Orlando Sential Rick Lint and ONF

viper

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« on: April 29, 2007, 06:28:43 AM »

Interesting - place marked in red, just another way to get the OHV people out of the forest..

The Ocala National Forest is a 383,643-acre wilderness of wonders whose remote charms lure birders, hikers, off-road riders and, unfortunately, squatters and criminals. In the past 15 months, the forest made news when two college students were shot to death while camping, a snorkeler was killed by an alligator and police combed a lake and prairie for missing toddler Trenton Duckett. Yet the nation's oldest national forest east of the Mississippi River remains a popular recreational destination for many Central Florida outdoor enthusiasts. Ranger Rick Lint, who has spearheaded an effort to reshape the forest's image, spoke recently with staff writer Stephen Hudak about the Ocala forest's beauty and challenges.

Is the forest a dangerous place?

In some aspects, it's similar to a city like Orlando. There's places you can go with your family, and there are places that you avoid. When I got here, employees told me, "There are places we won't take our families." It would have been sad to accept that, so we haven't.

Is it true that things had gotten so rough in the forest that a Boy Scout leader swore he'd never bring his troop back?

That happened in Buck Lake shortly after I got here. People who had squatted there felt as if they controlled that area and, in passive-aggressive ways, made a camping troop of Scouts feel very uncomfortable. . . . The Scouts suffered through the night, enduring loud, noisy goings-on. Then the next morning, they're trying to load up [to leave], and a woman with a butcher's knife starts screaming, falls to her knees and proceeds to stab the ground. That was the last straw -- for the Scouts and for us.

What's been done?

Last summer, we had a big effort, spent a week with various experts and specialists discussing the problems, thinking of solutions, devising a plan. We called it "Reshaping the Ocala."

What came out of that?

In the past, we looked at our problems as being separate, unrelated things. The motorized damage. The dumping. The meth labs. To me, all those are related under the idea that they lower the standard that we expect from the land and from each other. . . . If the small quality-of-life issues aren't addressed, it creates a setting and a stage for worse crimes. It starts with littering and vandalism and people staying too long -- doing whatever they want to the land. We tried to fix that.

What else has been done to make the forest safer?

We've added volunteers in the campgrounds -- our eyes and ears. We only had two law-enforcement officers. We now have four. We converted one of the law-enforcement officers to a canine patrol. . . . We strengthened our cooperative agreements with Marion and Lake counties to increase their presence here.

The forest is one of the nation's busiest public playgrounds. How do you balance the rights of off-road riders and hunters with those of more passive users such as birders and hikers?

It's a constant tug and pull. . . . We've got hiking trails; we've got biking trails; we've started putting in ATV trails; hunting goes on here. Yeah, there's a lot of opportunity for conflict out there. But as the population increases, and more people want to use the same space, we're going to be more and more into access rationing. Shocked

What sights do you recommend?

Go see the natural springs. Go see the long-leaf pines. Go see the scrub. See the sinkholes. But also, don't miss the bombing range. Part of our mission here is to support national defense, and in the middle of one of the most-used national forests is a live naval bombing range. . . . It's something amazing to witness.

Have the bombers ever missed the target?

There have been a close call or two. A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I think, one [bomb] dropped way off. Nobody was hurt. But it landed less than a mile from some hunters. Scared them a good bit. They must have been thinking [the deer] are shooting back.


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