found this this morning... 3/19
Naples Daily News
Collier riders protest plans to site possible ATV park in Hendry County
By DIANNA SMITH, dlsmith@naplesnews.com
March 19, 2005
The search for land to satisfy off-road vehicle owners is leading some to Hendry County, where local officials plan to tour a site that could be the next play park for riders.
The 640 acres are part of land owned by Lee County, property purchased more than 10 years ago to make way for a landfill. Motorists would have to drive through Lee County to get to it, but Nancy Payton, a Southwest Florida field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation, said a road likely will be connected from the landfill to State Route 29.
"It does hold great promise," she said.
What it doesn't offer is easy access. Local riders have said they want to ride on land in Collier County, not on property that takes more than an hour to reach.
"I'm not sure how workable that site is going to be," said Brian McMahon, a Golden Gate Estates resident who has been working closely with state representatives. "It's difficult to manage a piece of land a good ways into Hendry County."
Since Jan. 3, people with vehicles like swamp buggies, airboats and all-terrain vehicles have had nowhere to go. The Picayune Strand State Forest in eastern Collier County has been off limits to recreational riders since the beginning of the year, when the federal Fish and Wildlife Service revoked permits to ride in the park.
The Big Cypress Basin, the local division of the South Florida Water Management District, said last year it would find riders 640 acres by Oct. 31.
Basin Director Clarence Tears said the property in Hendry County wouldn't necessarily be the property the Basin promised the riders. He said it's too early to tell and there has been no discussion of who would purchase the land or own it.
Lindsey Sampson, director of the Lee County solid waste division, said there already is a landfill in the area, but that Lee County doesn't plan to use the 640 acres to which Tears is referring.
Tears said finding land for ORV use in Collier County has been a challenge. Developers are quickly snatching land and property that is available is either environmentally sensitive or the owners refuse to sell.
"With large developments coming in the rural areas, the real estate market is exploding in this area," Tears said. "Nobody wants an ORV park in their back yard."
After several years, the state bought the land in the Southern Golden Gate Estates because agencies plan to restore the area and protect endangered species such as panthers. Officials have said recreational riders will hinder the restoration project and possibly could be harmful to endangered species.
But state Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, said the Florida Division of Forestry now has agreed to allow riders to return to the forest. Officials now are trying to figure out where to create established trails in the Picayune, Davis said. After that's settled, it will need the blessing of the Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as state officials.
Recreational riders have held public meetings, written letters to local and state officials and even protested the decision to keep them out of the Picayune. The ban has forced riders either to ride on their own property or travel to Ocala National Forest in Marion County in north central Florida, L-Cross X-treme in Glades County or to Croom in Hernando County. Many are staying in Collier and riding illegally.
"Some are riding in East Bonita, quite a few on the streets," McMahon says. "Tempers are still riding very high."
Collier sheriff's Lt. Rich Hampton, who works in the Golden Gate substation, said there has been a significant increase in the number of complaints on people riding all-terrain vehicles on private property.
"The big thing we're faced with is people say, 'Where can we ride our four-wheelers?'" Hampton said. "They're pretty emotional about it. They feel as if their land is being taken from them."
