Attention!

[Wayne SW/MO]

The MDC is in the process of planning closures for all roads that do not carry a name. This will mean that all the dirt 2-tracks around the Bull Shoals Flood pool will be closed to vehicle traffic. The end result is to deny access to all but the fittest hikers of vast areas now open to fishermen and hunters of all ages and physical handicaps.

The biggest fallacy is that these areas that they believe need more attention to natural preservation and wildlife development, are in a flood plain that is probably utilized more often then any in the Midwest to store water. Any wildlife in this area cannot depend on the area for permanent residence, and in my opinion any attempts to obtain optimum density could be disastrous when water covers the area forcing the wildlife in to other areas already populated to near maximum capacity. With that in mind, I'm not sure that it could be considered a reason for closure. Any off road antics, while not acceptable, don't cause any long term damage do to the floods in most Spring seasons, and should be dealt with in a way that punishes the violators, not the general public.

Here is a site that has more information.

Ozark Explorer

There is also a meeting with the MDC at the following location for all that want attend:

Forsyth HS Cafeteria on April 20, (Thurs) at 7:00PM

[Phil Lilley]

Should be fishing tomorrow evening but I'll force myself to go... might have to stop at Powersite on the way home though.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

I am gonna press question as to WHY ? To accelerate new water to be stored in the questionable later ? WHAT ? This is a confusing call to say the least.

Brian

[All_Tangled_Up]

While I hate to see any roads/accesses closed, I do think part of the reason for the Gov. to do this is due to people being distructive to the areas and not packing out what they packed in. We moved away form the Ozarks for 6 years and have noticed so many stream access points closed off by private land owners, MDC, and USFS. Given the fact that when we lived here before, there were many times we found an abundance of trash and distruction to those accesses. I'm sure much of this distruction is due to "kids having fun". But if we all do our best to teach others to leave an area as good or better than we found it, maybe we wouldn't loose access to places we enjoy. It's just a shame we all pay for those inconsiderate few!

[Wayne SW/MO]

I see your point tangled, but people do the same thing to our roads and we don't close them because people have a need for them.

Trash is a problem, but it not only affects accesses, it affects all areas in the outdoors, and in my travels, all states.

[Phil Lilley]

Wayne- I'm not sure I'll get over there this evening... are you going and if so can you take notes?

If I understand it- MDC wants to spend their (our) money and gate/cable/rope off/sign age these trails/roads and then ENFORCE trespass??? I thought they were SHORT on GAME enforcement and now they want to add this?!?!

Sorry- I think they should let the Corp deal with their land and stay out of it. I see the need, possibly, but there are other needs in their field of expertice they need to work on.

[MoCarp]

its a homeland security thing I bet..afraid some wacko is going to back up a tanker and pump it in

ether way--we need more access not less, in fact we should push for more improvements

if they have a problem with 4 wheelers--than restrict them--not fisherman

My 2cents

Mo

[KRflyfisher]

If there are resources and man power enough to keep people from trespassing, then it stands to reason that there would also be man power enough to keep people from trashing the accesses. I would like to see more effort put in those directions, which improve the quality of the resource and its management, rather than just closing sections off. As a family guy I know that I recently spent time fishing with my 2 year old son and my 78 year old grandfather. Cutting off access points only inhibits our ability to enjoy the outdoors together. If access is then cut off I wonder if the remaining accesses will improve in quality as well, or if due to increased traffic, they will also suffer? If so it makes everything harder. At 28, I am in fairly good shape; I can and do hike back to fish places. I cannot do that however with my son or grandfather, and would hate to miss entire stretched of river/lake just because of that fact. I say better access and better management, that's a real answer.

That's my line-

KR

[All_Tangled_Up]

I see your point tangled, but people do the same thing to our roads and we don't close them because people have a need for them.

Trash is a problem, but it not only affects accesses, it affects all areas in the outdoors, and in my travels, all states.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think access points should be closed due to a few bad seed. I'm very much in favor of free access to public lands! But it's not just a trash problem. When you have people that want to get off the beaten path to those secluded places, many times they get too destructive with their vehicles (i.e. 4WD's playing along the way, two wheel drives getting themselves in a bad spot), or build camp fires and don't properly contain them and making sure they're out before they leave. I used to work for MDC back in the early 80's and worked several river accesses close to St. Louis. There was never a problem with the mature individuals that were there to enjoy the area. It was always idiots that were too selfish to consider their fellow man that caused the problems. We tried very dilligently to deal with only those who abused the accesses. We even got to the point of hiding in the bushes to catch them. However, there were areas we ended up blocking off because of those less respectfull. Then they wondered why they could no longer drive into those blocked areas. Hmmmm....lets see, weren't you the one I caught doing dohnuts with your big ole 4X4 in the grass area a few weeks ago?

My biggest point to all of this is we should do what we can to keep our lands open for our use. We just need to make sure we are respectfull and help those around us to do the same. In other words, don't give the government or private land owners a reason to close access.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Well the MDC, the Corps, and the FS came well armed and protected with agents from the MDC and a couple from the FS. I'm not sure what the purpose of the many MDC agents was, but there were quite a few there.

Well it was close to heated at several points with a pretty much unanimous opinion that the complaints of offroad damage and littering being addressed as they are everywhere, with emphasis on the violators and not by closing everyone off.

If anyone has any specific questions, I'll try to answer them, but I believe the OzarkExplorer site will have a more detailed observation. The owner of that site took the agencies to task on some points and did a good job of it.