association - ATVFlorida.com

CLUB O’ THE MONTH
STORY AND PHOTOS BY LEE KLANCHER
OCALA FOREST
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION
Terry Thompson got started riding ATVs late in life, but his off-road roots span more than
four decades. He rode dirt bikes during his college years in the mid-1960s. Two weeks after
buying a brand-new, 1965 Yamaha 125, he pile-drove it into the brush. The crash left his bike
FLORIDA TRAIL RANGERS VOLUNTEERING TO HELP MANAGE AN URBAN FOREST
totaled and his jawbone fractured. Once the doctors patched him together (and his bike was
hauled off to the junk pile), the first words out of his wired mouth were, “I want another Yamaha.”
He bought a Big Bear Scrambler that same week.
ONFA President Terry Thompson greets Jason Coston as he
enters the West Lake Delancy Campground.
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JUNE 2007 ATV RIDER
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CLUB O’ THE MONTH
The headquarters for the Ocala National Forest
Association is this metal building located at the
old seed farm in the center of the forest.
When Thompson
getting dug into deep
started riding ATVs in
trenches, and conflicts
’99, he found riding
between residents and
areas closing and
visitors alike were makaccess to the trails in
ing the line between ATV
ORV-crazy Florida
and non-ATV users a bitbecoming more and
ter divide.
more difficult. He signed
About 3100 resion as a U.S. Forest
dences exist within
Service volunteer trail
Ocala National Forest
ranger to do what he
(not including vacation
could to help keep the
This is the Rodman Pit area located near the Rodman Dam. The homes). Those people
trails open for his sport. area was closed in February, 2007.
are polarized about ATV
His favorite place to
use. While visiting the
ride is the Ocala National Forest, and he’s not alone in
area, I stopped by one Ocala National Forest resithat choice. The forest offers 389,000 acres of a
dent’s house to ask for directions. When he discovdiverse pine and palm ecosystem teeming with bears,
ered the issue I was covering, he went on a 20alligators, birds and 140 miles of sandy ORV trails.
minute rant about kids tearing past his house on
Established in 1908, it’s the oldest
ATVs and spinning doughnut holes (2 to 6-foot-deep
national forest east of the
holes dug from spinning doughnuts) in the forest
Mississippi. It’s service roads.
also one of the
“I don’t want to have no younger generation tearmost heavily visited forests
ing up my road,” he spat, just before walking off and
in the nation and sees high ORV use
waving his hand dismissively in disgust.
with more than 5000 bikes and ATVs
Others bought places specifically because of the
on the trails on busy weekends.
ATV access and enjoyed the luxury of riding from
Florida’s an ATV-crazy state, and the their front door into the forest. People like
national forest regulations concerning
Thompson, who just enjoyed riding ATVs in the forORV use have been fairly unrestrictive.
est, began to have run-ins with non-motorized
In days gone by, ATVs could ride anywhere
users. The conflicts between the groups were just
in the forest and even use unpaved roads for
one of the forces that led to the changes in trailtrail access.
access rules.
That all started to change in ’98, when the
As with much of the country, a movement began
Forest Service realized that use of the trails
that would change ORV access. Rather than have
was becoming a problem. The sandy soil was
ORVs free to go anywhere on public land, the wave
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Place visited: Ocala National Forest (near Orlando, Florida)
Club: Ocala National Forest Association, www.onfa.org;
352/680-9717
Riding season: Year-round
Maps recommended: Ocala National Forest OHV Trail
Map, www.fs.fed.us/r8/florida/recreation/ocaOHV/index_OHV_maps.shtml
Area information: State of Florida Tourism Information,
www.visitflorida.com
Permits/licenses required: ATVs must be registered, be
equipped with a spark arrestor and have valid ORV permit.
Parking or camping at campgrounds available for $6 per
day. No fee charged for trail access as of March 1, 2007,
but a fee will be charged for use beginning late in 2007.
Critters: Deer, black bears, turkeys, bald eagles, egrets,
great blue herons, flamingos, songbirds, alligators, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, tourists
While you are there: Fishing, hunting, camping, mountain
biking, hiking, horseback riding, tons of theme parks
Road-trip CD: Ray Charles’ “The Best of Ray Charles: The
Atlantic Years”
Best local beer: Beach Tale Brown Ale, Dunedin Brewery
Digs: Lots of options in nearby Silver Springs; camping
available for $6 per day in Ocala National Forest
Good eats: Lots of chain restaurants in Silver Springs; 88
BBQ is accessible on the trail system
Useful links: www.nohvcc.org, www.sharetrails.org,
www.arra-access.com
CLUB O’ THE MONTH
of the future is to create designated trails and
close the rest of the area.
Bret Bush, the current recreation program manager, came in as this debate was getting underway
at Ocala. He had been the ORV manager at the
Upper Tellico OHV Area in the Nantahala National
Forest in North Carolina, which offers highly technical rocky terrain prized by ORV enthusiasts.
Bush quickly realized that the challenges facing
the Ocala National Forest were much different than
those at Upper Tellico, where stream contamination
was the major problem.
“[At Upper Tellico], if we saw muddy water, we
knew we had a problem,” Bush said.
In Ocala, muddy water is not the issue. The soft
sand in this Florida paradise would get torn into deep
grooves, and the open scrub forest allowed ATV users
to stray off the trail. A single, 4-foot-wide trail could
quickly become a criss-crossing network of trails 10 to
20 feet wide. This “spider-webbing” of trails drew
attention to concerns about environmental damage.
The other problem in Ocala was the sheer number of people who used the forest.
“We have 10 million people living within 75 miles
of our forest,” Bush says. “We’re an
urban forest.”
Bush was part of a study of ORV
use in the forest that began in ’98.
