the riders, were way to small. I think that it come down to the ATV manufactures and ATV dealers. If they want to sell quads anymore there going to have to step up and do something about it. There the ones that are profiting big. It wouldn't take that much for all the dealers to get together and become sleazy like the rest of our government and hire lobbyists. Other than that I think were just spinning our wheels. Maybe we should all move out of this state and go Tennessee and buy our community and title it a ATV comunity, screw this over taxed and over insured state. Let me get one more in, over speaking Spanish state! 8)

How about you email your hero Clinton and see what he can do for us. Bush might be drilling oil, but Clinton's busy drilling fat chicks  :o  ;D ;D

Quit being jealous!!!

Have you ever heard the saying that the squeaky wheel gets the grease?  Your attitude is exactly why we are losing our riding areas; "It's not my job/My voice means nothing/Somebody else needs to step up to the plate."  The environmentalists are winning this battle because their voices are being heard while we casually sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for somebody else to do the work.  Your voice by itself may not mean anything, but thousands of voices speaking in unison can and will be heard.  In the time it took you to type your exchange with each other, you could have submitted your objections to FWC and added two more voices.  What is it that makes the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so impressive over the church you go to?  Hundreds of voices singing in unison versus 15 or 20.  We can be impressive, too, if we will each make the effort to be sure our voice is heard.  Contact FWC now before it's too late.

Its all about the green backs.  :-\

I couldn't agree more!! (with this part of your statement)..I would think it incumbent for ATV manufactures , Tire manufactures, after market etc...to get together and put together lobbying groups in each state don't tell me they don't have enough money to do it and every time one of these closures come up inundate it with all that lawyer crap and bog it down in the court system like every one else does. If they don't step UP to the plate VERY SOON they might as well in 10yrs kiss their ATV gross profit if the crack of the A$# goodbye. If anyone needs to wake up its not the ATV owners it IS THE MANUFACTURERS..who we need to wake up and lobby is them (the ATV Manfgr.)....just look at GMC,FORD, DODGE they already do it and it works well for them???? If it didn't there wouldn't be a car OR truck on the road (Just look at the death / accident rate associated with them!!!) don't get me wrong we need to play a part also but not in the front row. 

Read what we are dealing with. This guy is starting to show his true colors.

http://davie.freeforums.org/viewforum.php?f=12

Unfortunately, we are our own worst enemy. For those of you that say maybe, XXXXXXXX should do something, take the example of Hurricane Katrina. Those that did for themselves were able to get out and live, and those that waited for someone to do something for them, stayed and died.

Florida is a Retirement state. I dont mean to sound like a party pooper but all you can really do is fight to gain back riding areas, not get new ones.

I will gurentee you the state would rather get $100,000 for land from a developer that plans on bringing touists or 500 new homes to an area then get $100,000 from an atv group that wants to let the land sit so they can make dust and noise. Very few political figures are on your side. I'm sure you understand this but I just see a bunch of people whining about getting new riding land and not looking at the big picture. You'll need ALOT of support for anything noticable to happen. Not just one atv rally in the middle of Okeechobee at an event most state officials would gag at.

I'm all for your efforts though ;D

I emailed the fwc and the forestry dept.I was reading on another site that one of the guys was getting his sticker at croom and the ranger told him he better enjoy it while he can.because next year it will cost more if they are even there next year.alot of people think they will never close croom because of the money they rake in but the state don't care about that.A guy at work has an uncle that lives right by croom and he told him every weekend he sees the helicopter landin over there to take someone to the hospital.if thats true they will close it down I hope its not cause thats the closest place for me to ride.but if everyone just sits back and lets the other guy do all the emailing etc... then there will be nowhere to ride.

I was told this same thing last week. It is not about the money. It is about people getting hurt. The hospitals in the area are really starting to complain about people getting hurt and dieing.

  http://davie.freeforums.org/viewforum.php?f=12

I hope they dont complain about Mudfest. I know one guy died this past August from the tow strap incident. I think 3 people were air lifted by the end of the weekend. Happends every six months but nobody complains which is a good thing.

From what I have seen from members is we do not know in time who to write to until it is too late. That is just like Croom right now. Do we really know it is going to close until it is too late. All we can do is keep asking and let us know the answer to that question. I know I will keep asking. We definitely cannot let Croom get away.

                                                http://davie.freeforums.org/viewforum.php?f=12

 

Thanks, but we are already looking at more land down south, so it's not impossible to recreate our park in other areas of the State. Read this forum and mine www.floridaatv.com after this weekend and see how much (or little  :o) fun a bunch of riders can have on 200 acres that have been bought and constructed solely with ATV's in mind. 

That does not mean we should give up fighting for the right to ride on government land. Unfortunately it seems (and this does not a make anyone wrong or right or a bad person) that when the average buyer, bought their atv/s they did not expect, or want to start a political fight to get places to ride it.

I'm sure none of us expected to have to jump into the fray when we bought our ATVs, but for the amount of effort it takes (you can say as little as "I'm against this proposal" but it carries more weight when you present your position a little more eloquently), each and every one of us should be sending the FWC our comments.  What is the average owner going to do with his $6,000.00 or more investment when there's no more places to ride?  Sell it to someone else?  Fat chance.  It won't take long for everybody to know there's no place to ride and every ride will involve a 400 mile road trip.  Just as with Badluck, if this proposed rule change goes through, this board will be covered with threads containing great wailing and gnashing of teeth about 'how this could happen to us.'  It's a damn shame that people can't bring themselves to protect their own interest.  It presents a pretty bleak outlook, really.  I ask you this; How many of you would speak up if there was a proposed $35.00 tax levied for each and every quad every time you went riding?  Be honest.  Would you speak up then?  If that would make you speak up then you better speak up now because if we continue to sit idly by while they close all the FREE riding areas, the only places left to ride will be the pay-to-ride venues and you will be paying that $35.00 per quad per ride.  It does not take that much effort and I urge you to do it before it's too late.

http://myfwc.com/commission/RuleChanges/ProposedRules0708.asp (http://myfwc.com/commission/RuleChanges/ProposedRules0708.asp)