Stop the closure petition
General Topic
I signed it. Its our land too, even for those here in NY. Bet they'll wonder what in the heck some NYer is concerned about roads in NM for. Well, I pay Fed. taxes, a lot of $$$, and I want it kept accessible to the public. I might wish to pay a visit there someday too. I don't want this trend to continue anywhere else either. TK
Done. This type of crap really pisses me off.
Is there more to the story? Why were the closures suggested in the first place?
These roads are the only access? How will this give advantage/disadvantage? I just don't know the details so I'm asking.
Trad I was curious too, so I looked at some maps and it appears these roads go through a lot of private land. So if closed off there would theoretically be no access short of a plane to some of the area in the units. I signed it. I'm an advocate for closed roads on forest service to protect habitat, but not when there isn't even walking access.
Gotchya! Kind of what I suspected, same shit happening all over the west.
Signed from Mn. Thanks for making the community aware of it.
Thx all. I wish the thread title would have included information such as "NM" and additional detail, but if we keep it active it should generate support.
The bottom line is this area is known for Barbary Sheep/Auodad hunting and the private landowners want to block access to landlocked public. It's all about $$$ and access for outfitters but not general public.
We can't hunt private land in NM w/out written permission.
Not many years ago Barbary was OTC and generally not a coveted animal. Then G&F changed the species to a draw, opening the door for Outfitter draw preference and increasing the potential for guided hunts and it's become all about $$ ever since.
There have ALREADY been road closures in this part of the state solely to eliminate public access to public lands. One example I'm aware of maybe 5-6 years ago involved a County Road. If not maintained by the County for a specified time period (I can't recall if it's 1 year or 2) it reverts to private. A relative of the private landowner sat on the County board and was responsible for scheduling road maintenance. They conveniently DIDN'T maintain the road for the set period of time, it reverted to private, was promptly locked and it's a done deal: no public access.
We have a lot of crooked/shady deals like that here in NM and this petition relates to the latest one. Thankfully this one caught the attention of somebody and it's now getting attention. Most fly under the radar, public comment notification periods are advertised but minimally and meetings are held at dates/times when public doesn't show up and the deal passes without anyone even being aware.
Thx all!
Sounds like one for the courts.
Done. Thanks for posting it.
Any asshole that tries to close public land by closing public access needs to have their property taken away and given to the public.
Just trying to understand personal property rights too. I would hire lawyers and go through whatever legal process you have to to maintain access, nothing wrong with that.
Just wondering if the private roads were closed legally, or illegally. Makes a huge difference.
A few land owners want to close a public road, which leads to public access of public land. This is wrong and should not be happening.
Missouri: The roads are being closed LEGALLY. Because of either shady deals where County Roads are intentionally not maintained so revert to private, or by shady deals where landowners petition to close, then the public comment period is downplayed/not advertised well (at all), so with no public outcry or opposition the request passes.
In many cases the first anybody knows about it is when they discover a new locked gate across what the map indicates is a County Road...and then it's pretty much too late.
Another signature from Iowa
Done. Thank you Ohiohunter for bringing this to our attention and making it easy for us to voice our opinion.
Done. I’ve never hunted Barbary but I am seriously considering it this year. Road closures and cutting off public access is never a good thing
Signed from Canada. Only takes about 3.5 seconds folks.
This is nothing new in southern NM, had to deal with this last winte on our Jan hunt. It got very ugly .
Petition signed
done, cant stand limiting access, I have a problem with some of the forest service gates too, not all but some of them.
Signed! Let’s keep it public.
Thx all, please keep this thread rolling!
Just so y'all know, sheep are not the only game in town. These are area's where I've seen, (but not killed yet) some giant desert mulies. Though the roads in question would be closed legally, it wouldn't be without corruption behind the scenes......
Good point Trophyhill. Although even though there are some mulies in the area I am fairly confident that Barbary sheep/aoudad are the driver behind these attempted closures.
Thx to all for adding your support!
Thanks for the help fellas. We lost one of these fights a month or two ago on a similar piece of ground near Roswell. Landowner claimed he was getting robbed by folks accessing his place on the public road. Think that success inspired this attempt, but there is a much better response this time. Hopefully we can stop it. Yep, barbary sheep are the primary critter out there. Some deer, quail, coyotes...
Looks like a couple greedy LO's we're defeated today on this issue. Being familiar with Chavez County however, I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it. We just have to stay vigilant if we care about hunting public lands.
Got the email too. Feels good to get a W like that, and I’ve never even stepped foot in the state...... yet.
This shows that when we hunters get off of our butts we can win together.
Felt good to get that e mail !!!
Real good!!!
Just got the email. Thumbs up.
I am glad to see this victory. I too am a big supporter of property rights, but road closures in cases like this are nothing more than land grabs on the part of the LO.
We have a section of the NF near me that has been basically inaccessible for 20 years or so, because a large corporation (with deep pockets) simply put a fence across the one dirt road that provided access. The road passed thru the private property and the corporation unilaterally decided to block access (and harass / threaten people with their armed guards attempting to access the NF on the road.)
A couple of decades and numerous court rulings later the gate is still up and we the people are still denied access to the NF (including what used to be a nice campground).
Positively warms my heart to see people come together and get behind a good cause like this.
