I read the article and can explain a little of the background.

As you all likely know, the Blackwater River State Forest has ~220,000 acres of land that is managed by the state foresters in several counties.  This is a working forest, meaning that when trees are cut, the proceeds to back into the [Florida state’s] general fund.   Ideally, the money generated from the forest would stay in the forest, but the system is not designed that way.  Trees are cut for thinning or to replant other pine stands with Longleaf.

One of the big issues facing the forest are people making their own trails (usually to a creek or to dump trash).   Over the years, the FWC has taken on the responsibility of ticketing folks on ATVs and motorcycles that are on ‘un-designated’ roads.  Turns out that folks who purchase ATVs and off road bikes pay a ‘special tax’ to have lands that set aside where they can ride.  For many years, ticketed folks were complaining about not having any ‘legal’ locations where to ride.  The nearest OHV park was in Tallahassee, followed by Orlando.

The Blackwater Forest managers have some unique challenges.   Horse folks don’t want to bump into hunters, hikers don’t want to hike near roads, birders don’t want to overlap with folks who could spook birds, paddlers and campers don’t want to be buzzed by military air craft.  Mountain bikers don’t want to have horses on their trails because it messes with the hard pack ground, etc.  No one wants to bump into hunters: dog hunters: bow hunters: etc.

So, to address these specific user groups — thE Forest folks have delineated certain areas for certain activities.   The property set aside for the OHV Park was actually a newly acquired parcel of the 640 acres in 2005-6 which was far away from the other user groups and low lying areas.   This property had not been managed with fire, and so was overgrown and close to the end of Whiting Field’s northern air strip.

The state purchased this land for this purpose (to have a location where OHV could recreate w/o ‘disturbing’ other user groups).  The parcel experiences a lot of air traffic (noise), due to the nearby field, so it is ideally suited for a noisy recreational park.   In addition, the chance of accident & injury from such activities increases — so the site is easily accessible by ambulance & air craft if needed.

Until I worked with The Nature Conservancy and heard all the stories that land managers were faced with, I had never given these issues a second thought.   Think about Gulf Islands National Seashore and the challenges they have of ‘herding’ 2-3 million people through their lands — and leaving only their footprints behind.

The forest has in-holdings, meaning private landowners who live in parcels throughout the forest.   Places like Gulf Islands are one complete parcel w/o any in-holdings.

Personally, I think the foresters that oversee the Blackwater are doing a really good job on a shoe string budget, with a Governor who is not the lease bit interested in protecting our resources.  In today’s PNJ [Pensacola News Journal], a small article mentions how he is in CA trying to ‘steal’ business by saying we have little regulation … that captures it perfectly.

Please let me know if I can help clarify anything.

Barbara Albrecht