"What has the wheeling community done wrong?
First, agreeing with the government to let them drive the planing process. Most of the mtn bike projects are funded, spearheaded, and managed by the user groups. They're not letting the government take over planning of their park. We failed here by putting the onus on DNR to develop a recreation plan. The ORV community should have inked a stewardship agreement with DNR instead of asking DNR to manage the area like WV."
DING-DING-DING!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
I tried telling the ORV community, what has to be damn near a decade ago, that they needed to get together and manage Reiter like an ORV park before the government stepped in and did it. Nobody liked that idea, it meant not treating the area like a playground and doing whatever the hell you wanted. (I'm not just referring to 4x4 users.)
The other problem is, there was no stewardship agreement back then to ink the the DNR that could have involved motorized recreation as it wasn't an ORV park. The management that needed to happen, needed to happen within the user communities. Perhaps the OHV community would have had a little more leverage with the DNR when Reiter's day came. Heck, if the area was used responsibly, perhaps that day wouldn't have come.
The problem Reiter had was it's users, plain and simple. Those users have no dispersed in to other areas, I get to hear from LEO in other districts every now and then about how land abuse ramped up after Reiter shut down.
If Reiter opens back up, that's going to be the same problem and suddenly those supporting the area will find themselves in the position of having to educate and likely report their friends.