The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has instituted a new license structure
The complete TWRA licence schedule is below.
A message from MSTA.
The letter and email campaign to TWRA Commissioners has ended.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to send messages to the TWRA Commissioners. Commissioner Bill Cox, who serves our district, put MSTA in contact with TWRA Assistant Director for Field Operations Steve Patrick. MSTA communicated the situation to Steve and received the reply below.
MSTA is evaluating what steps to take next to bring some sanity to this situation.
From: "Steve Patrick"
MSTA replied to Steve Patrick with information about the mountain bike community's involvement with the trail at Herb Parsons Lake over the years. The trail originally was a horse trail which was abandoned. Very early in the history of mountain biking the trail was reclaimed by local riders and has been maintained by the MTB community ever since. All this was done at no cost to TWRA. They don't seem to care.
From: Steve Patrick
Date: June 9, 2015 at 2:16:50 PM CDT Cc: Alan Peterson Subject: RE: High Impact Habitat Conservation Permit- Response from Mid- South Trails Association Jim, the fees were set to be comparable to what a person who has a hunting or fishing license would have paid to use a given WMA or Agency Lake. I believe all the states you mentioned run their programs by getting an appropriation from the state. We do not get any general fund tax dollars to operate any of our WMAs or Agency Lakes. The best Agency people to meet with would be the Region I manager and his staff. Alan Peterson is the manager and can be reached at alan.peterson@tn.gov. All management actions by the Agency begin with these Regional staffs and then are forward up to the appropriate Division and then to the Director for his consideration and then possible submission to the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission. I hope this proves to be useful information. Steve Patrick Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Assistant Director for Field Operations P.O. Box 40747 Nashville, TN 37204 615-781-6557 Office 615-781-6551 Fax
When sent my emails to the TWRA commissioners on June 8, 2015, I also sent a letter to the governor. Below is the reply I received from the governor's office.
- Brad C TWRA Postpones implementation of fee for mountain bike use at Herb Parsons!
After receiving the news of the fee postponment,several of us at MSTA emailed Bill Cox, the TWRA Commissioner for our district, thanking them for listening to our side of the discussion. Here is Bill's reply.
We are going to try to separate biking from High Impact designation and establish fees accordingly. I should have caught that, but did not. Best Regards, Bill Cox From MSTA President Jim Morgan, June 22, 2015. Hello everyone, I just got of the phone a little while ago with Steve Patrick, TWRA Assistant Executive Director, Field Operations. Very nice guy, and we had a great conversation. He did confirm that the fee will not apply to Herb Parson for at least a year. Also, I was able to get MSTA onto the agenda at the next TWRA Commissioners meeting on Thursday September 17th at 1:00 PM in Nashville. Steve welcomed us with open arms. We will be able to walk through our Power Point Presentation on Herb Parsons, discussing the history that mountain bikers, and MSTA, have had with the trail, and the Land Managers, it also lists many of the projects, supported by pictures, etc. We will also have the opportunity to discuss the future of Herb Parson for mountain bikers and make our case. This is our opportunity to make a difference. Thanks for everyone's support. MSTA to meet with TWRA. This meeting was canceled whan the information above came to MSTA. TWRA can't charge the High Impact fee at Herb Parsons Lake unless they change their regulations. Brad, As the legislation is now written, the “High Impact User Fee” only applies on Wildlife Management Areas. It does not apply on Herb Parsons Lake, since HPL is not a WMA. Unless the rules are rewritten to designate the lake as a WMA (not likely), or rewritten to apply the user fee to other areas in addition to WMAs, the user fee will not apply at Herb Parsons. The Commission can revise anything at any time. However, I do not believe the Commission will even consider revising anything about the user fee in the near future.
Alan Peterson
Received September 16, 2015.
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