TWRA Holding OHV Community Hostage

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Iva Michelle Russell, iva@ivamichellerussell.com

TWRA Holding OHV Community Hostage

Nashville, TN – Legislative negotiations broke down Tuesday as the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) continues to hold the Tennessee Off-Highway Vehicle community hostage over federal funding expenditures.

“I just can’t believe a governmental agency could be allowed to callously disregard the mandates of an Act that was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor of this state” comments Iva Michelle Russell, Legislative Chairman for the Tennessee Off-Highway Vehicle Association (TOHVA) and Executive Director of OHV4TN. “The last time I checked, the needs of the people of this state were more important than governmental primacy”.

The legislative negotiations revolve around the 2004 Tennessee Off-Highway Vehicle Act, sponsored by now Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey which started as a Governor’s initiative in the late 1990’s. The Act created an Off-Highway Vehicle program in the state of Tennessee that mandated a statewide system of environmentally sustainable trails as well as adult and youth safety education.

TWRA, the OHV program’s current agency home, began receiving OHV federal grant money in 2004. TWRA has been exclusively using the funds at their Royal Blue facility in East Tennessee while also taking in OHV permit fees that have risen steadily over the years to over $64,000 in 2007. Discounted Hunting/OHV permits are not included in this figure. There is still $1.1 million in unused grant funds to date. The TWRA Commission has voted each year not to create further trail systems across the state nor create the adult and youth safety education programs stipulated in the Act.

The 2009 OHV legislative agenda (SB280, HB365) would transfer the OHV program from TWRA to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), allow TWRA to keep their Royal Blue facility, and mandate an equal distribution of federal funding between each grand division of the state. “TDEC is in the trail building business and we certainly don’t want to be with an agency that has no desire to do anything with our program except take our money. There are over 880,000 OHV users in our state that are not currently being served and that is ridiculous.” states Russell.

In the Tennessee Governor’s 2002 Off-Highway Vehicle Study, OHV recreation had an estimated statewide economic impact of $3.4 Billion. Neighboring states have created trail systems that have successfully aided local rural economies as well as tax revenue. In a recent study, West Virginia saw an increase of $622,752 in state and local tax revenue, direct income of $2.7 million and 146 new jobs from their Hatfield-McCoy Trail System located in 8 WV rural counties.

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