This kinda makes me mad

[ozark trout fisher]

Pioneer Forest Responds to Vandalism, Illegal Activity

http://www.thesalemnewsonline.com/news/article_0d8d6c4c-0ea8-11e5-a02c-eb3f8b229590.html

This isn't directly related to fishing (except for the part about the ATVs in the creekbed) but I know we all hunt/hike/etc, and this one pisses me off about as bad as anything I've heard of in awhile. The lands owned by the L-A-D Foundation (and formerly, the late, great Leo Drey) are truly some of the most special (if not the most important) in the Missouri Ozarks. Not only does this kind of crap make me extremely angry in it's own right, but given this, who would really have a right to blame them if they started restricting access to their land at this point?

I just thought I'd post this just so there is a general awareness of what is going on. If you are in that area and see this any hint of this kind of stuff going on please report it and help the folks who manage this land. The last thing we want is to be punishing a great land-holding entity who is both conservation-minded and recreation minded for letting us use their land.

[Gavin]

Big problem there. Only 2-3 spots that you can't drive too between Cedar Grove and Akers on the Current. ATV & 4x4 use can be heavy around Big Creek just below Cedargrove, down at Flying W too. The holes who defaced chalk bluff need some special attention.

[oneshot]

It always bothers me so many riding ATV's on COE Lands. I've had people tell me they don't care if it is illegal they are riding anyway, that it is too far to walk Deer Hunting.

oneshot

[ozark trout fisher]

Sometimes I fear that while illegal ATV usage on public land is extremely harmful, at least on the larger tracts, it might be a bit of a lost cause. Trying to vigorously enforce that at ONSR/COE land, etc is wothwhile, but it will never be enough to stop the practice and it will take A LOT to make a significant dent. It's a different story entirely (at least to me) when you are talking about a private landowner that is willingly allowing folks to use their land to a more than reasonable degree. They are already allowing us to hunt, hike, camp, and generally do anything we want to on their land. I want to emphasize exactly how unheard of that is for private landowners in this state. So their payback is vandalism, releasing feral pigs, and generally mucking up the place?

I would say it's unbelievable, but unfortunately it's really not.

[Al Agnew]

Chalk Bluff is one of my favorite places in all the Ozarks, and seeing this just makes me want to cry...or to kill somebody. I mean it. I don't carry a gun while floating, and that might be a good thing, because I'd be sorely tempted to use it if I saw that happening. It was bad enough the last time I floated through there as some pinheads had somehow dragged a huge heavy equipment tire down the ATV trail (surely an illegal one) that hits the river just above the bluff, across the river, and onto the gorgeous gravel bar across from the bluff. They were probably planning on burning it, but couldn't get it started on fire, so there is was, sitting in the middle of the gravel bar. I hate these people. It is no different than if I was to go into their church (if they had one) and set fire to the pews and spray paint the walls.

This is what happens when the local pinheads scream bloody murder about closing any old roads in the Scenic Riverways, because their granddaddy allegedly used them or something (which I highly doubt). A bunch of people buy into the idea that the land is theirs to do with as they wish, and if somebody is going to try to tell them otherwise, well, they'll just tear it up so nobody can enjoy it. The locals are the best stewards of the land? Bullcrap. Only the ones who own it MIGHT be good stewards, the rest just want to do as they wish and screw the government.

[Brian Sloss]

If this continues, I could easily see them cutting off a lot of the access and would not blame them. If they did, a lot of people would get a taste of what would happen if the ONSR were sold off to private landowners.
They would have very little access anymore.

[Amery]

Sounds like rednecks at it again. the atv crowd can all ride their rigs off a bluff as far as I care.

[ozark trout fisher]

The thing that gets me is this is not carelessness or laziness or a general lack of giving a crap that is causing this kind of vandalism/release of feral hogs/illegal timber harvest, etc. Most of the land owned by these folks (except for a few areas right along 19) is extraordinarily remote, as much as anywhere in the Ozarks and comparable to anything I've experienced in the eastern US. To be willing to put in the amount of effort required to do this stuff in areas that far back in the sticks requires a whole lot of malicious intent. And what on earth could drive that I'll never know.

You don't even have the typical "We don't like the government" excuse here. This is private land. It's only public in the sense that they let us willingly use it, without permission, even for things like hunting, without much/any special or complicated regulations. These incidents on L-A-D land may be the final piece of evidence we need to conclude that even the weak rationales like not liking the federal/state government has nothing to do with this kind of behavior.

When we see people operate ATVs illegally, steal timber, vandalize bluff faces on any land (whether it be ONSR, Pioneer Forest, MDC, or some poor soul's private land that he happens to be away from for a period of time) what we are seeing is pure maliciousness/disregard for any and all resources, public, private. and anywhere in between. I don't know what you do about that kind of attitude.

[fishinwrench]

Where did this alleged "releasing of feral hogs" claim come from?

Just cause you see a hog on your property doesn't mean folks are "releasing them there".

Are we to assume that people are loading up hogs that they just don't want.....and dumping them there? Not sure I buy that.

Who are the gracious individuals who own this land? I'm still not clear on that. And if someone gets busted cooking meth or growing out there can the feds not seize it ?

[ozark trout fisher]

Who are the gracious individuals who own this land?

I've said a couple of times it's owned by the L-A-D Foundation, and formerly Leo Drey, who just recently passed. As they own a pretty massive chunk of the hills around the Current River (we are talking about hundreds of thousands of acres) you definitely need to understand how they operate to have a decent grasp on how that whole chunk of the Ozarks is managed. And I can tell you from experience hiking around back there that they do a really good job, on par with any of the state and federal agencies around here.