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ATV group asks for county's assistance to access state land for off-road
riding
By PAUL CATALÁ
NORTH PORT -- A local group of all-terrain vehicle owners has asked
Sarasota County to join its effort to get nearly 400 acres of state land
put aside for off-road riding.
But George Tatge, beaches and natural areas manager for the county parks
and recreation department, said he's doubtful the county will help.
Tatge said he attended a meeting Tuesday of the ATV-Ad Hoc Committee, an
organization made up of area ATV riders and merchants, intending to
discuss the environmental damage for which ATVs have been blamed in North
Port parks.
He said he was especially concerned with pollution, soil erosion, habitat
destruction, and litter at the Myakkahatchee Creek Park at Reistertown
Road and Estates Drive, and at county-managed Oaks Park near Sumter
Boulevard and Interstate 75.
But group chairman John Wilson, owner of Action Power Sports in Nokomis,
told Tatge that the ATV committee isn't looking to ride in those two
parks and would instead like to see an alternate site set aside in the
8,600-acre Myakka State Forest.
Tatge said Wednesday he felt the group had good intentions, but that he
did not expect the county to support its efforts.
A state forestry department report submitted to the governor Jan. 1 lists
390 acres of the pine tree-covered Myakka Forest as one of three
finalists to become an ATV recreational area.
At a discussion about the state report in April, the Sarasota County
Commission voiced opposition to the plan.
During this week's meeting, Wilson defended the use of the forest by
off-road vehicles.
"A state forest is for the consumptive use of the public," he said,
noting that 33,000 off-road vehicles were sold in Florida in 2002, and
110,000 are now registered.
He said the demand for off-road riding would continue to grow, and part
of a state forest is the place to do it.
"I hope you guys will realize the value of letting the state give us an
area to ride and get us off your parks," he said.
Setting aside part of the forest for riders would help prevent further
damage to Myakkahatchee Creek Park and The Oaks, he said.
"You'd get more people here (the forest), so people would quit riding in
places where they shouldn't be riding," he said.
Wilson said an ATV park would do less environmental damage than any one
of the dozens of golf courses built around the area.
© Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved.
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. I like to go to croom to ride with the kids and I do not think it is the proper place.
