The Beacon Is Closed!!!!!!!

[sidriptide]

this was posted by a very reliable source... just another reason to organize and get active....

mike


http://ctjeep.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1375

 

[Eagle]

Mike beat me to it. Here's the message, to save you having to go to the link:

It has finally officially happend to us out here in New England... Yes, Beacon had an absentee owner who turned a blind eye to people wheeling his property and most clubs that did go there didn't officially have permission to be there.. BUT Our worst nightmare has come to light... The Nature Conservancy will be finalizing the purchase of the property within a couple of months. The property is from here on in FULLY CLOSED. I won't get into the slightly pointed conversation that I had with one Rob Warren.
He mentioned that TNC would like to have a co-operative relationaship with the 4WD community.... after some prodding... I found that this means that TNC policy is NO MOTORIZED USE and by co-operating it means we will not go there anymore... Co-operating to TNC does NOT mean compromise... I am so pent with anger, I can hardly type straight...

There is nothing more to say... Please cancel all upcoming Beacon runs.

If you'd like to call Mr. Warren and ask him about this, he said it was OK to give his number: 1-617-227-7017 X320

please fwd this any and all of your own lists (anyone who should know that Beacon is closed.) Sorry to any who have rec'd this twice... reading this once is bad enough.

We are going to be seeing more and more of this type of activity, as towns that want to "preserve open space" turn to groups such as The Nature Conservancy to assist and guide them in acquiring or otherwise "protecting" large parcels. Unfortunately, the kinds of parcels they wish to "conserve" are precisely the kinds of parcels that are attractive to the off-road community.

Those of you who haven't yet attended any of the Mohawk Trail area runs with us, I urge you to do so while those trails are still available, and perhaps when you've seen them you will understand why it's important to lend moral (and financial) support to the effort to keep those trails available to us.

 

[Rev Den]

Not to raise hairs...but, to me this looks like people were wheeling on private property without permission and are now upset that that property is off-limits?? Perhaps had someone asked the owner for permission, or offered to lease it, this would not have turned out this way. I will be the first to say, I am not there, I do not know what "arrangement' there was, and i am not judging anyone. Just seems strange and against all the things we work toward, being on private property without permission.

Rev

 

[sidriptide]

that isnt really the case.. well.. technically you are there without permission unless you ask each time... but the owner was actually there quite a few times last year watching us wheel it.... but it is frequented by so many that its probably a case of a worn-out welcome and the neighbors complaining to the right people and the right wad of cash waving under the nose... everyone is allowed to change their mind and there is always the "litigation" phobia....

mike

 

[Eagle]

Yeah, Rev, it does sound that way but that's not the case. Remember, this was an absentee landlord. He was going to sell the land to someone, it was either to a developer or to a group like The Nature Conservency. The problem with the conservation groups is that they don't like ANY sort of mechanized travel in their pristine mini-wildernesses. The tract across the street from where I live was recently sold to the town through the efforts of a different conservation help organization, and the conservation easement doesn't even allow horses. Foot traffic only.

As Dave Brill wrote in his message, their idea of compromise is "do it our way."

 

[CheapXJ]

seriously...

this makes me want to walk down to the RISD campus and start stabbing hippies in the face.

god damn hippies :flamemad: :flamemad: :flamemad:

 

[Eagle]

seriously...

this makes me want to walk down to the RISD campus and start stabbing hippies in the face.

god damn hippies :flamemad: :flamemad: :flamemad:

It ain't just hippies. The negotiations on the parcel across the street stretched on for many months and through several town meetings, so I had an opportunity to see, hear and meet the people from The Trust for Public Land (the group that facilitated the deal for the town). These folks were not hippies, they were yuppies -- poor little rich kids who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth and who can afford to work for organizations like that at peon wages because they are already worth a few million right out of college. The idea that someone might enjoy picking up a wrench to build/repair his own vehicle is totally foreign to their world view.

These yuppie types are FAR worse than hippies, because they have money and they come from families that are politically connected, so they have easy access to the people who write the laws.

