Corbitt meeting

binellishtr

Anyone attend, how did it go?

wilburz

i went for the first hour. fwc captain said they have a total of 6 officers in the field at one time covering corbitt, hungry, and dupuis. That is it. I dont see how they can do anything productive with that limited staff. His area covers palm beach and martin county, includes intercoastal and ocean out to 3 miles. And I think he said parks of some sort. state parks maybe. I left when they were going to start brain storming ideas to remedy the drunken yutes that have been terrorizing corbitt and littering.

binellishtr

Funny, they had time to devote to setting up trappers out there,busting people parked along side the road prior to hunting season,but not to enforce the rules? Shows U where the priorities are.

wilburz

yes, seems they like to sit on the main grades and give people tickets for driniking and driving etc.

gritsnhuntin1

I attended as well. Seems like the above comments were correct in my opinion. I also noticed something, my friend commented about it on the drive home. He said that if F.W.C. and law enforcement don't do something, people will start doing it themselves. I think that could be a problem. People will take the law into their own hands and ultimately we will all lose. There was a discussion of locking the south gate during the off season, I dont think that sounded too unreasonable. maybe try it for one year and see what happens? It was also brought up to have both the entrances manned by some type of law enforcement personnel. Another idea brought up was a check in/out system where one would need to state where he/she would be going when inside the wma.It was also brought to the crowd's attention about how hard it is to access wmas like big cypress. It was pointed out that it could happen in Corbett as well. I grew up in Corbett. I'd hate to lose the privilege of access to this place. But it seems like Everyone wanted to point fingers and blame everyone else for all the problems instead of coming up with solutions. I just hope the two factions dont end up getting the place closed down and causing all of us to loose.

binellishtr

solution is pretty easy to me,but politics trump everything nowadays...BOHICA

gritsnhuntin1

The political b.s. was clearly evident.

bgeorge

Do not know about down there but in central FL a WMA locked gate = cut fence. You will limit peoples access that will follow the rules and they are not the problem. There is only so much patrol resource available and a WMA is not the usual focus. You are more likely to get checked for fish or life jackets then have a person even look in the back of a pickup in a WMA. If you follow the "FWC Law Enforcement Weekly Reports" at http://myfwc.com/about/inside-fwc/le/weekly-reports/ you can get an idea of what the priorities and news worthyness is.

mccracker

I was there too. It got pretty heated a couple times but there was some good stuff being thrown around as well. A handful of people recommended a sign in sheet to register where you're going and which camp your staying at with name and address. That would work to find out who was at a camp as long as people actually filled out the paper work. The main thing I noticed was that all of the ideas being tossed around were based on honest people using an honest system, but the people this meeting was about, not just kids out making a mess, still won't abide by rules. More rules for the honest Corbett user is not good. There is a big problem here between not having enough law enforcement, and at the same time not wanting to much more law enforcement. One of the big ideas was to have their officers patrol a couple of Friday and Saturday nights to lay down the law on the nights the partiers are there, which makes the most sense and even then the response was, "My officers are working all of their hours and by the time Friday and Saturday night roll around they're half asleep in bed because they've already pulled a 10 hour shift."

micci_man

LEO academy's for new officers are full all the time. Why can't FWC get new positions? it's sad to say but any honest system will not work plain and simple. There will have to be a presence and enough of them at all times of FWC or some form of LEO to cure the problems. End of story... only other option is it will be closed.

gottheitch22

Locks are only ment to keep the honest people out . Same as a sign in sheet . what they need to do is just make a big pressence a couple times a year for a week or 2 and that will take care of it . Its really not that hard .

Derek Arsua

Well IMHO I would say they need to stop spending there resources on new big boats with triple and quad engines and new trucks every year or 2 I drive daily a vehicle that was manufactured in 1997 and it holds up fine for me because I properly maintain it. My point being those vehicles they buy adds up to one mans time a year and I don't know what they pay for boats or if there confinscated but really they have more than enough people wanting and willing to do the job I being one, but they recruit like they are doing seal training and only a select few it seems priorities are backward. And I don't even wanna get started on the panther relocation BS along with monies made from special ops hunts gator tags licenses fines etc. that should add up to a lot seeing as I alone spend upwards of probably $400-$500 a year on licenses and gator permits etc. and then you throw in government funding on top of that. 6 people to cover an area the size of Palm beach county is insane I can't drive thru royal palm without seeing atleast 3-5 sheriff officers that's just one road in Palm beach county!!! Seems they need to have marine patrol divisions and woods patrol not 2 hats for one guy I would say you need atleast 4 for Corbett area 2 accesses and a lot of main grade and trails. I know it's not the officers faults they have to take orders the same as the rest of us but with even double the man power we would see some kind of change for the better. If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about plain and simple

matt1969

Ive been in corbett fir over 25 years and these dumb *** kids are gonna get the placed closed up.how hard is it to sit by the gate sat night and write some tickits .it dont take a rocket scientist to figure out whos trashing the place.me and my 7 yearold daughter spent 2 hours cleaning up glass in camp B over the weekend. probly 100 broken beer bottles .i cant stand the young punks going out there.at this point im about to rip the next shaggy haried hat on backwards punk out of his **** box truck and shove a beer bottle in his a$$.these kids think its mudfest out there.i got no problem with playing around but its got out of control. People hauling but down the grade and trails are gonna get the beer bottle tratment also.

