Florida says no to ORV trails at former Big Cypress jetport

Written by Naples Daily News

Friday, April 09, 2010

Eric Staats

The state Department of Community Affairs has moved to block plans to put off-road vehicle trails at the former site for a proposed jetport in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Collier County commissioners voted unanimously in January to change its growth plan to allow Miami-Dade County to build the trails as part of a 1,600-acre outdoor recreation area at what’s left of the jetport plans, the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport near the Collier-Dade line.

Plans to build the massive jetport galvanized support in the 1970s across the nation for a fledgling Everglades conservation movement and led to the creation of the Big Cypress preserve.

DCA reviewers wrote back April 2 to Collier County with its opinion of the growth plan change, stated in uncharacteristically blunt terms: “Do not adopt the amendment.”

Reviewers said the plan to create the recreation district on conservation lands south of the airport runway would be too destructive to the environment and encourage urban sprawl.

The recreation area has been seen as part of the solution to a shortage of safe off-road riding sites in South Florida.

Miami-Dade park planners said they are not giving up.

“I can’t imagine the state not supporting the transition of a lightly used airport into park land,” Miami-Dade special projects manager Kevin Asher said.

He said Miami-Dade would work to correct “misinterpretations” in the DCA’s review and is open to adopting other reviewing agencies’ recommendations before returning to Collier County for a final vote.

Collier County commissioners have 60 days to make a final decision on the plan.

If the county adopts the plan despite the state’s objections, the DCA could file a legal challenge to try to stop it.

Source: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/apr/09/florida-says-no-orv-trails-former-big-cypress-jetp/

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Community Voices

“As a rancher who leases public lands for cattle, I’ve seen my share of cut fences and rangeland damaged by ORV use. I’ve also experienced ORV trespass onto my private lands. But I’ve had no way to identify the culprits when reporting trespass or illegal ORV use to local law enforcement. Congress should require that ORVs used on public lands have visible identification plates or decals. Doing so would remove the anonymity enjoyed by ORV riders who are bent on breaking the rules.”

- Ambers Thornburgh, second-generation rancher from Oregon who grazes cattle on his private land and adjacent lands leased from the Bureau of Land Management