SE TLCA Chapter...Tellico needs your help

[CandyPants]

Thanks Marshall. If I can remember, I will certainly give you a call. With all that's going on, it might be better if you give me a ring on my cell. The meeting starts at 9AM, so I imagine I'll be done and on my way home in the afternoon.

As for United, I do believe that SFWDA is a member group, so they should be in the loop. In fact, I know that United has helped SFWDA on other isseus at other areas before. But, I will check with Stefan to make sure that they are included in the group as it comes together. Thanks nuclearlemon!

 

[tellicorob]

Southren Four Wheel Drive Assoc. has been the power behind keeping Tellico open. They have done the bulk of the maint. since the USFS took over the area in the mid 80's. They have invested in equiptment for this job, Dumptrucks, backhoe, etc. This is the whole reason that they started the Dixie Run. STLCA has also been donating trachoe time (40hrs. + per year) and supplies for equiptment maint., as well as alot of voulnteer labor and cruiser time.This is where a chunk of the money from GSMTR goes. I am currently one of the the SFWDA reps. with the USFS for Tellico. I help with the ground work on the trails. The REAL battle ( the political one ) is fought by the leadership of SFWDA. STLCA, Georgia Cruisers and several of our other chapters are member clubs of SFWDA, one of the first things we can do to help is to get as many of our chapters in the South East involved with Southren as possible. Basically the more members SFWDA has the bigger stick they have to fight this battle for us. Their web site is SFWDA.org if you want to check it out. In my opinion our efforts will be a lot more productive if we coordinate with Southren. Heather has some good ideas here, I believe that if we coordinate with SFWDA we can make a difference.

 

[DSLTOY]

wayne from united mentioned something about tellico, but has anyone contacted united with details. now might be the time to let them, and carla boucher, know.

A couple of things Rob missed mentioning, Annually there is a"Stake Holders " meeting with the USFS, SFWDA, and representatives from TN & NC wildlife and conservation and of course our biggest opposition Trout Unlimited. The issues and plans for the area are discussed. Carla was invited to the last meeting but was unable to attend due to other commitments. Most of the items Heather has proposed have been discussed at these meetings, many still require action.

The USFS has just closed bids on a contract to do trail maintance, cleaning silt traps, rebuilding burms to divert water off the trail and harden some sections of the trail that are eroding. The money available will not cover all the trails but will get those closest to the rivers/creeks repaired. The contract only covers the machine work, SFWDA volunteers will haul all the surge stone needed for the project in SFWDA's 5 ton trucks.

SFWDA has had volunteers to help with the trails, the issue is that most of the work requires a small group of experienced equipment operators and the few Southern has have been over worked in the past years, as a result trail maintance has fallen behind. Operating heavy equipment in the OHV area requires experienced people or we spend too much time fixing the equipment.
If you are an experienced backhoe operator or heavy truck driver with off road experience please contact Rob, he needs workers. Incase you missed it in his post, Rob is the SFWDA coordinator for the Upper Tellico OHV area, the Forest service tells him what they would like done and he either does the work himself or get volunteers to do it.

 

[DSLTOY]

I had an IM from a person wanting to know what he could do to help. First I am not an elected officer of SFWDA, I am the STLCA representative and volunteer laborer.
Taking a shotgun approch my cause more harm than good. SFWDA has worked with the USFS for the past 20 years more or less and is the point of contact for us. The area Forest Service people have stated they want all donations, volunteer work,etc. to go through SFWDA. They discuss most proposed changes and action items with the SFWDA Leadership.

What can you do to help- PARTICIPARE

1. If you or your club are not SFWDA members join NOW!
2.Make sure your club is represented at the SFWDA Quarterly meetings, the schedule is posted at sfwda.org.
3.Come to the River/Trail clean-up on March 10, they keep track of participants by originazition. Come to quarterly meeting after the clean-up.
4.If you or other club members want to help with trail maintenance, send your contact info and any special skills you have to tellicorob@tds.net.
5. Support the events that are raising money for the area, Southern Trail Feast, GSMTR and the Dixie Run.

