Clayton OK?????? [Archive]

Lance Morin

03-04-2002, 12:09 PM

Hello, I'd like to introduce myself to all of you. My name is Joe Johnson (jeeptj8@yahoo.com) and I am the Vice President of Fort Worth-Dallas Four Wheel Drive (FWD-FWD).

I know that most of your clubs have spent time with us in Clayton at our Memorial Day or Oktober Trailfest events. As most of you have probably heard, there are land use issues taking place currently in the area south of Clayton where many of the well-known and often traveled trails exist. For those who may not have heard, Plum Creek, the company that represents the
interests of the owner of the land in question decided a while back that the land is "off limits" to 4x4 traffic and has recently begun asking the authorities to enforce trespassing violations on the land. Because of this, over the last couple of weekends several people have been ticketed for being on that land which includes 3-stage, Valentine, Timberline, Purple Headed Monster, and the bottom portions of Rock Creek and Upper Powerline trails.
As reported to us, the ticket costs $155 on the spot so it is not a simple slap on the wrist.

The reason for my email is that FWD-FWD is concerned with the issues at hand and has taken steps to contact the mayor of Clayton and other authorities in the area to get their assistance in identifying what the issues really are and more importantly, exactly what are the areas affected by this. At our meeting last night it was suggested that we contact the other area clubs in
an attempt to put forth a cooperative effort to assist the people of Clayton in their efforts to keep land available to us as well as identifying other land that can be used or developed for our sport. In addition, we would like to determine if there is interest by the other clubs to jointly lease land in the Clayton area for the same purpose. As you probably know, FWD-FWD has a lease on several hundred acres in the Yanish area on which we have been building trails. We have an agreement with the land owner to pay
a lease fee yearly and that each vehicle will pay a low daily ($10) or weekend ($15) fee to use the area, except for our organized events. The landowner has additional land that he is willing to lease, and there are several other landowners throughout the area that have shown interest in doing the same. We will be pursuing these opportunities, but as the saying goes "there is strength in numbers."

We do not know what type of pressure, if any, we can assert to regain access to the areas that are under the management of Plum Creek. However, the representative from Plum Creek has stated that the land is for sale (not lease), so there will be a possibility of working with a new owner at some time in the future.

I am sending this to representatives from each of the following clubs:

FWD-FWD
Jeeps of North Texas
Jeeps of East Texas
Texoma 4x4
San Antonio Jeeps Exclusive
Texas A&M Off-Road
Decatur 4x4
Extreme 4-Wheelin'
Oklahoma Trailchasers
Lone Star Land Cruisers
Tulsa Four Wheelers
Southern High Rollers
TMTC
TX4x4

If you know of other clubs that may be interested in helping with this, please let me know and I will contact them, or feel free to forward this message on to them. It is my hope that we can determine a cohesive course of action with input from all those clubs and individuals who have an interest in continuing to frequent the Clayton area for our sport. If you would like to have someone else from your organization as the representative
to this group, please forward this to them and reply with their email address. Likewise, if you or your organization does not wish to assist with these efforts, please let me know and I will remove you from my email list.

In addition, FWD-FWD will again be holding our annual Memorial Day event in Clayton this year, and we are confident that we will have sufficient trails for everyone's enjoyment even in the event that the trails in question remain closed to our use. We will officially not be running on land that we know is "off-limits" and we will be strongly urging everyone who is in Clayton to not venture to that area on their own due to these issues.

Thank you for your time and assistance with our efforts. If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Joe Johnson
VP of FWD-FWD
jeeptj8@yahoo.com


Pirate4x4.Com > Land Use and Trails > Land Use Issues > Clayton OK?????? PDA : Clayton OK?????? StillCrawlin 03-01-2002, 05:47 AM Has anyone heard anymore on Clayton Closing? I know last weekend several got trespassing tickets. And the lady at the Hotel said they were gonna have a town meeting Tuesday. To talk with Jess. :usa: Lance Morin 03-04-2002, 12:09 PM Hello, I'd like to introduce myself to all of you. My name is Joe Johnson (jeeptj8@yahoo.com) and I am the Vice President of Fort Worth-Dallas Four Wheel Drive (FWD-FWD). I know that most of your clubs have spent time with us in Clayton at our Memorial Day or Oktober Trailfest events. As most of you have probably heard, there are land use issues taking place currently in the area south of Clayton where many of the well-known and often traveled trails exist. For those who may not have heard, Plum Creek, the company that represents the interests of the owner of the land in question decided a while back that the land is "off limits" to 4x4 traffic and has recently begun asking the authorities to enforce trespassing violations on the land. Because of this, over the last couple of weekends several people have been ticketed for being on that land which includes 3-stage, Valentine, Timberline, Purple Headed Monster, and the bottom portions of Rock Creek and Upper Powerline trails. As reported to us, the ticket costs $155 on the spot so it is not a simple slap on the wrist. The reason for my email is that FWD-FWD is concerned with the issues at hand and has taken steps to contact the mayor of Clayton and other authorities in the area to get their assistance in identifying what the issues really are and more importantly, exactly what are the areas affected by this. At our meeting last night it was suggested that we contact the other area clubs in an attempt to put forth a cooperative effort to assist the people of Clayton in their efforts to keep land available to us as well as identifying other land that can be used or developed for our sport. In addition, we would like to determine if there is interest by the other clubs to jointly lease land in the Clayton area for the same purpose. As you probably know, FWD-FWD has a lease on several hundred acres in the Yanish area on which we have been building trails. We have an agreement with the land owner to pay a lease fee yearly and that each vehicle will pay a low daily ($10) or weekend ($15) fee to use the area, except for our organized events. The landowner has additional land that he is willing to lease, and there are several other landowners throughout the area that have shown interest in doing the same. We will be pursuing these opportunities, but as the saying goes "there is strength in numbers." We do not know what type of pressure, if any, we can assert to regain access to the areas that are under the management of Plum Creek. However, the representative from Plum Creek has stated that the land is for sale (not lease), so there will be a possibility of working with a new owner at some time in the future. I am sending this to representatives from each of the following clubs: FWD-FWD Jeeps of North Texas Jeeps of East Texas Texoma 4x4 San Antonio Jeeps Exclusive Texas A&M Off-Road Decatur 4x4 Extreme 4-Wheelin' Oklahoma Trailchasers Lone Star Land Cruisers Tulsa Four Wheelers Southern High Rollers TMTC TX4x4 If you know of other clubs that may be interested in helping with this, please let me know and I will contact them, or feel free to forward this message on to them. It is my hope that we can determine a cohesive course of action with input from all those clubs and individuals who have an interest in continuing to frequent the Clayton area for our sport. If you would like to have someone else from your organization as the representative to this group, please forward this to them and reply with their email address. Likewise, if you or your organization does not wish to assist with these efforts, please let me know and I will remove you from my email list. In addition, FWD-FWD will again be holding our annual Memorial Day event in Clayton this year, and we are confident that we will have sufficient trails for everyone's enjoyment even in the event that the trails in question remain closed to our use. We will officially not be running on land that we know is "off-limits" and we will be strongly urging everyone who is in Clayton to not venture to that area on their own due to these issues. Thank you for your time and assistance with our efforts. If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Joe Johnson VP of FWD-FWD jeeptj8@yahoo.com StillCrawlin 03-05-2002, 05:36 AM Thanks Lance:usa: stonpny 03-05-2002, 01:33 PM I emailed you, hope we can help!!! landusepbb 03-05-2002, 02:10 PM I'll put this up on Off-Road.com, too.