I am thinking you are near the Wickliffe mill. If that is the case, we sold the majority of that land in 2005/06 when that mill was sold to Cerberus Partners / New Page. I was a finance guy in the MeadWestvaco Forestry Division at that time ....
The issue is liability - on a lot of fronts - injury, environmental concerns (clean water act primarily) and others. In the 90s most big landowners shifted from cables to gates after a few cases of severe injuries to trespassers on ATVs ... use your imagination ..... along with very large out of court settlements made by corporate counsels without big cohones
In the late 90s, I gained a bit of traction with the concept of recreational leases other than hunting (focused on OHV rec as I was - a member of Middle Tennessee Trailrunners and an officer of Southern Four Wheel Drive Assn at the time), but that got destroyed by one unscrupulous event promoter who ran a paid event on my company's land w/o asking for permission ... and some of his participants threatened two of our foresters. (If there are any members that know the history of the great place we call Windrock - this is the same promoter that almost got that place shut down before it even started).
At any rate, it only takes a few "bad apples" to ruin things .... or well, intentioned folks who dont get all the Is dotted and Ts crossed.
<soap box mode off>