Derek Arsua

I feel ya .season before last I spent about an hour picking up beer bottles and cans broken and not broken clay pigeons and about 500 empty shells 300 or of which were shotgun shells but there was .22 38 357 40 and 45 casings to all in the middle of trail 9 right by the road along with all there leftover trash from where they camped. I don't wanna run over that $#!t or see it. Absolute last thing I wanna do is change out a cut down tire in Corbett sand and then fork $200 to replace a tire

AgentX

Good stuff. Why do you guys spell corbitt this way? Is this an old timer way of spelling it? Or just the way you would say it if you were in a Patrick smith novel. Just wondering.

matt1969

What really sucks is all the times my kids are goona get cut because they forget their shoes and walk arond at camp.i could not get all the glass because someone had to do donuts all over camp b and sling glass and rip out all the grass.but thats cool .one day i hope im as cool as these kids.till then ill clean up there mess and wait for the day one is a smarta$$ to me.

Big Mak

I tend to agree with Matt1969, but unfortunately that won't get the job done. I'm not sure what needs to be done to curb the BS out there but there are enough rules on this WMA to regulate it adequately. The problem is lack of enforcement. I live in Loxahatchee, about ten minutes from the check station. I have enjoyed this WMA off and on since about 1974.

I'm typically against govt intrusion, but that's because I roll legal. At this point I think they need a LEO presence at both check stations, (and I realize lack of funding/manpower is the standard argument against) at least during the weekends. It really doesn't take much to identify troublemakers, but on the other hand it's not exactly a crime to transport alcohol into the WMA, and some punks don't need beer to act like *******s. So who knows what the solution should be? My crystal balls tell me the next sweeping rule change you will likely see here will be all alcohol prohibited, since it appears the biggest gripe is beer bottles and broken glass litter. You may also see buggies and off roading limited to numbered trails. Sadly, the problem of lack of enforcement will continue to remain a problem, however.

That said, I took my family for a ride out there last Friday and literally had a parade of no less than 12 pbso and FWC vehicles tearing **** outta the south entrance about a hour before sunset. I wasn't sure what to think about that...

Now of course I'm against more laws and a proponent of good enforcement, but wait till they create designated campgrounds at each check station, and prohibit interior camping.... A stretch you say? Maybe so, but I can assure you that if you ***** loud and long enough a ”solution” will be handed down and none of us will have much say in it. I've seen it happen, particularly in this WMA... Most of you don't remember the airboat races that used to take place in this area, but I do... Just saying; something needs to be done, but be very careful what battles you choose and your course of actions.

monkeybusinessjr

Haven't kids been getting drunk and raising hell out there for 30 years? Is it worse now than it used to be?

wilburz

sadly I see the only solution is what was mentioned above. take interior camping out of the area. just like 3-lakes. they can take 10 or 20 acres of that new land east of the south check station that is slated for a gun range and make it the camping area.

matt1969

Does not have anything to do with camp sites.that would help nothing.just a sheriff or fwc a few sat nights would do wonders.maybe one of the 10 sherrif vehicles and 15 sherrifs i seen on northlake satuday evening puting little kids atvs on a tow truck could go do some real work,and not worry about impounding some little kids atv.but that just my opinion.im sure those little 50cc bikes and 9 year olds were really raising hell.

Pinman

The bigger picture....it's an opportunity problem.

Back when I moved to the area not too far from Corbett in 1974, if I wanted to go 4 wheelin, I went to Okeechobee mud flats, or PB Country Estates or the sand dunes in Juno Beach, or the Acreage, or.....

All those places are gone. Replaced by the ever increasing population.

As of today, where does anyone go to do some 4 wheelin? The equestrians have plenty of places to ride. If you want to do some muddin....you go to a mudfest (when they have them)....or you go to Corbett. Find a piece of land for 4 wheelin and let em have at it.

And I remember the airboat races...and Hu**** Burns

Big Mak

Ron, you and I both know, legal opportunities will naturally become lost as a byproduct of increased legislation, period. I've said this 1001 times that you can't decrease lawless behaviour by stacking on more rules to make current rules work. Without law enforcement, enforcing the law, ya just don't have a chance in these kinds of scenarios.

gritsnhuntin1

I can see some Corbett old timer trying to set a few youngsters straight, and bad things happening. It's a time bomb. Someone won't see it quite as clearly as the other and next thing ya know we read about it in the paper or hear about it in the news.

Big Mak

I can see the same.

gritsnhuntin1

We can all say what we would do and say if it were us, but how can we get these kids to realize they are gonna ruin it for ALL involved. I was allowed to run my buggy out there at a very young age, i hate to think it could be taken away from my kids and maybe grandkids if it were still around that long.

Alan Buchanan

Just about any weekend night a few officers could net 20 minors in possession and consuming alcohol and a few adults for contributing. Just about anyone driving the roads after 10pm is more than likely a DUI arrest and there could be loads of firearm violations on these guys as well. I hate to see any new laws, just enforce the ones we have. DUI is a huge issue there as well. I'm nearly hit head on by some knucklehead hauling **** around blind turns at least a few times per year. A few law enforcement blitzes per year would do worlds of good.

binellishtr

all them nicely graded roads out there didn't help...

gottheitch22

Like i said befor if FWC WANTED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS SHOW A SHOW OF FORCE OUT THERE FOR A WHILE AND IT WILL STOP . But they dont want it to cause they probably want t change the rules there .

binellishtr

WINNER WINNER chicken diner....

Big Mak

I have to agree with 'itch22. Here is what I think they want in the near future; no drinking, no interior camping, no rifles, no dog hunting, and no off trail buggy or 4wd riding. Also a greater antler restriction... Oh, forgot that was already pushed through.... Add to that, some within or own hunting community are assuredly pushing for done of these things on their own already.

You can't ever forget, the ultimate goal in this country and in this world, is to either strictly regulate guns/hunting for big $, or eradicate it completely, especially where it doesn't pay.

davidflorida

Divide and conquer , little but at a time till poof your done .


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