Battle for the Glade/Choke Cherry has begun (again)...
By: Darryl Dunlap
Okay folks, the fight to keep our land open and try to get back our trails in the Glade has started again, with the City Of Farmington forming an advisory group to help them develop recommendations to the BLM.
Groups represented at the first meeting were: ATV/UTVers, Mtn-Bikers, Horse Riders, Motorcycle Riders, SJ College (they use this area for student courses in outdoor leadership), BLM and the City. Absent was the 4X4 appointee.
We have a new BLM Field Manager here and they are not scrapping the comments and ideas already put forth, but they are backing up and starting the process over to get more info and try to get groups to come together on ideas.
Public comment will be sometime in July. We have strongly recommended that there be at least one open meeting for the public to comment.
If anyone has ideas, thoughts or comments, they can either send them to the 4X4 rep (Phil Collard), or to myself.
Remember, we have to be reasonable, we need ideas, we need input. But what we don't need is fighting, bickering or war stories of how bad the bikers or other groups are. We are truly at a point that if we don't have some civil conversations and come up with a plan, we won't go anywhere and the Glade will drift off as a place "we used to go to have fun".
I don't want to lose any land, in fact, my intent is to expand our 4X4 Open OHV Area and get back the trails we have lost to the north of the current area. And there seems to be some thinking that we may be able to do that, if we are willing to be at the table to work it out. But that is where we will have to realize, we may have to be ready to negotiate and compromise. I don't like that anymore than you do, but our other option is to possibly lose our area or gain nothing and lose a large area to non-motorized recreation.
I was in Moab last week, at a UTV rally and found that the bikers, hikers, UTVers and 4X4 crowd have learned to work together so they don't lose anymore land...that is what we need here.
And if anyone says our only option is lawyers and courts, I ask them, how are they going to get around the registers full of laws and regs that give the BLM the power to hold this thing up for years and years or to close it all.
Don't get me wrong, I hate losing land to the Feds, I think they have forgotten that they work for us, the public. But I think we are at a point where fighting is not being productive, so we need to bring our butts back to the table and be ready to work this out..
My email is [email protected]
Email me ideas, but lets keep them positive towards finding a true solution.
By: Darryl Dunlap
Okay folks, the fight to keep our land open and try to get back our trails in the Glade has started again, with the City Of Farmington forming an advisory group to help them develop recommendations to the BLM.
Groups represented at the first meeting were: ATV/UTVers, Mtn-Bikers, Horse Riders, Motorcycle Riders, SJ College (they use this area for student courses in outdoor leadership), BLM and the City. Absent was the 4X4 appointee.
We have a new BLM Field Manager here and they are not scrapping the comments and ideas already put forth, but they are backing up and starting the process over to get more info and try to get groups to come together on ideas.
Public comment will be sometime in July. We have strongly recommended that there be at least one open meeting for the public to comment.
If anyone has ideas, thoughts or comments, they can either send them to the 4X4 rep (Phil Collard), or to myself.
Remember, we have to be reasonable, we need ideas, we need input. But what we don't need is fighting, bickering or war stories of how bad the bikers or other groups are. We are truly at a point that if we don't have some civil conversations and come up with a plan, we won't go anywhere and the Glade will drift off as a place "we used to go to have fun".
I don't want to lose any land, in fact, my intent is to expand our 4X4 Open OHV Area and get back the trails we have lost to the north of the current area. And there seems to be some thinking that we may be able to do that, if we are willing to be at the table to work it out. But that is where we will have to realize, we may have to be ready to negotiate and compromise. I don't like that anymore than you do, but our other option is to possibly lose our area or gain nothing and lose a large area to non-motorized recreation.
I was in Moab last week, at a UTV rally and found that the bikers, hikers, UTVers and 4X4 crowd have learned to work together so they don't lose anymore land...that is what we need here.
And if anyone says our only option is lawyers and courts, I ask them, how are they going to get around the registers full of laws and regs that give the BLM the power to hold this thing up for years and years or to close it all.
Don't get me wrong, I hate losing land to the Feds, I think they have forgotten that they work for us, the public. But I think we are at a point where fighting is not being productive, so we need to bring our butts back to the table and be ready to work this out..
My email is [email protected]
Email me ideas, but lets keep them positive towards finding a true solution.