meeting with a greenie

[BruceWA]

Sorry, cannot agree with your logic. My experience on the West Coast confirms that the Sierra Club will NOT make any concessions from their agenda. Certainly I wish you well, but you will be a mouse playing with the cat!

I would encourage all off roaders to become active in attempting to maintain what areas/trails we presently are fortunate enough to have remaining. We need to wake up before we can only watch videos of what we used to love to do. If you, collectively, are waiting for someone else to speak for you, you better wake up and take an active role NOW!!

Mike, my hat is off to you for meeting with them, but I wouldn't believe a word they say!

[Guest Guest]

WR400Rock,

Things are a little different on the East Coast. I would not attemt this on the West coast. They are way too hostile on the west side. The serria club chairman I am meeting with is interested to hear what i have to say and vice versa. It's a no loose situation for me. Both being of military service background we have a little in common. We have talked often and have decided on a casual meeting. I am hoping it turns into something positive. If not, no problem. I just feel we can get more acomplished if we can work together. If no, life goes on.

[Brian_in_Long_Beach]

Mike68 - more power to you. I hope things go well and that an equitable compromise can be reached by working together.

Mike in SV - I was going to make a snide remark about the construction image but I guess it can wait till tomorrow ?

Brian

[Ron_in_SoCal]

Way to go Mike68! I hope things work out...

[Guest Guest]

Yup, it's true, don't freak out, I am meeting with a serria club chairman for breakfast tomorrow in New Hampshire. No, I am not joining but working on the bigger picture. The greenies here are not radicals like California, but still try and close trails and stuff like that. The big problem is the only solution they know is to close trails. There is no input from the biker community...until now. It is a casual meeting for a couple of things.

1. We are going to discuss the areas of concer on the behalf of serria club

2. We are going to discuss the concerns of the biker comunity

3. Discuss ideas, alternatives and solutions instead of just proposing closure.

I will represent the sport with class. If it goes nowhere, so be it, I tried. It will all start and end with a handshake and a thanks for you time.

I figure if we can get the OHRV community involved and work on solutions with Serria club and the trails bureau of NH, Maby, just maby we can prevent trail closures and possibly set up a trail and wildlife management system to work hand in hand. California is proof the fighting each other creates a drive and determination that can grow violent. I want to avoid that and I do care about the environment I tread on.

Who knows what will become of this meeting. One thing for sure is nothing bad will come of it.

I also posted for info on california stickers. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Cost, fund allocations, and what green and red ones are for. I am just curious on that.

The chairman is a 72 year old war vet, so he can't be all that bad.

Wish me luck.

[Mike_in_Silicon_valley]

Mike,

Way to go. Being proactive instead of reactive. You will probably find we have many things in common. I also value the environment, just not to the extent that I can't use it. Their perception of us is probably based on the knuckleheaded minority amongst us. I work in the construction industry and have fought that stereotype many times. Let us know how it goes.

[Guest Guest]

Well, Things went quite well. We will be meeting again in the near future. My next step is to send letters to all the OHRV club head members and request their presence for the next meeting. The main concern is the environment. If we can prove that proposed trails will not harm the environment, or we can maintain the trail and environment, or provide a trail around an endangered species are, there would be minimal opposition if any at all. I am sure that this can be done. Also we discussed bringing in an environmental specialist that bothe sides agree on to evaluate the ares proposed for riding. We will walk through these areas with this person and listen to what he or she has to say. I would expext he or she to recomend a path that will be the best for the environment and recomend ways to mantain it. Trails and the environment can co-exist.

It is going to take some time. I am hoping for some good feed back from the bike clubs. If not, I will have to start my own.

I read everyones posts Sat morning before my meeting. Your support gave me a warm fuzzy. I would be more than happy to send anyone a copy of the letter I plan on sending to the Bike clubs for your review, edit and sugestions. I will take any help I can get. A lot of what happens will depend on how this letter is recieved. Thanks for your suport

Mike

[Ron_in_SoCal]

Excellent job Mike. Sign me up for sending a letter or two. Maybe we could post a few well worded letters here for people to send, along with names and addresses of where to send them…

[TheBOS]

way to go mike.

send me a copy of the letter I would like to check it out.

-brett

[This message has been edited by TheBOS (edited 02-26-2001).]

[Guest Guest]

I have contacetd 3 atv clubs so far and it looks like there will be a meeting in the near future. 2 of the 3 clubs seemed very interested and the 3rd is willing to review the invite with their club. I am hoping to contact the rest of the groups tonight and am looking forwar to some more positive feedback from these clubs as well.

Mike