 

[CheapXJ]

It ain't just hippies. The negotiations on the parcel across the street stretched on for many months and through several town meetings, so I had an opportunity to see, hear and meet the people from The Trust for Public Land (the group that facilitated the deal for the town). These folks were not hippies, they were yuppies -- poor little rich kids who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth and who can afford to work for organizations like that at peon wages because they are already worth a few million right out of college. The idea that someone might enjoy picking up a wrench to build/repair his own vehicle is totally foreign to their world view.

These yuppie types are FAR worse than hippies, because they have money and they come from families that are politically connected, so they have easy access to the people who write the laws.

they would be called "yippies"

they should all be cleansed from the gene pool as well.

 

[sidriptide]

you gotta remember that theres a lot of $$ and well educated people out there working for their cause.... who would be a better negotiator at a land management meeting? an attorney? or a bunch of guys with mud on their shoes? thats what we are up against unless we can get more politicians to care about our issues....

mike

 

[Moto]

I just dont get it, how groups of the land eating people can get together and cause such an uproar and purchase up so much land and keep it from us, when there are so many of us here on alone, not to mention all other clubs in Mass or in the country and not just Jeep ones, but I mean all the dirtbikers and quads and everything, what it is that we are missing that allows these land closing groups to keep us out?? The snowmobilers around this area seem to have pretty much free run of everywhere as long as they are registered. I am just confused and dont know what to do.

 

[woody]

Not to raise hairs...but, to me this looks like people were wheeling on private property without permission and are now upset that that property is off-limits?? Perhaps had someone asked the owner for permission, or offered to lease it, this would not have turned out this way. I will be the first to say, I am not there, I do not know what "arrangement' there was, and i am not judging anyone. Just seems strange and against all the things we work toward, being on private property without permission.

Rev

That's approx. my take on it as well...folks were trespassing on private property. It doesn't matter what kind of 'spin' the trespassers attempt to hang on it, there is NO 'open unless posted closed' policy with private property, and no excuse for folks not offering the original landowner some sort of compensation ($ or labor) for permission to use it.

I grew up in MA and know all about that. We trespassed everywhere, or we didn't recreate. In 6 years of that 'civil disobedience,' I earned one $100 "trespassing with a MV" ticket from the Sherborn PD, one "written warning" from the ConRail PD and "fled and eluded" Norfolk, Sherborn, Medfield & ConRail PD's probably 1/2 dz times...they weren't too busy fighting real crime in those days, so my peers & I gave them lots of training opportunities :viking: I won't try to defend that or put a happy spin on it though, other than to say that Motorola doesn't always win.

So some group buys out the landowner, and decides to manage their own property differently. :bawl: Folks shoulda stepped up to the plate with some $$$$$$ to buy it first. Until the various motorized user groups unite and seriously put their money where their mouth is - to buy land upon which to recreate... there isn't much to say.

 

[RichP]

I pretty much agree, the owner of Paragon is one who put his money where his mouth is and bought up alot of land, 17,000 acres last I knew. This was abandoned mining and industrial property. Formed a corp and opened for business. That ticked alot of the locals off who had been using that land for YEARS for everything from hunting to dumping trash. Reeds operation seems to be well run and organized and with the corp behind him has the ability to dispute issues with the neighboring towns that don't like what he does.
The beacon thing, the clubs that used it, did they ever take a collection up at the beginning or end of the day and write a check to the owner and a nice thank you letter, heck, did anybody even take the guy out for lunch, send him and his wife a couple of tickets to dinner and a movie or a theatre, other than taking advantage of him what reason would he have had to look favorably on the people having a good time at his expense... Ain't hind sight great, a little forethought is better though...

Does the term 'No free lunch' turn on any light bulbs.... ? or 'what goes around comes around'....

