ALERT!! Crossbar Ranch ORV Area may be CLOSED
Off-road riders all across the United States face an increasing problem of land closure. This is happening for a variety of reasons, from loud pipes to private purchases of public lands. Oklahoman is not immune from this problem. We recently lost a significant amount of land in southeast Oklahoma - over 90,000 acres - to land closure. The US Forest Service is on the verge of closing huge tracts of land around Talihina to off-road riding. And I recently read in the Daily Oklahoman that Chesapeake Energy Chairman Aubrey McClendon is trying to purchase the Crossbar Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma to add to his sizable land holdings in Oklahoma. This land will be closed to ORV traffic just like the land he purchased in SE Oklahoma.
After a slow year of revenue at Crossbar, primarily the result of the heavy rains this spring, the City of Davis is seriously considering this sale. If this happens, this important riding area will surely be closed to motorcycles and off-road vehicles.
What can we - the off-road riding community - do to save this important resource? In the case of Crossbar Ranch, a lot. Most importantly we can become involved and let the elected representatives of the City of Davis know about our concern and encourage them to keep the land in public ownership. Secondly, you can visit Crossbar Ranch and ride to show your support. Third, let all your off-road friends know about the land closures going on around Oklahoma and encourage them to become involved before we lose even more land to off-road riding.
The City of Davis, OK will hold a City Council meeting on Monday night, September 10 at 7:00 pm to discuss this offer by Mr. McClendon to purchase Crossbar. I plan to attend and encourage them NOT to sell the property. Maybe I can talk to Mr. McClendon and encourage him to open up some of his property to off-road riders. Maybe I won't have any luck or influence at all, but I can certainly try.
If you are interested in keeping Crossbar Ranch open to public off-road riding, please be sure and attend this extremely important meeting on September 10 in Davis.
posted by James Pratt at 10:09 AM
4 Comments:
Clsoing such a great place while it's still in it's infancy would be terrible. There is so much potential there it's amazing and in my mind could develop into a nationnal destination. I'll be riding at Cross Bar this Monday (Labor Day) and will be back on Sept. 8 and 9 to ride. Having riders at the City Council meeting would be a good way to show that ther is activity out there. Most of teh traffic that goes to Cross Bar is probably never seen by the people that live there.
I have been wanting to ride there but have not yet. How do we influence the council to pass on the fast buck and vote in our favor? mike
They are elected officials and listen to the community. I think numbers count so if more people show up you can pretty well bet they will take that into account.
Is there a way we can contact the officials if we can make the meeting?
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