He came into it believing that ORV
use needed to continue in the forest, but figuring out how to do that
took more than five years, with input
from both government officials and
people who use the forest for all
types of recreation. The end result is
a two-phase program that makes ORV
travel acceptable only on designated trails.
The forest has been divided
into two sections, which are
referred to as the Phase 1 and
Phase 2 zones. In the Phase 1
zone, ATVs are allowed only on
the 140 miles of established
trail. Once the trails are complete in the Phase 2 region,
another 100 miles of trail will
open, while the rest of the forest
will close to ORV use.
In the second phase, the
emphasis will be placed on using
ATV trails to link recreation areas
in the forest. The new trail will be
called an “Adventure Trail” and will
lead to several campgrounds and
lakes. A geocaching program is
also being considered.
A key to making these new trail
systems viable is volunteers. In
years past, having trails open to
use was fine. That was due in no
small part to the fact that the
amount of use was relatively low. With
ATV sales on the rise, an increasing number of enthusiasts are now out on the
trails.
Another factor is increased population
pressure, particularly in places like Florida,
where nearby urban centers such as
The Ocala National Forest is a mix of scrub pine
with sections of hardwood and palm trees.
Orlando and Tampa saw explosive increases in the
their time to care for their trails.
number of residents.
Bush understood the importance of volunteers in
At Ocala National Forest, a large group of people
keeping ORV trails open in Ocala National Forest. “I
use the forest, and conflicts are inevitable. The desig- convinced them that we had to have a volunteer
nated trail system is the solution the Forest Service
group to survive,” Bush says.
has found to minimize
This was where Terry
conflicts and provide
Thompson came in.
trails for all sorts of
After attending a
national forest users.
seminar put on by
Once the concept of
NOHVCC in May 2006,
designated trails was
Thompson realized that
accepted, there was the
volunteers would be
issue of who would
needed to ensure that
mark, maintain and
his favorite riding area
patrol the trails.
remained accessible to
Because the Forest
ORVs. So he worked with
Service has limited
Bush to form the Ocala
resources available, the
National Forest Associaonly way to keep these
tion. This organization
The surface of the trails is sand, sand and more sand. They’ve
trails open was to work
recruits and trains volgotten whooped out and dug up in the past, but the national
with a group of enthusi- forest recently purchased several trail groomers in order to
unteers to patrol the
asts who volunteered
keep the trails a bit smoother.
forest. Thompson is the
JUNE 2007 ATV RIDER
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CLUB O’ THE MONTH
QUALITY OF RIDING
8.0
Sandy, whoop-filled trails with very little elevation change.
LOCALE
8.5
North-central Florida is funky and backcountry away
from the stereotypical tourist areas.
CITIZENSHIP
9.0
ONFA has more than 40 members volunteering their time
to help keep the trails open.
PERSONALITY
9.5
Nobody in Florida is from Florida, and the club fields
folks from all over the country.
OVERALL RATING
8.8
Volunteer. These people are doing what needs to be
done for our sport to survive.
Jim Underhoffer on the trails. The trail system is
designed for the recreational rider, not the speedster.
“Intensity is not here,” Thompson says.
president of the new organization, and has recruited dangerous place.
nearly 40 volunteers.
Jack Terrell, the project coordinator for NOHVCC and
“We intend to have volunteers at each trailhead,
an active figure in the Florida ATV scene, provided supas well as out patrolling the trails,” Thompson
port and advice to Bush during the creation of the sysexplains. The volunteer trail rangers will answer questem. One of the examples Terrell brought to Bush’s
tions, maintain noise regulations and remind people
attention was the San Bernandino Trail Association,
of what they need to do to use the trail system
which served as a model for the Ocala National Forest
responsibly. They will also be working with Thompson
Association. Terrell was quick to point out that while he
to administer training to
and NOHVCC provided plenunder-16-year-old riders
ty of resources, Thompson
who are looking to meet
was the one who created
the state’s new requirethe Ocala National Forest
ment of having safety
Association, which is key to
training in order to ride.
the trail system’s success.
When the rangers are
“Thompson’s volunon the trail, Thompson
teer group was instruintends to have them
mental in making this
work in pairs. “We don’t
system work. They have
want to leave anyone
been involved in the
out there alone,” he
marking and maintesays, citing the fact that
nance of the trails. They
One of the issues facing the Ocala National Forest is helmet
while most of the work
have been the eyes and
use. It isn’t required in the forest, and in a midweek day of ridwill be friendly, the Ocala ing, nearly every single utility ATV rider we saw on the trails
ears on the trail,” Terrell
National Forest can be a was riding without a bucket.
says. “They’ve done a fan80
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tastic job of mobilizing the volunteers and organizing the volunteers. Without them, [Bush’s] task
would have been very difficult, if not impossible.”
What’s happening in the Ocala National Forest is
hardly an isolated incident. The U.S. Forest Service
recently announced that they intend to have trails
designated in all of the country’s national forests.
Once that happens, only the designated trails will be open for ORV use.
The key to keeping trails open is to
get involved and advocate for your
favorite trails. The only way a trail is
going to be designated is if the forest service is told it exists. And
that requires OHV enthusiasts to
come forward with GPS tracks,
marked maps or other physical
records of the system.
NOHVCC is holding four-day
seminars around the country.
The first two days are designed
to inform Forest Service
employees about the new laws
and implementation. The second two are open to enthusiasts, to give them the knowledge they need to ensure
their trail systems remain
open. For more information
on these programs, check
out www.nohvcc.org.
“Unless enthusiasts get
involved through volunteer
organizations to work
with the Forest Service,
we are not going to see
the future for off-road
trails,” Terrell warns. “If
we don’t get involved,
there’s nobody else
who’s going to stick
up for us.”
ATVR