 

[CandyPants]

I had an IM from a person wanting to know what he could do to help. First I am not an elected officer of SFWDA, I am the STLCA representative and volunteer laborer.
Taking a shotgun approch my cause more harm than good. SFWDA has worked with the USFS for the past 20 years more or less and is the point of contact for us. The area Forest Service people have stated they want all donations, volunteer work,etc. to go through SFWDA. They discuss most proposed changes and action items with the SFWDA Leadership.

What can you do to help- PARTICIPARE

1. If you or your club are not SFWDA members join NOW!
2.Make sure your club is represented at the SFWDA Quarterly meetings, the schedule is posted at sfwda.org.
3.Come to the River/Trail clean-up on March 10, they keep track of participants by originazition. Come to quarterly meeting after the clean-up.
4.If you or other club members want to help with trail maintenance, send your contact info and any special skills you have to tellicorob@tds.net.
5. Support the events that are raising money for the area, Southern Trail Feast, GSMTR and the Dixie Run.

Absolutely Roger. By no means is this thread intended to create the shotgun approach. It is intended to bring us all TOGETHER in this.

As I said above, I am the SFWDA rep for the Georgia Cruisers and am going to the SFWDA Leadership meeting the first week in Feb. I will report that we have a growing interest in helping them, and find out where we can help. We have a lot of talented and generous people around this board and in the LC community as a whole, as is evidenced by this thread.

Roger brings up an important point, if your club is not a member of SFWDA, join now! Elect a representative to attend meeting and get the scoop on what's going on and commit what you can to help.

 

[peterb]

Last week, I had never heard of SWFDA. Today I sent in my membership form. I've got the Trailfest and Dixie Run on my calendar. Roger/Rob are the work dates on the web site?
Peter E. Brown
Bluegrass Cruisers

 

[DSLTOY]

Last week, I had never heard of SWFDA. Today I sent in my membership form. I've got the Trailfest and Dixie Run on my calendar. Roger/Rob are the work dates on the web site?
Peter E. Brown
Bluegrass Cruisers

If it is a big project the dates may be on the calender section of the website, but since most of the projects are done by 2-3 equipment operators and a couple of us unskilled types they are arrange directly with the people involved.

The River clean-up is on the website.

 

[CandyPants]

Update

Southern Four Wheel Drive had their leadership meeting on Feb 3 in Dawsonville, GA and Tellico was a big discussion point. Rob and Roger were there and as usual represented the Toyota folks well. Right now SFWDA has $20K set aside for Tellico this year. That coupled with the $20K contract the USFS has out for bid will give $40K for this year. What we are missing is labor. Most of the labor will be volunteer and we need to support Rob and Roger in getting things done. As tings progress, I'll try to post up work days. If you have a skill that could help, please let Rob (TellicoRob) know ASAP. They are in particular need of people that can drive the "big" trucks and equipment operators.

This year (soon!) we will be crafting a management plan that can be presented to the USFS for their use in defending the OHV area to groups with concerns. The plan will be strategic and tactical and will have immediate actions as well as maintainence activities for 5 years. The idea will be that it can be dynamic and adjusted as things change on the ground. There will also be formal reporting built in so that we can show them exactly what we are doing, when, and the tremendous support from the community they are receiving.

We have a call on Monday to discuss this with SFWDA, Blueribbon, and United Four Wheel Drive. I'll update the thread as I learn more.

Oh, and the next volunteer opportunity is MARCH 10th for the Tellico River Clean Up. It's a joint effort with local interests. Here's the info from SFWDA's web site. Please try to attend if at all possible...the more support we can show the better off we will be!

The Tellico River Cleanup Day is co-sponsored by Southern 4WD Association, the Tusquitee Ranger District, the Tellico Ranger District and Trout Unlimited.
The eighth annual cleanup day is Saturday, March 10, 2007. We will pick up trash along the river banks, roads and trails.

