Posted June 27, 2006

Cheaha Trail Riders Creates New OHV Park

Glenn Myers of the Cheaha Trail Riders in Alabama is the first to admit that "it's been a long, hard struggle" for his club to create a new OHV park.

But after almost three years of work, the Minooka OHV Park is set to open in late June. And Myers says that other off-road enthusiasts around the nation can learn from the Cheaha Trail Riders experience to create riding areas of their own.

The park, in Jemison, near Birmingham, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, has more than 15 miles of trails on 159 acres. And Chilton County, which is building the park, has acquired more land so that the OHV area eventually will encompass 366 acres.

Right now, the project includes trails for dirtbikers, ATVers, mountain bikers, hikers and horse riders.

The park also has a fishing lake with accessible walkways and fishing piers, a youth nature education facility, rider education and training area, a full hook-up camp site, a primitive campsite, and more.

"You have to have a vision of what you want in the park," Myers, a longtime AMA member, says for others interested in creating riding areas.

"Include environmental education, rider training, Americans with Disabilities accessibility, youth adventures and education, and family fun," he says.

A club also needs long-range planning and needs to find funding. With Cheaha Trail Riders support, Chilton County sought and received $874,000 in Recreational Trails Program funding in 2003 to kickstart the project. The Recreational Trails Program returns federal gasoline taxes paid by off-highway recreation enthusiasts to the states primarily for trail development and maintenance.

The Cheaha Trail Riders and the county provided another $218,500 in money, supplies and volunteer hours to create the park.

The land was owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management and was known as a pretty rough area, not because of the terrain but because of the drug dealing and trash dumping on the land.

The new park couldn't have been created without cooperation between the county and the club, Myers says, so it's important to cooperate with government agencies and others. It's also important for clubs to say what they will do to help create a riding area, and then follow through and do it.

Besides reaching out to locals for support, it's important to get in touch with other clubs with experience building riding areas for advice and help, as well as touching base with national groups like the ATVA, American Motorcyclist Association, National Off-Road Vehicle Conservation Council, BlueRibbon Coalition and others, he says.

© 2006, All Terrain Vehicle Association