 

[sidriptide]

i don't think it's a case of the owner seeking out a buyer, as much as it was a well financed organization buying it with one intention... The Nature Conservancy, although a non-profit corp, has a net worth somewhere in the BILLIONS... and i'm sure its all "charitable" donations.... i cant imagine how hard it would be to create an organization to benefit the wheeling community by buying land on such a large scale... the only real chance we have is through the political arena and to seek out new private land and make it "worth their while" to allow an organized club access.... land should be protected FOR people.... not FROM them.... but once the ownership actually changes hands there is really no chance any motorized vehicles will ever drive that road again... thats a drag because it was a real HC trail.. from now on the "The Waterfall" is gonna be just that....

drag.....

anyone up for a nature walk???

mike

 

[Eagle]

It may be unrealistic to think that any group, or group of groups, can afford to buy large tracts of land in New England -- certainly not in Connecticut or Massachusetts. But the states themselves own or control large tracts of land. In Connecticut, aside from the state parks, there are numerous state forests, but unlike the natural forests they don't appear to be managed as "multiple-use" holdings. That's what we need to change. We need to show the legislatures that other states are using state land to build and run off-highway vehicle parks, and they are succeeding. There's no reason similar operations shouldn't be initiated in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

 

[Moto]

It may be unrealistic to think that any group, or group of groups, can afford to buy large tracts of land in New England -- certainly not in Connecticut or Massachusetts. But the states themselves own or control large tracts of land. In Connecticut, aside from the state parks, there are numerous state forests, but unlike the natural forests they don't appear to be managed as "multiple-use" holdings. That's what we need to change. We need to show the legislatures that other states are using state land to build and run off-highway vehicle parks, and they are succeeding. There's no reason similar operations shouldn't be initiated in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Any Ideas on how we would go about iniating this? I am all for it. I have writing to my state reps, as well as senators for a while and have gotten nowhere and in most cases have not even recieved a response back

 

[Voice]

this was posted by a very reliable source... just another reason to organize and get active....

mike


http://ctjeep.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1375

The source is not very reliable.

Look at the wording. The guy got a phone call from an enviro, took the word of the enviro, and immediately began posting everywhere that the place is closed. Even the enviro told him that the closing hadn't happened yet! A quick phone call to the town hall shows that the land is still owned by the currnent owner. Did this "reliable source" consider doing that? Nahhhh!

How about that?

Of course, this reliable source would recommend that all users find private land to wheel on (which his club seems to have several pieces of) so, why not join his club or his group so that you can use his land if this place is closed?

Hmmmm. Has a certain conflict of interst ring to it, doesn't it?

From what I understand, if anyone were to offer the owner the asking price of $279K he would sell to them.

 

[sidriptide]

ok... so why the attitude?? i think you missed the point.. why not post with your "real" screen name.. what is there to hide??

mike

 

[Eagle]

The source is not very reliable.

Look at the wording. The guy got a phone call from an enviro, took the word of the enviro, and immediately began posting everywhere that the place is closed. Even the enviro told him that the closing hadn't happened yet! A quick phone call to the town hall shows that the land is still owned by the currnent owner. Did this "reliable source" consider doing that? Nahhhh!

How about that?

Of course, this reliable source would recommend that all users find private land to wheel on (which his club seems to have several pieces of) so, why not join his club or his group so that you can use his land if this place is closed?

Hmmmm. Has a certain conflict of interst ring to it, doesn't it?

From what I understand, if anyone were to offer the owner the asking price of $279K he would sell to them.

Town land records get updated only after a sale. And even then they are not updated automatically, they are updated only when a buyer brings in a deed showing that the property has been legally transferred. If the buyer doesn't get around to filing the deed for 6 months, then the records are wrong for 6 months. There may be a binding contract of sale but no closing, and it's entirely possible that a condition of sale is that the current owner not allow any more vehiclular traffic pending the closing. We don't know -- either party can ask for all sorts of stuff to be written into the contract of sale.

The most reliable source would be to ask the owner -- does anyone know who that is, and how to contact him/her?

 

[TekkaMaki]

Also, regardless of if the sale has been finalized or not, if there is a purchase agreement pending it's very possible, even likely with a group like the TNC, that there is a clause restricting further usage that the buyer might consider hurtful to the natural state of the land :banghead: or whatever they might say...or even just a verbal agreement.

In other words I'm just saying what everyone is: the only way to know for sure is to ask the owner, and just because a sale hasn't been finalized doesn't by any means mean you're free to wheel