This is what TU wants their members to say about Tellico

[k9crazy]

From the TU website. They also sent out an email to all their members asking them to make a comment.

"Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the USFS proposed action for the Tellico River Off-Road Vehicle Trail System. The Tellico River watershed is one of the last remaining strongholds of the southern Appalachian brook trout in North Carolina, and is of critical value to me and all members of Trout Unlimited in the southeast.

The Forest Service proposal to close the most eroded trails, and those trails it cannot properly maintain, significantly reducing the currently unmanageable size of the trail system is a welcome move in the right direction. While I support the proposed action, more is needed to ensure the integrity of the Tellico River, and protect the remaining brook trout population into the future.

Years of declining water quality prove that the Forest Service cannot maintain a trail system as extensive as the Tellico ORV area. The forest plan for the Nantahala National Forest, with which the Forest Plan is required by law to comply, prohibits the Forest Service from operating such an intensive ORV system. The Tellico ORV system has more than twice the trail mileage allowed by the Forest Plan and includes many high-challenge areas, which the Forest Plan does not allow. Now, after years of inadequate maintenance and degraded water quality, the Forest Service proposes to amend the forest plan to allow the Tellico ORV system to continue operating with high challenge areas and an excessive trail density. The proposed changes still allow a trail density forty percent higher than that prescribed in the current forest plan. I strongly urge the Forest Service to close trails and high challenge areas to comply with and meet the Forest Plan standards for the Nantahala National Forest, and to address ongoing water quality degradation caused by the Tellico ORV Area.


Thank you for your time and consideration in the important matter, and for providing an open forum to provide comments. I hope you will strengthen your proposed action in a meaningful way, and protect one of the last remaining native brook trout populations on the forest. Please bear in mind, these brook trout are a public resource that cannot be replaced once lost."

Folks, if you haven't read the scoping letter and provided your substantive comments, GET ON IT PLEASE! Even if you don't wheel at Tellico...or think that we are fighting a losing battle...or have a bug up your ass about something or another. Please just take the time to write a short letter that suggests that the FS consider other alternatives to wet weather, seasonsal, and trail closures.

[xjemily]

id like to beat that guys face in.what a ridiculously selfish agenda.its obvious that tu is in no way shape or form interested in compromise to help us all enjoy "our land" together.

[McCracken]

at the open house the two trout guys that were talking to Steve Lohr were getting real buddy buddy about the plan and I overheard them talking about how great the first draft was. It made me want to punch them in the face. I guess you had to be there but just to see the guy's mannerisms and the way he said it flew all over me.

[xjemily]

why do i get the feeling that us wheelers are being stereotyped as liquor swillin red necks who are destroying natural resources .i just get the idea that
there more interested in their control of this issue just to be assholes because they dont like us and using brook trout populations as a guise to get it done.

[GSW]

Originally Posted by xjemily

why do i get the feeling that us wheelers are being stereotyped as liquor swillin red necks who are destroying natural resources .i just get the idea that
there more interested in their control of this issue just to be assholes because they dont like us and using brook trout populations as a guise to get it done.

You get that feeling because that is precisely their approach. In fact, the open house format was chosen specifically to minimize "grandstanding and intimidation" from the off road community.

If they were so concerned about Brook Trout populations, they would be fighting to discontinue stocking the streams with bigger, more aggressive fish. They ALL know that's the larger issue, but targeting offroaders is easier and doesn't limit the number of fish they can kill in one outing.

[McCracken]

Originally Posted by GSW

You get that feeling because that is precisely their approach. In fact, the open house format was chosen specifically to minimize "grandstanding and intimidation" from the off road community.

If they were so concerned about Brook Trout populations, they would be fighting to discontinue stocking the streams with bigger, more aggressive fish. They ALL know that's the larger issue, but targeting offroaders is easier and doesn't limit the number of fish they can kill in one outing.

plus it doesn't alienate their own kind by seperating the fly fishermen from the bait fishermen. I guarentee if you told fishermen that they were going to stop stocking the waters with easy to catch fish all hell would break loose.

[xjemily]

Originally Posted by GSW

You get that feeling because that is precisely their approach. In fact, the open house format was chosen specifically to minimize "grandstanding and intimidation" from the off road community.

If they were so concerned about Brook Trout populations, they would be fighting to discontinue stocking the streams with bigger, more aggressive fish. They ALL know that's the larger issue, but targeting offroaders is easier and doesn't limit the number of fish they can kill in one outing.

its just a real shame to me..i bet if we could get a group of those codgers to do some wheelin up there they would promptly forget about their supposed trout populationsbut thats just not reality i guess.still it puzzles me as to why they seem to hate us so much and seek to condem one of the greatest
trail systems in the country

[redman_30_06]

Originally Posted by k9crazy

[COLOR="Lime"]The Tellico River watershed is one of the last remaining strongholds of the southern Appalachian brook trout in North Carolina, and is of critical value to me and all members of Trout Unlimited in the southeast.

That is the part of that letter that really burns me up. I can take you to about 10 different creeks in "southern Appalachians" that you can catch native brook trout in until your arm is sore.

[cabtruck1]

If They Didnt Stock That River With Fish On A Regular Basis They Would Fish It Dry In 2 Yrs Or Less Its Not The Trail System. That River Is Highly Affected Buy The Drought Like Conditions That The Southeast Has Been In The Last Several Years Its Not Going To Support Native Trout No Matter What They Do With The Trail System Water Levels Vary To Much.

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by redman_30_06

That is the part of that letter that really burns me up. I can take you to about 10 different creeks in "southern Appalachians" that you can catch native brook trout in until your arm is sore.

I'd bet a lexus or m-class could not get to these streams either?

[atlas59]

but once they have their houses built there it wont matter because there will a be a paved road right to their front door porsche.

[Kurtuleas]

"The Tellico River watershed is one of the last remaining strongholds of the southern Appalachian brook trout in North Carolina, and is of critical value to me and all members of Trout Unlimited in the southeast."

Let's look at this sentence.

Is the Tellico River watershed the LAST remaining place for Appalachian Brook trout?? last I looked, brook trout are in a lot of places on the east coast.

"It is of critical value to ME?" Who wrote this? Squeak? Well, you can see the PERSONAL agenda in this just by this comment.

Another thing: Just HOW LONG have those trails been in existance? How have the trout managed to survive all this time with those trails there?????

Oh, and Brook trout are orginally from Germany.

How about this:

"The Tellico OHV area is one of the last remaining strongholds for public OHV use on the entire EAST COAST, and is of critical value to ALL OHV users across the nation."

[GSW]

Originally Posted by Kurtuleas

[How about this:

"The Tellico OHV area is one of the last remaining strongholds for public OHV use on the entire EAST COAST, and is of critical value to ALL OHV users across the nation."

Cosigned.

The misinformation and thinly veiled agenda mongering is strong in that letter.

[BigGreenMonster]

the problem with that is they can hold a brook trout... out of the water gasping for... water and put the picture on the cover of a magizine and people think.... "awwwwwww" and misinformed as they might be they look at a shitbox toyota or jeep and think junk. it is all in perception and our image will allways be in the shitter.

[MossMan]

I hope everyone here has taken these ideas and sent some kind of letter. I think I'll start sending a few more. One from my wife, my dad, my brother, my kids, etc. Kurt and that gang have made it as easy as possible so let's really load em down.


edit: sorry, I know. preaching to the choir. This thread just got me all pumped up.