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Pickett State Park/Blackhouse Mountian 1-23-2016
- Thread starter ridered3
- Start date
xjcrawler
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2007
- Messages
- 914
Sounds like the same path as Tellico?? Kiss it goodbye!!!!
ridered3
Not Rigless
Quite possible for sure. They (the State) did something similar with Franklin State Forest where they closed it for maintenance for X amount of time, then extended it to Y amount of time, and eventually reopened Z a handful of miles to OHV traffic but that was it.
What grinds my gears here is that the State had done minimal to no maintenance here for a long, long time (dating back to when I lived/rode up there 2004 to 2010ish) so to suddenly "care about maintenance" is quite interesting.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Looks like SFWDA is starting to possibly get involved.
ridered3
Not Rigless
That for sure. Plus more online publicity/knowledge of its existence, plus not attempting to "tread lightly", plus virtually no maintenance performed has certainly had a negative effect overall.
TBItoy
Well-Known Member
The proliferation of mapping apps/software along with SXS makes riding "new" areas much more accessible to people.
And when it's a state forest with no maintenance, management, permits, etc, it's easy for vehicles to wreck the place.
Anyone that has ridden there is guilty of taking bypasses around the giant ruts and mud holes.
Hell most of us are guilty of cutting/making new climbs on rock ledges/obstacles
The spiderwebbing of trails out through the forest around ruts and holes is the real problem.
The TN Forestry Service has no resources to support OHV use, so there only option (as of now) is closure when the roads become unpassable.
TWRA used to be the same on the Wildlife Management Area but that has slowly changed over the past 20 years and now the North Cumberland WMA is a designated OHV riding area with plans in place.
*Hopefully* the TWRA will continue to develop OHV opportunities for other areas. Maybe SFWDA getting involved will be good... My opinion is that it will have somewhere between no effect to slightly positive, but people will now have a scapegoat to blame when areas get closed.
And when it's a state forest with no maintenance, management, permits, etc, it's easy for vehicles to wreck the place.
Anyone that has ridden there is guilty of taking bypasses around the giant ruts and mud holes.
Hell most of us are guilty of cutting/making new climbs on rock ledges/obstacles
The spiderwebbing of trails out through the forest around ruts and holes is the real problem.
The TN Forestry Service has no resources to support OHV use, so there only option (as of now) is closure when the roads become unpassable.
TWRA used to be the same on the Wildlife Management Area but that has slowly changed over the past 20 years and now the North Cumberland WMA is a designated OHV riding area with plans in place.
*Hopefully* the TWRA will continue to develop OHV opportunities for other areas. Maybe SFWDA getting involved will be good... My opinion is that it will have somewhere between no effect to slightly positive, but people will now have a scapegoat to blame when areas get closed.
TBItoy
Well-Known Member
Forestry has to survey the timber occasionally (like every decade or so) as part of the forestry management plan. My thoughts are they are getting ready to sell some of the timber so it will be closed for a while.
They did the same thing in Natchez Trace years ago.
The Natchez Trace State Forest is/was the west TN equivalent to Pickett SF as far as OHV riding in the 80s/90s/early 00s.
As far as I know, it is still a popular riding area, but has managed to stay out of the greater public knowledge.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Lots of accurate truths in that post regarding spiderwebbing etc.
As for the SFWDA potential involvement, that's a very accurate summary of what will probably happen scapegoat wise.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Hadn't consider the timber survey/harvesting aspect of things but that would be an interesting wrinkle.
