I have been thinking about this for a while now so I will spew my thought out here for the 4x4 community to look upon.
Lets focus on what can be done to fill a gaping hole in the current Land Use battle, that hole being that there is no clear and concise place to find the basics for how to help fight the land use battle and what the battle is really all about.
The general public is used to having everything spelled out for them or does not have the time it takes to figure out all of the ins and outs being a proper steward of the land, or we are just too lazy / don’t know that we should care because the organizations that are out there have failed to get us involved for one reason or another.
– I don’t mean ‘hey join U4 or BRC etc’ that doesn’t do anything but have people give money to an organization that they really don’t know what they are doing (can you say easterners and giving $$ to SUWA).
What I mean is a Land use for dummies article/pamphlet. Something that covers at least the following
- Basics of staying on the trail – There are plenty of threads on the interweb where some douche canoe drives right past the sign that says road closed because they see that obviously the road has been washed out but some other paddlers have forded the river 15 feet upstream so the sign must be wrong… -- just saying “use leave no trace ethics” doesn’t cut it as that assumes that said user is willing to go and read what leave no trace is, lets get some specifics out there.
- What to expect from the land use organizations that are out there and who they are. – and I really mean what to expect not what they are providing now, IE Updates on current closures, what volunteer positions are available (not just join the board specific positions or jobs that need to be fulfilled) and updates on the progress of these tasks etc, what the org is doing with your donation $$, I am sure there is more but you see the point here.
- how the political process works for the current land issues, and where the user plays a part in this.
Yes there is probably more and I am sure that whoever decides to tackle a project like this would see many other items that may need to be incorporated but this would surely get the ball rolling and help people understand what is going on. I would say that having something like this available to john Q public would help bring more $$ and volunteers to the land use battle and would also help keep the land use orgzzz in line with what they should be doing as they would have a constituency that would be at least partially educated as to what to expect from them.
Lets focus on what can be done to fill a gaping hole in the current Land Use battle, that hole being that there is no clear and concise place to find the basics for how to help fight the land use battle and what the battle is really all about.
The general public is used to having everything spelled out for them or does not have the time it takes to figure out all of the ins and outs being a proper steward of the land, or we are just too lazy / don’t know that we should care because the organizations that are out there have failed to get us involved for one reason or another.
– I don’t mean ‘hey join U4 or BRC etc’ that doesn’t do anything but have people give money to an organization that they really don’t know what they are doing (can you say easterners and giving $$ to SUWA).
What I mean is a Land use for dummies article/pamphlet. Something that covers at least the following
- Basics of staying on the trail – There are plenty of threads on the interweb where some douche canoe drives right past the sign that says road closed because they see that obviously the road has been washed out but some other paddlers have forded the river 15 feet upstream so the sign must be wrong… -- just saying “use leave no trace ethics” doesn’t cut it as that assumes that said user is willing to go and read what leave no trace is, lets get some specifics out there.
- What to expect from the land use organizations that are out there and who they are. – and I really mean what to expect not what they are providing now, IE Updates on current closures, what volunteer positions are available (not just join the board specific positions or jobs that need to be fulfilled) and updates on the progress of these tasks etc, what the org is doing with your donation $$, I am sure there is more but you see the point here.
- how the political process works for the current land issues, and where the user plays a part in this.
Yes there is probably more and I am sure that whoever decides to tackle a project like this would see many other items that may need to be incorporated but this would surely get the ball rolling and help people understand what is going on. I would say that having something like this available to john Q public would help bring more $$ and volunteers to the land use battle and would also help keep the land use orgzzz in line with what they should be doing as they would have a constituency that would be at least partially educated as to what to expect from them.
