Bonnie George
05-02-2006, 08:18 AM
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Stephen Hudak
Sentinel Staff Writer
May 2, 2006
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST -- The earth-chewing tires of off-road vehicles have wrought damage to the forest that is worse than feared, federal officials said as they prepare to impose tighter and tougher controls on joy riders in the sprawling forest.
"To not make changes would be irresponsible," Ranger Rick Lint said.
The U.S. Forest Service, caretakers of the 383,000-acre forest in Lake, Volusia, Marion and Putnam counties, is implementing long-threatened rules. They include the first-ever marked trails for Jeeps, motorcycles and other all-terrain off-road vehicles that used to have run of the land.
But marked trails aren't the only changes.
The Forest Service has secured federal grants to hire police officers to keep renegade riders on designated paths, Lint said. The service also has petitioned federal courts to double the fines for trailblazers, who are blamed for much of the damage to the forest's delicate habitat.
"You might have heard about how motorized vehicles have abused the land, but when you see it firsthand, it's just 'Wow,' " Lint said after reviewing photographs that wildlife biologists collected last week during an acre-by-acre assessment. "It's just shocking."
It also can't continue, he said.
Lush habitat, where the vines of the endangered Florida bonamia grew and red-cockaded woodpeckers nested, has become a rutted desert broken only by occasional trash heaps.
"They've gotten into about every sinkhole, prairie pond and wetland out there," said Carrie Sekerak, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist who helped document the damage.
Forest officials last year closed 8,200 acres of environmentally sensitive land in Lake County where repeated thrill-riding had deeply scarred a prairie pond. Work crews have begun to mark 42 miles of trails set aside for ATVs and dirt bikes.
Rangers also are prepared to enforce a policy of "closed unless marked open."
The new policy, which is opposite of the current practice of "open unless marked closed," means that more than 1,000 miles of snaking trails will be off limits to riders.
Forest officials expect a fight, and they'll probably get one.
The Florida Four-Wheel Drive Association, which wants more play areas, met Thursday to discuss their options, including possible lawsuits, said Jason Kawaja, its president.
The group represents owners of Jeeps, Hummers, pickups and other four-wheel-drive vehicles that are licensed for the highway -- a distinction separating them from ATVs.
"I think we're seen by the Forest Service as more of a problem than a solution," said Kawaja, who is among dozens of association volunteers who have helped clean up forest trails.
ATV riders also don't feel welcome in the forest, said B.J. Johnson, president of the Muddy Waters ATV Association based in Deltona.
"We all feel they'd rather push us out than help us out," he said.
But as riding groups were mulling future legal routes, the Forest Service was driving markers into 20 winding miles of existing paths that will be known as the Paisley OHV [off-highway vehicle] Trail.
The trail begins at the intersection of County Road 445 and a power line.
Albert Heminway, 60, who rode his four-wheel Honda Rancher to the trailhead Friday, sipped coffee from a thermos as he pondered what the new rules meant for him.
He frowned. He would no longer be permitted to ride from his home to the forest.
Heminway, who lives in nearby Shockley Heights, rides unmarked trails at least twice a week, enjoying blue skies and whoop-de-doos, the undulating bumps ATVs make in the sand.
"I can probably live with this," he said.
Not all riders tread as lightly as Heminway.
Federal law-enforcement Officer Chris Crain, one of two lawmen patrolling the forest, said some riders will continue to ignore rules and cut their own trails, even in forbidden areas.
"I've stopped people riding their ATVs with chain saws on the back," he said. "I know what they're doing. . . . They're making their own trails to ride where they want to ride."
Keeping rough-riders on the new trails is essential, especially in places like Paisley, one of the most easily accessible and popular riding destinations, judging from tire damage.
Sekerak, the wildlife biologist, described a 28-square-mile patch of forest near Paisley where researchers counted 400 miles of user-cut trails, a road density rivaling a city block.
"You're talking about hundreds of acres of habitat that are gone," she said.
Sekerak said the riders, their machines and their noise have chased away striped newts and sandhill cranes that nested there and depended on bugs that hid in the vegetation.
"All the ATVers see is a big bird fly off," she said. "They don't realize they've essentially just killed the chick she left behind. That little fuzzy chick needs the warmth of her mother to survive."
Rangers are trying to better understand off-road riders, who are the fastest-growing group of visitors to the forest, which is within an hour's drive for 8 million people.
The U.S. Forest Service recently commissioned University of Florida professor Taylor Stein to study riders -- recreation research that could help rangers avoid conflicts with them.
Lint said he thinks most off-road enthusiasts want trails and a safe, fun riding experience, which is difficult now because of hordes of zig-zagging, criss-crossing riders.
Rangers recently leveled out an open space near Big Scrub for a helicopter landing pad, citing the frequency of emergency medical evacuations because of off-road accidents.
Lint warned that new limits also are coming soon to Big Scrub, a popular riding area that, on its busiest days, can resemble a mall parking lot before Christmas.
"No one wants to bring the hammer down," he said. "But the forest has been a beautiful place for generations, and we have the duty to make sure it stays beautiful for future generations."
Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.
Stephen Hudak
Sentinel Staff Writer
May 2, 2006
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST -- The earth-chewing tires of off-road vehicles have wrought damage to the forest that is worse than feared, federal officials said as they prepare to impose tighter and tougher controls on joy riders in the sprawling forest.
"To not make changes would be irresponsible," Ranger Rick Lint said.
The U.S. Forest Service, caretakers of the 383,000-acre forest in Lake, Volusia, Marion and Putnam counties, is implementing long-threatened rules. They include the first-ever marked trails for Jeeps, motorcycles and other all-terrain off-road vehicles that used to have run of the land.
But marked trails aren't the only changes.
The Forest Service has secured federal grants to hire police officers to keep renegade riders on designated paths, Lint said. The service also has petitioned federal courts to double the fines for trailblazers, who are blamed for much of the damage to the forest's delicate habitat.
"You might have heard about how motorized vehicles have abused the land, but when you see it firsthand, it's just 'Wow,' " Lint said after reviewing photographs that wildlife biologists collected last week during an acre-by-acre assessment. "It's just shocking."
It also can't continue, he said.
Lush habitat, where the vines of the endangered Florida bonamia grew and red-cockaded woodpeckers nested, has become a rutted desert broken only by occasional trash heaps.
"They've gotten into about every sinkhole, prairie pond and wetland out there," said Carrie Sekerak, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist who helped document the damage.
Forest officials last year closed 8,200 acres of environmentally sensitive land in Lake County where repeated thrill-riding had deeply scarred a prairie pond. Work crews have begun to mark 42 miles of trails set aside for ATVs and dirt bikes.
Rangers also are prepared to enforce a policy of "closed unless marked open."
The new policy, which is opposite of the current practice of "open unless marked closed," means that more than 1,000 miles of snaking trails will be off limits to riders.
Forest officials expect a fight, and they'll probably get one.
The Florida Four-Wheel Drive Association, which wants more play areas, met Thursday to discuss their options, including possible lawsuits, said Jason Kawaja, its president.
The group represents owners of Jeeps, Hummers, pickups and other four-wheel-drive vehicles that are licensed for the highway -- a distinction separating them from ATVs.
"I think we're seen by the Forest Service as more of a problem than a solution," said Kawaja, who is among dozens of association volunteers who have helped clean up forest trails.
ATV riders also don't feel welcome in the forest, said B.J. Johnson, president of the Muddy Waters ATV Association based in Deltona.
"We all feel they'd rather push us out than help us out," he said.
But as riding groups were mulling future legal routes, the Forest Service was driving markers into 20 winding miles of existing paths that will be known as the Paisley OHV [off-highway vehicle] Trail.
The trail begins at the intersection of County Road 445 and a power line.
Albert Heminway, 60, who rode his four-wheel Honda Rancher to the trailhead Friday, sipped coffee from a thermos as he pondered what the new rules meant for him.
He frowned. He would no longer be permitted to ride from his home to the forest.
Heminway, who lives in nearby Shockley Heights, rides unmarked trails at least twice a week, enjoying blue skies and whoop-de-doos, the undulating bumps ATVs make in the sand.
"I can probably live with this," he said.
Not all riders tread as lightly as Heminway.
Federal law-enforcement Officer Chris Crain, one of two lawmen patrolling the forest, said some riders will continue to ignore rules and cut their own trails, even in forbidden areas.
"I've stopped people riding their ATVs with chain saws on the back," he said. "I know what they're doing. . . . They're making their own trails to ride where they want to ride."
Keeping rough-riders on the new trails is essential, especially in places like Paisley, one of the most easily accessible and popular riding destinations, judging from tire damage.
Sekerak, the wildlife biologist, described a 28-square-mile patch of forest near Paisley where researchers counted 400 miles of user-cut trails, a road density rivaling a city block.
"You're talking about hundreds of acres of habitat that are gone," she said.
Sekerak said the riders, their machines and their noise have chased away striped newts and sandhill cranes that nested there and depended on bugs that hid in the vegetation.
"All the ATVers see is a big bird fly off," she said. "They don't realize they've essentially just killed the chick she left behind. That little fuzzy chick needs the warmth of her mother to survive."
Rangers are trying to better understand off-road riders, who are the fastest-growing group of visitors to the forest, which is within an hour's drive for 8 million people.
The U.S. Forest Service recently commissioned University of Florida professor Taylor Stein to study riders -- recreation research that could help rangers avoid conflicts with them.
Lint said he thinks most off-road enthusiasts want trails and a safe, fun riding experience, which is difficult now because of hordes of zig-zagging, criss-crossing riders.
Rangers recently leveled out an open space near Big Scrub for a helicopter landing pad, citing the frequency of emergency medical evacuations because of off-road accidents.
Lint warned that new limits also are coming soon to Big Scrub, a popular riding area that, on its busiest days, can resemble a mall parking lot before Christmas.
"No one wants to bring the hammer down," he said. "But the forest has been a beautiful place for generations, and we have the duty to make sure it stays beautiful for future generations."
Stephen Hudak can be reached at shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5930.