If you wheel in the South, it’s that time of year again. The bottom line is that you don’t need an organization to go wheeling with your friends, but you DO need an organization to make sure that you have a place to go wheeling. That is why we are asking you to align yourself with us through membership. Your membership dues drive the hard work we are doing to insure we all have trails on public land into the future.
You can join or renew your membership in Southern Four Wheel Drive at the regular rate of $30, which includes membership in both Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (SFWDA) and United Four Wheel Drives Association UFWDA).
Plus, we’ve made it even better for you this year. As part of the membership package, we are offering an additional opportunity to join, renew, or extend our membership in our partner organization, the BlueRibbon Coalition. If you choose to add the BRC membership option at the special reduced rate of only $15, there is the added bonus to you that 4 Wheel Parts will send you a $25 gift card for participating in the offer.
Do the Math… By taking advantage of the full package of annual membership, not only will you get a one year individual membership in each organization Southern, United, and BRC), but you will also receive the $25 gift card from 4 wheel Parts. That’s an $84 value for only $45.
Or, add it up this way: Spend the $45, and after redeeming the 4 Wheel Parts gift card, you really only end up paying $20 for membership in all three organizations.
It’s the right thing to do at the right time. You are showing your support for the three organizations that are fighting together to protect the future of our OHV recreation areas. It is your chance to help us make a difference where you live and play.
Here is how to take advantage of this special offer:
1) If you are already a member of an SFWDA Club, you simply choose which option you would like on the enclosed card and turn it in with your method of payment to your local club.
2) If you are not a member of an SFWDA Club, you can still take advantage of this special offer. Simply fill out the enclosed card, with your method of payment and send it in using the return envelope (also enclosed) directly to SFWDA. Or, you can sign up safely and securely online at Application for Individual Membership
Members are our lifeblood. Please join together with us today as we work together to ensure your trails are there for you tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Roger Theurer
TELLICO… OUR ALAMO
by Greg Mumm, BlueRibbon Coalition
From the outset, we have had three primary goals at Tellico-
1) Turning the corner on advocacy, encouraging the Forest Service to manage FOR off highway vehicle recreation rather than FROM it.
2) Establish meaningful and well managed trails in Tellico and beyond.
3) Ensure confidence in the validity of the public process and agency partnerships.
Sadly, we now face little choice but to draw a line in the sand at Tellico. And we fear it isn’t just about Tellico. At a broader scale, the Forest Service seems to view the OHV community as the “path of least resistance.” We thought this day had passed, and hoped that we could take to heart the agency’s acclamations of support and encouragement to the OHV community. For whatever reason, they didn’t get the memo at Tellico. In that respect, Tellico is our Alamo. Sadly, again we have seen recreational access pay a price to the agency’s fear of litigation from deep-pocketed extremist groups bent on the removal of OHV recreation from all public lands. If we don’t fight this fight here—win, lose, or draw—one cannot help but ask the question of, “What’s next? What is going to happen in the Uwharrie planning process? Or, Beasley Knob?”
At Tellico we diligently participated during the administrative planning process to present workable, science-based, management solutions to all of the challenges that were posed. This effort fell on deaf ears and the decision left behind a devastating impact not only on trail access, but on the local economy as well.
Faced with the prospects of either quietly accepting the wrongful closure of the Tellico system or the legal process, we took legal action and now find ourselves “in the courts” trying to right the wrong. This is a difficult course of action. Federal lands cases like this are about litigating the process. It isn’t like “normal” litigation involving discovery, depositions, and trials. Nor is success measured by the “scales of justice” where one need only prevail by a “preponderance of evidence.” Here, there is a very narrow procedural box within which we must work to demonstrate an “arbitrary and capricious” decision to a single judge. Moreover, typically the courts provide broad deference to the agencies in such cases.
But, we are resolute, and in that legal effort, we pushed for and achieved the opportunity to discuss reasonable and workable solutions through mediation. In September, we met with representatives of the Forest Service, government attorneys, and the SELC intervenors (including Wild South and Trout Unlimited) in the first mediation meeting. Through a third party professional mediator, we presented potential avenues to productively and collaboratively find a workable resolution on the ground instead of in the courtroom. Unfortunately, we were again disappointed.
In a “one last effort” at offering the Forest Service a productive resolution to this legal action, we have since followed up by sending a letter presenting four potential areas where a meaningful trail system could be established or broadened as a displacement for the lost trails in Tellico. At the time of mailing this to you, we are still awaiting the response from the Forest Service on our letter.
They didn’t want the fight at the Alamo either. I have spent long hours on this issue, riding with enthusiasts around our country, attending regional and local club meetings, listening at campfires at events like the recent Dixie Run. The message I’m hearing is that the OHV community knows the long odds in the Tellico case, and is committed to standing up to the challenge. Make no mistake, contrary to what the Forest Service hoped, we are not going away. The partner groups are unwavering in their resolve to continue to take whatever steps are necessary to see that the right thing is done on behalf of recreational access and those so drastically affected by this travesty surrounding the decision to close Tellico—in or out of the courts.
You can help. We can’t do it without your help. Please make a donation today to the Rescue Tellico effort, either on the enclosed return flyer or by visiting our website at www.sfwda.org and click on the rescue Tellico link.