Letter To Doc Hastings

[Grumpy]

Doc,

As the summer recreation season is on us, guess it's time again for me to start another round on the Juniper Dunes access fiasco. Can you give me an update on things from your end that I can pass on to the groups I'm representing? One of the things that has come up here regards the use of the funds that may be generated with your Douglas PUD bill. There is some concern that these funds could be hijacked to go towards the access problems that seem to have cropped up at the new Wild Sky Wilderness. Franklin County already got shut down on a grant for Peterson Road aquisition so the money could go to "urban areas"! I'm still a mite annoyed over that one.
We've also been seeing some increased incidents of illegal off road activities in the National Forests, and on State DNR land. Not something any of us deal well with! What this is leading up to is, what are the chances of more funding to the FS and, by extension, the BLM, for education and enforcement. These guys are starting to get treated like the ugly step sister when it comes to money. These illegal actions by a few idiots are having the affect of getting more land closed, which forces us into ever smaller areas, thus the problem snowballs. I'm starting to feel like an endangered species just because I own a 4x4 truck! We have been tracking these incidents and doing quite a bit of detective work on our own, and will continue our efforts to protect our use of these areas, but the guys in the field could sure use some help!!
If your schedule would allow at some point, we'd all like to meet with you to go over some of our concerns.
Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Dave Walters
Tri Cities Peak Putters
Land Use Coordinator
PNW4WDA Delegate

www.peakputters.com
www.rumblegoatracing.com

[Grumpy]

Just got a call from Tara Robertson in Hastings' D.C. office, and a very good visit. Nice gal!. So, as regards to the Senate Lands bill that Doc's Douglas PUD legislation has been lumped in with, don't figure on it getting out and signed this year. About all that may fly will be military funding. One hang up down the road is Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R), who is not a big fan of the way the Senate bundles unrelated items up in one bill. He will be pushing to get non land items expelled is how I read things. Tara did assure me that my fear of money from the PUD bill getting hijacked to Wild Sky isn't a worry. The money will be required to go to BLM issues in Washington. Now, our esteemed Senator Cantwell(D) is a ranking member of the committee that will be working on all this, and may not be completely on the "other" side. I will be sending my thoughts to Cantwell and Murray today, and strongly suggest we all chime in! I also hit pretty hard on the lack of trail and enforcement money for the USFS and BLM, and the snowball affect it's having on the areas we can wheel in getting shut down. Hope this meets with everyone's approval, as I plan on keeping the pressure on. OH, and the Senate is back in session today. Get on it, kids!