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NJ ATV/Dirt Bike Park hits Eco Nazi and Political Road Block
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Posted by: 440EX4me

Here is what a recent newspaper reported about a planned new ATV park in Ocean County.

The Eco Nazis or tree huggers (take your pick) seem to have the political machine turned completely against our sport. This is a excelent place to ride and had seen about 500+ people in and around this area over the Memorial Day Holiday, Sadly many of them also received tickets as the local and state police/rangers were waiting and hunting them to hand out tickets. The State Rangers (fish and game included) are not fond of this man since he doesnt usually (or ever as I have seen) allow them to harass riders on his property and asks them to leave etc.

There have even been some stories about conflicts in the woods about where this mans property line is as the rangers have targeted some off roaders and claimed that they were on state land when they were not.

Too bad that with all the new sales of machines etc and the shrinking number of acreage for us to use that they would be giving this guy such a hard time.

I guess the politicians are waiting for some well known Attorneys or Politicians kid to get hurt by these "Nazis" before the state begins to work with the needs of all its residents.

Though most of this (above ) is what i have been told I have seen some of it first hand also and these agencies need to get their agendas corrected as we are not criminals and there are more important things for them to be doing.

See Below:

ATV park bogs down in regulatory tangle

Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/06/02
By KIRK MOORESTAFF WRITER
LACEY -- While prominent conservation, farming and business groups ask Gov. McGreevey to keep their Pinelands interests in mind, George Cluen says he's at wits' end trying to obtain his state Pinelands approvals.

Cluen proposed earlier this year to use part of his 600-acre property as a private off-road vehicle park and campground where all-terrain-vehicle riders could pay a fee to use designated trails governed by safety and environmental rules.

With state officials and local police on a campaign to control unauthorized ATV use on state land, Cluen thought the state Pinelands Commission would consider his idea.

But he was wrong, Cluen said. "I can't get to first base with these people."

Instead of acting on Cluen's application, Pinelands officials wrote a letter dated June 4 saying Cluen had violated tree-cutting regulations on his property and filled wetlands, referring to a high-altitude aerial photograph taken in 2000.

Those "wetlands" were actually puddles in a sand road where he put down wood chips to prevent erosion, Cluen said. While he applied several years ago for a forestry permit, Cluen said, the permit was never granted. He's only cut brush and trees around his house, which is legal under his 1995 Pinelands approval for the home, Cluen said.

Cluen's off-road park application can be considered again after he submits a plan for planting more trees on his property, said Francis Rapa, a Pinelands Commission spokesman. But Cluen said that at this point he doesn't believe it would do him any good, based on the tortured history he's had with the regional land-use agency.

Thick files on desks and tables in Cluen's home trace the tale. In the 1970s, the tract north of Route 532 was on the verge of becoming another development of modest ranch homes, like those throughout Lacey east of the Garden State Parkway.

A grid of sand roads was bulldozed through the pines, but an economic slowdown, followed by then-Gov. Brendan T. Byrne's moratorium on Pinelands building, put an end to the developer's plans.

Retirement dream

In the early 1990s, Cluen was making retirement plans to sell his truck repair business in Bloomfield and find a country property where he could start a second career with a campground resort. As Cluen researched the history of the state Pinelands plan, the Lacey land seemed perfect. He bought it.

Under Pinelands zoning, part of the property is classified as "rural development," where homes and businesses can be allowed, and the Pinelands Preservation Act of 1979 clearly intended to provide recreational uses in the region, Cluen said.

After months of wrangling over wetlands boundaries and submitting site plan revisions, Cluen and his wife, Connie, obtained approvals for a home and later for a barn where she operates Green Acres Barn, an antiques business.

But since then, George Cluen said, his other ideas -- for a recreation park, horse stables, the forestry project -- have died on the vine, denied by the commission or delayed without resolution.

"It's like, 'OK, you've got the barn, you're done,' " he said.

"That's how they do it," Cluen added. "They just string you along until you give up and go away."

Meanwhile, others have expressed interest in his land. Cluen said he has been approached over the years by both development companies and conservation groups, including the Trust for Public Land and New Jersey Conservation Foundation, which have been purchasing open space in Ocean County.

That others with deep pockets are interested in his land when he can't seem to get Pinelands permits makes Cluen suspect "they want me to sell it. That's what they want me to do."

Under Cluen's plan, using some existing roads on the property for regulated ATV trails would give riders a legal place to go and take pressure off nearby public lands, where the state Department of Environmental Protection and Lacey and Waretown police have stepped up enforcement this summer, writing scores of tickets.

In spring 2001, the Pinelands Commission issued a permit for the Land Rovers off-road vehicle club to hold a rally on Cluen's land. But last April, a permit was denied for the same event; the denial letter cited threatened Pine Barrens tree frogs and northern pine snakes that a consultant for Cluen detected on the property in the 1990s.

"Now that I applied for the camp-ground, it's no good," Cluen said.

Saving plants, wildlife

Cluen said he would fence off adequate buffers to wetlands and wildlife in his park plan. The dry uplands are "an ideal site with the roads."

That environmental approach was taken at one of the few legal public places to ride all-terrain vehicles, the volunteer-run New Jersey Off-Road Vehicle Park in Woodland Township, also in the Pine Barrens. Under a lease ar-rangement with the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, riders use trails and a track on week-ends and help the foundation with forestry and restoration work.

"One of the problems is there's a lot of environmental issues with these vehicles. If you try to start a park in the preservation or for-est area, the Pinelands Commis-sion is going to look very closely at that," said Russell Juelg of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, an environmental group.

The alliance sponsored meetings earlier this year to bring together riders, land owners and law en-forcement officials, seeking a con-sensus on how to best control illegal all-terrain-vehicle use. Juelg said the group agreed that statewide vehicle registration and providing more legal places to ride have to be part of the solu-tion.

"It makes more sense to me to provide some more places where you don't have these environmen-tal contingencies," he said, so that riders "just don't tear off across a wet meadow with globally rare plants."

State Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Camp-bell is about ready to announce a statewide policy for ATV use on state lands, his aides say.Kirk Moore: (732) 557-5728

Posted by: 440EX4me

Posted by: NOS EX300

I Think its time to go KICK some TREE HUGERS *** they need something to do with there useless lifes so they go after the people that know how to have fun. Those people should be chained to trees and left there to have there EYES picked out by the birds and wildlife they love!!!

Posted by: NJ300ex

I don' think the park in the article will ever happen. The lady that is head of Extreme Habitat did say that there will be two parks in NJ sometime. Location is not decided but one in the North and one in the South. They will be state run also I believe. I am not sure.

It kind of worked out that for NJ to get a couple million dollars from the federal government they had to make some land for OHV users to ride on. They are only making the parks because they have too.

Posted by: 440EX4me

Well I hope thats not what happens since 2 are just not enough and its just not right for the state to dictate how a person uses his own land.

It would be completely wrong to lose this area to BS development when there is such a good chance to keep it natural and also help to allow more legal places for people to ride.

I have heard so many stories about the Rangers harassing this guy and the people who go there (not just ATV's but bikes and 4X4 trucks too) that its sickening.

Please anyone who is even remotely interested in their sport and it doesnt matter if your on 2 or 4 wheels or even have doors or never even ride off road just consider attending the ATVA seminar next month so we can be organized and work at changing the way our state treats us and our families.