Please be sure to sign in with the Forest Service - all volunteers should sign in, i.e., members, spouses, and children and include your club name!
The Forest Service will pick up the bagged trash. Please leave full bags on the side of main roads (paved Tellico River road, entire trail 1, and trail 5 before Rough Crossing). So that all our trash pickup efforts are counted, do not put bags in trash receptacles.

• Rain or Shine
• Registration begins 8:00 am at the Tellico Ranger Station (near Tellico Plain, TN) and at the Stateline Campground.
• Work starts at 9:00 am.
• Bags will be provided
• Bright colored clothing is recommended
• Bringing gloves is recommended
• Bring your lunch and drinks (no alcohol)

 

[CandyPants]

Update 2-14-07

This morning we had a phone call with SFWDA, United Four Wheel Drive Club and Blueribbon. There is a real swelling of support from Clubs in the Southeast and from National Clubs in support of Tellico. It's fantastic to see everyone taking proactive steps towards keeping the jewel of the east open for use.

We talked a lot about the OHV Trails Designation Rules that are out and being implemented and how we can work with the USFS to help them through it at Tellico. I really think that between SFWDA's outstanding maintenence of the area and eveyrone's involvement and feeback about the designation rules, we can make a difference now, before it it too late.

I'll continue to post on the progress of this newly created "working group: here and let people know how they can get involved.

Thanks for everyone's support, and keep it coming, we're gonna need it!

 

[ATLRoach]

I run GA TTORA and work very closely with other SE chapters. Let me know what you need from us to help.

Kyle Roach

 

[CandyPants]

Tellico River Clean Up

This is a way that you can help in the effort to keep Tellico open!!! This takes place every year. If you can spare the time, please join in. It's a good time and good for you too!

Meet at State Line entrance to the OHV area/ 8:30 AM 10 march 2007

We need as many people as possible to show up and help clean up the area. The clean up is a joint effort of the USFS, SFWDA and Trout Unlimited.

If you have questions, please see SFWDA's website and contact information. Also, Roger (DSLTOY) and Rob (Tellico Rob) will surely be there, so you can contact them as well.

www.sfwda.org

 

[chattfj40]

I'll be there too (with Roger and Rob) If anyone's wants to ride up with me from Chattanooga PM me ...I think we're gonna ride on Sunday but I'm not sure yet

 

[CandyPants]

Bump for the Tellico River Clean up this Saturday!

 

[tellicorob]

Keeping Tellico Open

The best way the average off roader can help to keep our ( yes, it belongs to ALL of us , not just the government) OHV area open is to support the organizations that help with the maintainance and operations. Currently this is Southren Fourwheel Drive Assoc.(and it's member clubs) and STLCA. Most of the funding to run this area comes from donations from Southren and federal grant money. The grant money is based on the amount of contributions from the user groups. Southrens contributions come mainly in the form of Equiptment, matieral and voulnteer labor. Last year Southren donated around $55,000. We hope to increase that this year. This brings me to the reason that I'm on my soapbox today. Our budget for equiptment, equipt. Maintainance, and matierals comes from money raised at SFWDA's Dixie run and STLCA's GSMTR. Over the last several years most of the profits from GSMTR have been put to use in the OHV area. Curently low registration numbers are causing us to consider not having a 2008 GSMTR. Some of our low numbers are caused by individuals comeing to Tellico during GSMTR and not registering.I've heard the arguement that "I just came to ride and wanted to see some of my friends". It's a free country and this is your choice, even though you are hurting our effort to keep this area open. In the old days, when we were on the Tennessee side, I could see this attitude since all your registration really got you was a sticker and a shirt. Since then we've tried to add more benefits and make GSMTR an Event rather than just a big trail ride. We've also changed our club operations to try to better support SFWDA's efforts to keep our trails open. Another way that YOU can help with our trail efforts is that if you are riding here at Tellico and you do any trail work, picking up trash, sawing downed trees etc. send me a PM here on mud and tell me what you did,how many people and vehicles you had. This goes into Southrens voulnteer time and helps with the yearly contribution numbers. I've spent enough time on my soapbox today so I'll hop down now. Keep the rubber side down, and I'll see you out there. ROB