PEAK PUTTERS

http://www.stopthrillcraft.org/

[quote]Our Vision

By George Wuerthner

I recently went out for a meal in a crowded local brew-pub restaurant. As I sat there enjoying my draft, I realized that there was no swirl of smoke wafting through the room. The smoke-free public space was created by a city-wide smoking ban enacted by the city counsel a number of years ago. At the time the ban was proposed, smokers clamored about how their “rightsâ€

Thanks for putting this up, Clay! I've already started doing some digging on this. Lets hope it can get some of our crew fired up enough to get involved on a more personal basis, because this is personal! It amounts to a declaration of war on our chosen recreation, and should get all of us angry that there are poltroons out there that want to deprive us of our right to use public lands. United and BRC need to hit this hard. I'll be doing what I can, a bit at a time.

Ah Dave............. don't get me started cause we've been going down this road with the PNW forum and all.

Can't get the wheelers to get organized like the greenies so it's gonna happen whether we like it or not. Can't even get the quad riders to ride on the trails and not through the meadows... can't even get the 4x4 jeep/yota/et:al to stay out of the meadows.. Can't even get a national organization to umbrella all the wheelers cause the special interest groups/clubs are too short sighted to look at anything except their own thing.

Unfortunately it seems that the "all or nothing" mentality is rampant in this country and if the special interest groups/PACS can't have it their way it gets tied up in the court system.

We got things going for a while on the PNW forum, but then stuff deteriorated into the big name/blame/whatever game. PNW is too narrow minded to get the ball rolling for all wheelers. They have the innies and the outties, the competition, and the non-competition, the members and the non members, the voters and the non voters, and on and on, not to forget the totally so yesteryear sloooow way of working anything through the organization.

All the off-road people in this state can't get together in this state..... how in the world can anyone then expect that it could happen on the national level?

Sooooooooooooooo the Sierra Club, the Wildlife Federation, the thrillcraft thing, and on and on are just going to clean our collective clocks. A significant number of those type of groups have FULL TIME PAID LAWYERS/LOBBYISTS harranging away at all state and federal elected officials. And it is working for them. They have national fund raising campaigns to get money. The tree-huggers have people willing to risk going to jail and ending up in expensive court battles sitting in those trees................ meanwhile we can't even get people dedicated enough to get an organized group together in this state and get past the petty internal squabbling and get a state-wide effort going to fight for keeping basic citizen/tax-payer rights to meander around in "their" tax-payer supported state and federal lands.

Whoaaa..... gotta gotta b-r-e-a-t-h a-i-r.........

What I see happening is that groups are just going to have to purchase their own little place to play in, like their own little rockpile. And that's liable to be about the best that can be hoped for due to the inability to get organized. And if you look around you are starting to see more and more privately/group owned "activity areas." However in this state even that is at risk cause there is a persistent movement to try and control how property owners use their own property. The most recent effort at that was shot down here, but they will keep at it. How long has the Sierra Club been pursuing their goals?

My hat goes off to Ceg and his group as they have been very very active at trying to get good press for the wheelers in this corner of the state. They work hard at keeping trails clean, and repairing damage that inconsiderate wheelers have caused. They practice what they preach, and most important of all, they keep trying.

As much as it pains me, I have to agree with Bruce. I don't see any way that the orv industry can combat this effort. Listening to the video was very difficult. This guy is full of you know what. It is a political ploy. Putting up pictures like the big fat redneck on his quad agaisnt the innocent kids holding up an elk antler makes me sick. And, the whole basket of apples is rotten....where does he get off. He should be sued for slander.

I think next we should ban all motor vehicles on earth. We're tearing up precious country for roads; we're wasiting tons of natural resources for fuel; emmisions are creating a huge hole in the atmosphere; the noise of vehicles in town is enough to make most folks sick; and of course we could all think of more to add to the list.

What about the folks that litter our public lands, start fires, cut timber for campfires. Don't try to tell me that there are not any bad apples in their basket....CAUSE THERE ARE!

I just hope that there is someone out there that can do what this organization did and pull together enough people and energy to fight this.

Okay, I'll quit now. And NO I'm not settled down....this sucks!