Battle over Aetna Mtn. continues

[CMF Newsman]

The battle over allowing ATVs on Aetna Mountain continues, leaving one neighborhood with vandalism to clean up.

In January, TWRA started cracking down on stopping the use of off-road vehicles on the top of Aetna Mountain. The move came after the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation discovered silt erosion coming off the mountain, flowing into the Tennessee River. It deemed ATVs part of the cause.

Needless to say, the saga between the riders, the TWRA and a neighborhood development continue.

"It makes us look bad and we're not the one's that's vandalized their signs," says Christie Perkins.

www.wrcbtv.com/story/16918933/battle-over-aetna-continues-neighborhood-vandalized

[Tsavodiner]

To the four-wheelers:

You LIKE the place?

BUY IT

[Justin Thyme]

Tsavodiner, from my understanding the land in question is public land and should be for the use of all people, not just hunters. Couldn't you say the same (you like it, buy it) to any of the users?

[ssmynkint]

I'm not aware of any 0ther group of users whose use of the land inherently degrades the it.

[LimitedRecourse]

It IS public land and more of the "public" want to see it kept looking nicely. Not torn up and trashed by a bunch of 4-wheelers who have no concern for anyone but their own fun. If they clean it, tend it, care for it and keep the run-off in check, fine. But at this point, it seems the 4-wheelers' irresponsible behavior has come back and bit them in the arse. Stay off of EVERYONE'S public land if you are going to selfishly destroy it for just a few hours of your own enjoyment.

[Justin Thyme]

If they clean it, tend it, care for it and keep the run-off in check, fine.

According to Perkins her club does just that. I know that the area has been used for off-road riding for over forty years. Has it just recently resulted in a run-off problem?

[LimitedRecourse]

Does it matter? The land is not THEIRS to do with as they please. It belongs to EVERYONE. They have no more right to use it than anyone else.

[Warkitty]

and no LESS right either

[Justin Thyme]

Feb 19, 2012 9:28:55 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

Does it matter?

It does.

The land is not THEIRS to do with as they please.

I don't think the off-roaders have ever claimed that it was but they have had access to the land for a very long time so I think that TWRA owes them at least a hearing on the matter of whether they continue to have access to the land.

It belongs to EVERYONE. They have no more right to use it than anyone else.

"Everyone" includes the off-roaders. Doesn't it? Does anyone else have more right to the land than they do?

[LimitedRecourse]

Wow. Such strong defense of people destroying nature from some unlikely sources. I have stated that the land is public and therefore everyone has the right to use it. (Your both repeating what I wrote in opposite makes you sound a bit daft.) However, the land is public land entrusted to the government to oversee. If people are using this land irresponsibly, then the government (the one that manages all the public land) certainly can and should limit their access to preserve the area for everyone who uses the land wisely.

[Warkitty]

Defense? No, I simply asked if they had any less right than any other group.

[LimitedRecourse]

They forfeit the right whence they become irresponsible.

[Tookie]

The Tennessee River Gorge Trust also owns land there that the off-roaders have used.
Trust Executive Director Jim Brown said this is a classic example of changing times. Aetna Mountain once was timber and coal land, he said. The public largely had free access to it, and they still want that. “So now we’re getting conflict between new owners and old users. This is an inevitable thing that happens,” Brown said, adding that the siltation problems on the mountain and in the river are caused by many things, not just off-roaders.“The ORV people are good people. They like to have fun. And now we’re going to have to redefine how that’s going to be carried out. TWRA is a long-term resource manager. They’ll figure it out,” Brown said. “And then the adjacent landowners — we’re one — will have to get with the community ... and figure out some kind of compromise,” he said.

www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/feb/11/aetna-mountain-land-spat-makes-tracks/

[Justin Thyme]

Feb 19, 2012 16:22:44 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

Wow. Such strong defense of people destroying nature from some unlikely sources.

I'm not defending anyone destroying nature. The only tale of the off-roaders destroying nature was that of siltation in the river. Tookie's post seems to indicate that the siltation has many sources. I think everyone deserves an explanation when a long tradition of open use is changed. The original story on this was that the TWRA wasn't offering any explanations or a chance for any appeal.

I have stated that the land is public and therefore everyone has the right to use it. (Your both repeating what I wrote in opposite makes you sound a bit daft.)

Do you not agree that the off-roaders, while having no more right to public land than anyone else they also have no less? Your original statement was only that the land wasn't their's to do with as they will which made it sound like they had no right to use the land while others did. I'm not sure how pointing that out makes me sound daft.

However, the land is public land entrusted to the government to oversee. If people are using this land irresponsibly, then the government (the one that manages all the public land) certainly can and should limit their access to preserve the area for everyone who uses the land wisely.

Are the off-roaders using the land irresponsibly? All I have to go by that they might have been is a memo referring to siltation. I'm now hearing that siltation has many causes.

I'm also hearing that the off-roaders do a lot of work keeping the property clean and maintaining the trails up there for all people using the property. I think that the work they have put into the area should at least give them the right to a sit down with the TWRA about changes in land use policy.

[Justin Thyme]

Feb 19, 2012 16:28:41 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

They forfeit the right whence they become irresponsible.

Have the off-roaders become irresponsible?

[joedog]

Hell just build a fence around it and be done... Tall fences make great neighbors.


</sarcasm>

[daworm]

Well, looks like TWRA might not be around much longer anyway... grin.

[Tsavodiner]

Feb 19, 2012 19:54:24 GMT -5 Justin Thyme said:

Feb 19, 2012 16:28:41 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

They forfeit the right whence they become irresponsible.

Have the off-roaders become irresponsible?

The irresponsible ones have abrogated the hubris of the "good" ones, and in the scrum of public use/organizational membership/property/neighborhood rights/road use/ad nauseum it's become impossible to tell who's who.

This'll wind up in some court being decided if the threatened defunding of TWRA takes place. In the meantime I expect Hatfield and McCoys type action from some of these scooter-borne hardheads.