[tacogrande]

I think it's great we have our own subforum. I think we should all be concerned about those "green" people closing our land access. It's really important to me, I have spent 7 of the last 10 years overseas serving our country and have witnessed what the future holds if we do nothing. You can't even drive on gravel roads through the woods here in Germany. I have to drive 100 miles away and pay $90 a day to mess around in an old gravel pit. Please don't let that happen back home! I'm not some political whacko, I'm just one of you guys who wants to enjoy the great outdoors with my family exploring trails and camping away from a million other people. Who doesn't want that? So please guys, do something. Write a respectful letter to your Governor, Senator, and House of representatives. Here's some links on how you can help save your trails!

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14359

http://www.ttora.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=27

Oh and can one of the mods make this a sticky please?

 

[TcmaBoy]

live by the tread lightly rules

http://www.treadlightly.org/

 

[smilycook]

Removed threads

I have been out of town all weekend so I have not been around to respond.

But I heard through the grapevine that there were a number of threads over the weekend about BRC and a press release from a group which seeks to damage the reputation of BRC thru false statements.

This same press release seems to go out every year saying the BRC is funded by Exxon and Chevron. Maybe Exxon and Chevron are sending there money to another BRC, but we have certainly not seen any fat checks on our door steps. Can someone please forward them our correct address

The vast majority of funding for the BRC comes from individuals and member clubs, which means BRC is truely a grassroots organization. The last couple of big checks that have come into the office have arrived from local organizations holding fundraisers.

Last time I checked the enviromental organizations get some mighty large checks from the oil companies and timber companies. They also seem all too willing to sponsor enviromental seminars and conferences. Many timber companies who give money to enviromental organizations participate in clear cutting on private land, since clear cutting has essentially been banned on public lands.

As far as the roadless intiative goes the BRC has been supporting the roadless process being pushed by the Bush administration which gives the states more say in the process. BRC has been closely involved in a number of state petitions for the Bush Roadless Intiative. This has given locals more say in the process. In many ways the Idaho petition is more protective than the Clinton Roadless petition... http://roadless.fs.fed.us/idaho.shtml

If you want to read more about BRC please visit our website at sharetrails.org

Chris

 

[Maticuno]

Support State Parks!

http://ohv.parks.ca.gov/

 

[sulteck]

the Ontario Liberal government is trying and succeeding to close down all remote access to crown land. that all access by any mode boat, 4x4 and plane. apparently humans impact on the land that they want to stop. they are trying to save all the land for the bunny huggers in Toronto that never leave their office.

 

[Dante's Taco]

the Ontario Liberal government

^^ Well there's your first problem son - never vote lieberals into office. $10 billion dollars later & all they manage to do is piss off our best friends to the South.

But they probably do have "public forums" or some such. Dress up - get a hair cut, shave & show up in a suit. Ask tough questions. Bring a camcorder / ipod on record. Invite media friends. Point out how your local group does trail clean ups. You guys DO THAT, right?

If not, then one by one, our playgrounds will fall, thanks to the beer-wheeling assholes who give responsible wheelers a bad name.

reach:

 

[sulteck]

Ontario Outdoors Recreational Alliance (OntORA)

As a matter of fact I am fighting for freedom to access Ontario's crown land. http://ontora.ca/ Is the only organization in the the Provence that I know of that is actively fighting for the right to access crown land.

However is is an up hill battle since the minister that is responsible for Ontario's natural resources has her head shoved up ass the eco tourism train and the save the plant mantra. The provence just passed a law to stop any development of 30% of the land mass of Ontario. Believe it or not the law was justified by the endangered Woodland Caribou that at last count was 37000 strong.

On top of that there is 2000 of the best fishing lakes that have huge no go buffers around them for the exclusive use remote outfitters. This is so the Americain tourist (the primary user of these facilities) can have than remote prestine illusion of being in the wild land of Ontario. Aparently that can't listen to a chainsaw, skider or a wheeler going though the bush,,, but can listen to 9.9hp outboard hum all day while fishing.

Any new areas that are opened up by logging practices have their roads destroyed so that you can't wheel on them. Have almost been kill twice now because of this practice of ditching the road.

To say the least I'm not very happy with the present provincial government and we are still a year away from the next election.

 

[Dante's Taco]

That is ridiculous what they are doing. Ontario is a HUGE province, (with most of the population focused to the extreme south-east - explanation for my US friends who may not know). That leaves 100's of thousands of hectares for OHV use.

But unfortunately, some very well funded (usually by logging or mining) very well known so called "ecological" groups seem to have a hate on for OHV development. Like the gas we expend in the forest is somehow worse than the smog I saw on the 401

It is an uphill battle, BUT not one that has to fail

EVERYONE on this board who does anything off road with their truck should read what is here: http://www.treadlightly.org/. It's part of my sig pic for a reason.

Carry a garbage bag with you. The next time you are stop-checked by a conservation officer (Rangers in the US?), show them how much junk you are packing out. Trust me, it's sad how polluted the remaining trails are. It's not hard to fill a bag. That changes the whole interaction with the officer real fast!

A thousand small actions, but they add up.

Please don't be one of the loser's who thinks "wheelin" is throwing 20 foot mud roosters on private land, and then leaving your empty's lying about.


EDIT: And to Sulteck: I wish you the best in your fight. We have similar land use battles going on here in Alberta with SRD We lost a great OHV park a few years back (probably forever) because of some irresponsible users who chewed the shit out of the trails / went off trial / left burning cars there - general red neck shit). If there's anything we can do, come on to our forum - address in sig pic. PM Freeze or Canadian Bum about tips for how we are fighting this.