Off road vehicle use an issue at Texoma and other Corps lakes
Use of off-road vehicles around Lake Texoma and the damage they cause will be one of the topics of discussion at a “listening session” Saturday at the Enos Community Center, nine miles south of Kingston in Marshall County.
“Off-road vehicle use is tearing up the shoreline and destroying public lands,” said Col. Michael Teague, commander of the Tulsa District, in a news release.
“We need a clear policy that protects the land while accommodating all of our visitors.”
The meeting begins at 10 a.m.
“We are having the meeting at Texoma because it is a big issue there but it affects all of the lakes (managed by the Tulsa District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers),” said Mary Beth Hudson, public affairs specialist for the Tulsa District. “We are looking at it (policy) district wide.”
The Corps of Engineers will not recommend a proposed policy at the meeting in Enos, Hudson said.
Instead, officials will explain the problems and hope to get public input on what should be done about them, she said.
No other meetings are scheduled but Hudson thinks there will be more and at other Corps lakes.
“There are passionate people on all sides of the issue,” she said. “This is just the beginning steps… We have already been getting suggestions that we need to have more (meetings) scheduled. I would imagine this meeting would turn into other meetings.”
Golf carts also will be a topic of the Enos listening session.
“There are communities developing that are called like golf cart communities,” Hudson said. “The golf carts are not legal vehicles on state roads so that is part of the issue.”
Accomodating individuals with disabilities at Corps lakes also has been raised, she said.
The Tulsa District is not accepting public comments online at this time, but that might change in the future, Hudson said.
There is no timetable for when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopes to have a policy in place, Hudson said.
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Comments
“The Tulsa District is not accepting public comment…” Will we little people be allowed to speak to our government at some point in the future?
Damage from offroad vehicles is largely irreparable. Once riders get permission to use a trail, they create ruts which become larger and larger. Then they use wider areas, until soon all that is left of a once-beautiful trail is a wide dusty swath. Nothing will grow there, so you can kiss your trees and shrubs good-bye (and so will the wildlife that needs this vegetation). Loss of habitat is significant, but also harbingers a worse situation–dust. If you thought the dust bowl years are behind you, just let offroaders take over. They grind up dirt until it is a fine powder, called PM10. PM10 is an almost imperceptible, silent killer that when breathed in causes permanent lung and cardio damage.
Please think carefully while considering the impassioned pleas of offroaders to enjoy their “sport.” They may think that riding is important, but its costs are terribly high to the rest of us.
Billie give me a break, talk about taking it to the extreme; Dust Bowl and PM10. The lakes in question already destroyed the original habitat, they are man made. There are many locations in Oklahoma that were eroded by Off-road enthusiast, have since been closed or managed, and Mother Nature has done a good job reclaiming the land. You wouldn’t even know the trails were there unless you had used them before. The key is maintaining the areas, educating the people and holding them accountable. The oil industry has done more to destroy Oklahoma’s lands then any individual. We must take care of our natural resources and allow all of us to enjoy them now and in the future.
The vast majority of off roaders understand the tread lightly and staying on the appropriate trails. It is not a life threatening situation caused by the off roaders that you claim to destroy the lands, there are kids or just people who do not care that will cause destruction of the land and reflect upon the rest of the off-road community. As far as the wide dusty trails and destruction of lands it is not the situation of all there were off-road jeep trails at Kaw Lake in the Kaw Wild Life area and they were shutdown due to misinformed and misunderstanding citizens who are enviromental nazi’s such as yourself and after only ten years of being closed off the entire area is completely overgrown and no evidence of it’s past is visible. The sport of off-roading is one of the most enviromentally protective forms of outdoor recreation found with multiple programs to be found so we are able to continue enjoying our sport even with constant fire from individuals with similiar ridiculous accusations such as those heard here. I do not understand how one can be so illiterate they believe the dust bowl will be recreated due to offroading, what about the constant destruction of wildlife area for development of housing and industry,this causes far more irreparable damage to the enviroment than a group enjoying the outdoors on their orv’s. I will be supporting off-roaders state wide in this issue to keep our areas open and with the conribution from the state the land will remain undamaged.
There are definatly arguments on both sides of this problem. I am a Marina Manager here on lake Texoma and also an avid offroader, at the Marina it is a problem because of people who do not care about the signs that are in
Place to combat this problem. On the other hand I would like to see some sell marked trails for us tread lightly people. I do not think that outlawing offroading will even hurt the people that it should be targeting, I believe the only
People who will pay the price will be the educated hunters and nature loving trail riders who would do anything to stop the trash issue by all the people who do not respect nature at all. Maybe a permit or fee would be the answer
So that the core would not be left holding the bill for maintenance which would be acceptable to this Texas Veteran.
Off road vehicles are destroying our environment. Getting them off public lands by containing the nuisance in state vehicle recreation areas has not worked in California. They continue to plague our public lands, while causing health threatening air pollution from the svra’s. To see what we are dealing with, see safebeachanddunes.org.