Mike,
Thank you for the "heads up" regarding this Bridgestone Firestone issue.
Also, "thank you" for your continuous work with the Tennessee Conservation League, oops, I'm aging myself a bit, uh, I mean the TN Wildlife Federation.
Again, I don't think there is a large issue here - but rather one individual working to stir the pot.
That appears to be the case. Mainly just an issue of one man's greed (and deception).
Unfortunately for us hunters (and fishermen to a lesser degree), this Bridgestone Firestone issue is just the tip of the iceberg to what is coming of a similar nature as various "user" groups demand more exclusive access to just themselves, or in some cases, special "purpose", such as demanding areas be designated "wilderness" and off limits to nearly everything.
As you know, the much larger 170,000-plus acres Land Between the Lakes National
RECREATION Area is dealing with various "user" group issues in a variety of ways. Very large portions (thousands of acres in a single block, multiple blocks) are excluded from any gun hunting, and mainly "exclusively" for the primary use of particular named "special" groups. There is an "off-road" vehicle area for some to go play with their dirt bikes, their atvs, or whatever they want to use. There are several hiking areas. There are off-road "mountain" biking areas (non-motorized bikes), and there are horse-riding areas. Then on top of all this, outside all those "special" user blocks (having no gun hunting), gun hunting is limited by special quota hunt days to only 4 days annually (adults) + 2 days annually (juveniles).
STILL, some "groups" would like for there to be no hunting at all.
Most of these "special" user areas within LBL are opened to archery-only deer hunting in late winter (not open to hunting in the fall or during the rut), the time of year these areas are least used for their "special" designations. To think that these other user groups are not greatly decreasing the amount of deer hunting that would otherwise be offered at LBL is to be naïve. That said, there doesn't seem to be too much friction at LBL between the deer hunters and other user groups, but this may be in larger part because the area is large enough to have huge tracts within set aside for specific user groups, some of these individual "special use" tracts within LBL approaching the acreage of the entire Bridgestone Firestone WMA.
I don't think the real conflicts are coming from any particular activity, whether we're discussing Bridgestone Firestone, LBL, or some other "publically" owned land. The real problems are usually caused by an individual or relatively small group which is very self-centered with little or no consideration for the opinions or activities of others. Sometimes, some of us hunters can be that way, too, although it's typically among ourselves rather than being of much consequence to any other "user" group.
I see no legitimate reason why Bridgestone Firestone should become a state park, and I believe such a designation would then require more "state" employees, thereby putting the general taxpayer on the tab for yet higher operational expenses?
To the point of fees, do you think there is a problem for other users to pay a fee to use these or other lands?
In all fairness, they should, but as an avid hunter, I'm willing to pay more (even if they pay nothing) just to slow down the encroachment of so many other recreational outdoor activities that in fact do reduce the quality of the hunting experiences, but worse, eventually decrease the days of hunting if not totally eliminate it.