New President Now What

[ATVsToday]

©2008 by Del Albright, Land Use, Access and Rubicon Trail Home Page by Del Albright including Volunteer Training and Outdoor Photography . Use by permission only. Page 1

A New President! Now What?

Recreationists Must Unite and Mobilize

By Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador

Recreationists who enjoy the backcountry, waterways, off‐pavement trails and SUV exploring have a

huge new door of opportunity open to us – as well as a new challenge. The time has never been more

critical for us to unite and mobilize to enjoy this new door and meet this new challenge. No matter how

you wanted this election to turn out, we have to step up, work together, and mobilize our forces to help

this new administration understand our sports and access issues.

Inherent with new Presidents, rotating congress critters, and term limits, we will always be in the game

of educating new elected officials. It is our destiny if we are to survive.

I think there are a few steps we can take to ensure the future of our sports, no matter how you view this

change in American politics. And one thing is for sure: we can all be proud of the fact that it is America

and we can affect change by speaking up and working together. This is not the time to sit by and wait.

We must act and help the newly‐elected politician at all levels understand that we are the responsible

stewards of our public lands and that we deserve access. Here are my suggestions for “now what?”

Step one is to unite our various sports and access interests at every opportunity. Leadership meetings

and Summits, intra and inter‐state, will help us find new ways to cooperate. Differences must be put

aside and past intra‐sport conflicts must come to an end. We need an Army now, more than ever.

National groups like the BlueRibbon Coalition are an obvious membership for every recreationist in this

country because “mixed use” will be an important strategy for keeping trails and riding areas open.

Groups like the North American Motorized Recreation Council (NAMRC) and the new BlueRibbon

National Land Use Advisory Council (NLUAC) that facilitate regionalized communication will help us

breech gaps in communication and facilitate long‐term solutions to local and regional problems, as well

as national issues. But no matter who works for us, we all need to be united in our efforts.

Step two is to engage recreationists at all levels to join up and be part of organized recreation. There

are millions of us out there waiting for a reason to join up and get involved. This new Administration is

the reason. They need us to help them understand who we are and what we stand for.

A quick internet search shows that those who oppose our access outnumber us by well over a million

members and hundreds of millions of dollars. Just the numbers for a few key groups are shocking:

The Wilderness Society has over 300,000 members and supporters, with $60 million bucks in the

bank.

The Sierra Club with over 730,000 members and over a hundred million dollars in their kitty.

The National Audubon Society with net assets at the end of 2007 at over $300 million and tens

of thousands of members.

So why do we have so many off‐pavement and waterway recreationists who are not members of

something? The reality is that our state, regional and national organizations have not yet found the

magic formula to engage all these pending members. I think this election changes that. We all now

have reasons to jump in with both feet and to engage our friends and fellow recreationists to turn this

Article: New President; Now What?

door of opportunity into one we’ll never forget. We have to be the solution with our large

organizations and become the empowerment to get others to join the cause. Membership in our

standing organizations and clubs is absolutely critical to the survival of responsible recreation.

Step three is to adopt more of our public lands and engage with our state and federal land management

agencies. We have to partner up with land management agencies at every opportunity and find ways

for us to be involved in the use, management and future of those lands and waterways we love to play

on. We need to be at the table when decisions are made, problems are identified, and solutions are

implemented.

We have to take “ownership” of our resources. Oh, excuse me, we do own America! Let’s not forget

that. When it comes to public lands, they are YOUR public lands. So we need to do everything we can

to ensure our lands are protected FOR the public instead of FROM the public. ☺

(That is the motto of the BlueRibbon Coalition).

###

BlueRibbon Coalition is a national recreation group that champions responsible use of public and private lands,

and encourages individual environmental stewardship. It represents over 10,000 individual members and 1200

organization and business members, for a combined total of over 600,000 recreationists nationwide. Call 1-800-

258-3742 and visit BRC online at BlueRibbon Coalition: Preserving your recreational access to public lands.. Also visit Del’s website at Land Use, Access and Rubicon Trail Home Page by Del Albright including Volunteer Training and Outdoor Photography.

[GrizzlyRider]

Economic Stimulus Bill Contains Funding For Plug In Cars, ATV Trails, HIV Testing

P. 45: “$25,000,000 is for recreation maintenance, especially for rehabilitation of off-road vehicle routes, and $20,000,000 is for trail maintenance and restoration.” ATV owners, rejoice.

Economic Stimulus Bill Contains Funding For Plug In Cars, ATV Trails, HIV Testing - Say Anything Mobile

[Wrathe]

As well as allot of Pork Barrel spending, to the tune of 300 billion.

Also, illegal immigrants are quallified for tax rebate checks to the tune of $500 to $1000 per person, wtf?

Edited January 29, 2009 by Wrathe