Tacoma
Et incurventur ante non
- Location
- far enough away
First, a big thanks to Paul Anderson, new president of USA-ALL, for inviting the members of RME to attend USA-ALL's first land-use seminar, held today in Provo-- a larger venue than anticipated.
You can see the thread here for details on who spoke (http://www.rme4x4.com/showpost.php?p=742261&postcount=14). A couple no-shows among the speakers, but the room was packed with attendees from all over the state, and one guy from Vegas. None of the speakers were bad, and while some of us may have heard much of it before, I think that as a concept, and as the seed of an idea to have these meetings around the state, I really liked it. Mark Ward in particular was to the point and energized on the necessity of involvement on all levels, and particularly among the usergroups that are out on these at-risk roads, trails, and byways.
Two things I took away from the seminar: Form letters without any personal content are glossed over--- so if you sign those emailed links to form letters, add a personal blurb at the beginning, or just write your own. All of the staffers that spoke mentioned that it is when they start seeing people sending in emails or letters about an issue that they start paying attention. So you DO have a voice, use it.
The other thing was that there is reason to hope, even with the new Wild Lands directive. The counties here are committed to fighting this wholesale dismissal of Utah's sovereignty on land issues, but they need the users to be involved too-- something I have mentioned before. We ALL need to stand united against loss of access to public lands. None of this should be an issue, but it is, and it will be our fault if we let the government dictate what THEY let us keep to drive on, and it ain't much.
anyway. Thank you Paul.
You can see the thread here for details on who spoke (http://www.rme4x4.com/showpost.php?p=742261&postcount=14). A couple no-shows among the speakers, but the room was packed with attendees from all over the state, and one guy from Vegas. None of the speakers were bad, and while some of us may have heard much of it before, I think that as a concept, and as the seed of an idea to have these meetings around the state, I really liked it. Mark Ward in particular was to the point and energized on the necessity of involvement on all levels, and particularly among the usergroups that are out on these at-risk roads, trails, and byways.
Two things I took away from the seminar: Form letters without any personal content are glossed over--- so if you sign those emailed links to form letters, add a personal blurb at the beginning, or just write your own. All of the staffers that spoke mentioned that it is when they start seeing people sending in emails or letters about an issue that they start paying attention. So you DO have a voice, use it.
The other thing was that there is reason to hope, even with the new Wild Lands directive. The counties here are committed to fighting this wholesale dismissal of Utah's sovereignty on land issues, but they need the users to be involved too-- something I have mentioned before. We ALL need to stand united against loss of access to public lands. None of this should be an issue, but it is, and it will be our fault if we let the government dictate what THEY let us keep to drive on, and it ain't much.
anyway. Thank you Paul.
