Tellico Hearing August 23, 2pm

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August 23rd

A hearing date certain has been set for SFWDA vs. FS on the Tellico OHV area.

A hearing will be held at 2 PM in Courtroom 50 Main Street, Bryson City, NC 28713 before Judge Martin Reidinger. You can view the calendar here NCWD Court Calendar. This is your money at work (your tax dollars supporting the FS and your after tax goodwill contributions to SFWDA, BRC, UFWDA). It is a public process. You are welcome to attend and encouraged to attend. It is fine to wear identifying attire that you are a supporter of off road driving (i.e club logos). Remember, you must be respectful of the Court and the process. You will not be allowed to speak during the proceedings. Just your presence in the court room will be enough. It will give you an opportunity to see our system at work. It is very important that we do not do anything that will reflect badly on our sport. I think it will be a testament to our resolve and perseverance to have as many of us as can participate to be there in person.

It appears the Judge has set aside the entire afternoon for the case. This means he may allow each side an hour to present. The FS and intervenors most likely will share the time allocated. SFWDA will present first, the FS and intervenors will present second, then most likely SFWDA will have a few minutes for rebuttal. Remember only the respective lawyers will present.

Please be reminded that it is very unlikely that a decision will be rendered on August 23rd. You will most likely be disappointed if you attend expecting to hear a decision. The decision will usually take 30 to 90 days. It may be in our best interest that the Judge take his time to consider everything in the case. Also, remember that any decision can be appealed by the opposing side.

Please re-post this information on other 4x4 boards and forums to help spread the word.

I look forward to seeing you on the 23rd in Bryson City, NC.

Thank you for your support.
 
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Thanks for sharing Al, I hope we can find a way to have some representation there.

Can I ask/suggest to modify the thread title to include the date and stickey it?

It is going up on our website also.

Def not a drive I can make to go to the hearing. But I would be up for allotting club funds to pay for gas for someone that could go in a club t-shirt and represent the club well. :)
 
I don't see a date, just a time??
 
I'll go!! May have an old tshirt. Been out of the game for a while.
 
For those that are interested to know what happened like I am I found the following two first-hand accounts posted on the SFWDA and Pirate 4x4 websites, respectively:
"Haha I went there and tried to understand what was going on as best I could, not very up to date with legal terminology. But as best I could tell the judge and lawyers seemed to be hung up pretty good on technicalities instead of the overall issue, the best they could give us is that we should know w/in a month or two."
"I was there today - I will be extremely surprised if anything happens in our favor. Personally I was very disappointed with what was presented - I am interested to see what others thought. I am not a lawyer but we did not appear to have a strong case or the case we had wasn't presented convincingly. I know it is easy to be a critic and I know a great deal of effort went into this and I appreciate that but in my opinion the information presented by the Forest service/TU reps to me was much more convincing. Hopefully I am wrong because I was really hoping at least some part of the trail system might be restored. "

Sorry it wasn't better/more positive news.
 
Thanks for posting that David.... I saw it earlier but didn't have time to link it.

Everything we heard from the blue ribbon reps and SE4WDA reps when it first happened seemed like there was a strong case..... it would be even worse if we lost any type of closure or a strike to be used in a future case because our side wasn't prepared.
 
Saw this posted over on the UC board by 99UZJAY

http://wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.nc/264a2785-www.wlos.com.shtml


US judge upholds closure of NC off-road rec area
September 20, 2012 20:56 GMT
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- A federal judge has upheld a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to close the Upper Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Recreation Area in the Nantahala National Forest due to erosion and environmental damage.
A coalition of three national off-road vehicle associations sued the forest service following the 2009 decision to close the popular recreation area's trails to motorized vehicles.
U.S. District Court Judge Martin Reidinger issued an order Wednesday. In it, he agreed with the federal government's assessment that frequent use of the area's 39 miles of trail damaged water quality in the Tellico River and its tributaries through sediment runoff, harming the native trout population.
Following the 2009 closure, officials said trout and other species are returning. The recreation area is still available for fishing, hiking and hunting.
 
Well F that:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
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The recreation area is still available for fishing, hiking and hunting.

Oh joy.... how many thousand of acres/miles do we have already for this???

How many miles do we have for offroading??? 15 maybe


I'm going to wait till a trouts unlimited guy is fishing there... hunt him.... take the fish and then hike my ass out of there... since it is still available for this. :o
 
Yeah pretty soon i'll have no reason to even have my cruiser.... doesn't make the greatest DD and I can fit just as much stuff into a subaru to go camping.


I'm going to get back into muscle cars :mad:
 
Well I don't mind calling myself out as one who has never done a trail cleanup. Yeah I usually pack out a few grocery bags full of trash on each ride but it's really not enough. Maybe it's just my $0.02 but buying a day pass or even a season pass each year at URE is really not enough either. I have got to get more involved with work days. At the end of the day it may not help, but it's not going to be for a lack of effort.
 
It's not just that.

Until the USFS adheres to the same laws/practices that general construction and development have to for erosion control and water runoff, it'll be easy to shutdown any trail. But that costs money, and it's not in their interest to spend it for that purpose. You could say the same thing for hiking trails and singletracks, same type of problem, just on a smaller scale...
 
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