I know that alot of private land is bought by the environmental groups to be left alone. They do this by raising money buying it and letting it sit. They did this with a few thousand acres by my parents place in San Diego. What my idea is to start some thing simmilar to this that is not for profit that purchases the land then organized off highway travel areas something like hollister hills. I think that by doing this we will beable to create areas that will be left open for long periods of time and not having to worry so much about being shutdown. There would have to be some way to make it like a corporation where the people who support this can't be comeback at and gotten sued. I see this as being benifical to not only individuals but companies that support this would then know tht there would be places for people to use there rigs. I know i don't have thousands of dollars to buy a chunk of land but i could toss in a few bucks and I am sure others could to. Any other ideas on this?

Matt

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86 ranger with 33"s and lockers

http://86ranger.homestead.com/index.html

This is a super Idea, but most likey will not happen for funding reason, everthing cost to damn much

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WELNDMN!WELNDMN!WELNDMNWELNDMN!
ahh screw it call me Mark :D
No matter what you do or say someone will take it too seriously

awsoome idea, if u need any help , lemme know

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-PWR
PWR'S CUSTOM MODS AND MORE (http://www.thepowerranger.homestead.com)
1985 RANGER, V6-2.8L, MANUAL MITSUBISHI 5SP, 32X11.5 TIRES, 3.73GEARS, CUSTOM/HOME MADE EVERYTHING.
"I MAY BE CRAZY, BUT IM NOT STUPID"

Thats a great idea fund raising would be the hardest thing to do. maybe government or corperate grant money?

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Not to burst a bubble cause I really like the idea and plan to buy my own land to have small off road areas sometime in the far off future, but the biggest issue to over come if this area was open to the public would be the environmental impact studies. For instance, if you owned the Rubicon right now, you would be facing fines in excess of thousands of dollars until the silt problem was dealt with and solved to THEIR satisfaction.

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Curtis

'63 Scout
v6 231, sm465, np205, Dana 44s, EZ in back, welded front, 4.56, winch, cage, yada, yada, yada. Oh, and a FUZZY top

<FONT COLOR="yellow">It's only sheet metal!!!</FONT c>

Good idea, and it's already been done, at least in Texas.

Texas has two such places. One is called "Gilmer", where a bunch of off-roaders got together, formed a non-profit corporate entity, and bought a bunch of land. The other place is called Shiloh Ridge (www.shilohridge.com) which is privately by someone with a passion for off-roading.

No state or federal "environmental impact" problems that I know of affecting either of these two places. You just have to make sure the LOCAL zoning laws allow for off-roading. But be prepared to pay. Shiloh charges $15 a day, and Gilmer charges much more, on top of the usual membership fee.

If it weren't for these two places, most of us Texans would have no real place at all to wheel. Over 90% of Texas is privately owned, and Texans don't take too kindly to trespassers. There have never been any federal land closings to my knowledge because Texas has practically very little federal land to begin with. The public land closings that usually affect us locally are the trail closings by local city or county governments. One example was the closing of "360", a popular trail in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that was closed by the local city government of Arlington. As you can see, the main problem in Texas isn't with the feds, it's with the local governments. Heck, we wish we had more federal land to fight over public access issues.

Hopefully, the Shiloh and Gilmer examples will spread, offering more off-road access. I can only hope the price for admission doesn't get too expensive, though, as it is at Gilmer.


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Ed Q.
99 Tacoma Prerunner
Arlington/DFW TX4x4 Club
TTORA TX Chapter
http://members.aol.com/equin44484/boorunnerpage.html