AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL STARTS WITH YOU - PROTECT THE RIDE

America the Beautiful Starts with You

By Del Albright

Somewhere in the American West – where adventure meets stewardship.

There’s nothing quite like venturing into the backcountry, especially in places where the land still echoes with the raw beauty of America's wilderness. These mountains, ridgelines, and alpine trails are more than just playgrounds for Jeeps, side-by-sides, hikers, and campers — they are sacred spaces that tell the story of a wild, free America.

OUTDOOR RECREATION ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY FROM OIA

Outdoor Recreation Worth Billions!!!

Outdoor Recreation in America is a huge business, bringing BILLIONS of dollars into our economy.

The numbers are in....look what outdoor recreation does for America:

- 6.1 million american jobs

- $646 billion in outdoor recreation spending

each year

- $39.9 billion in federal tax revenue

- $39.7 billion in state/local tax revenue

-  $53 billion on snow sports ($54 billion on internet access)

140 million americans recreate outside.

50 million use OHV’s

This is HUGE news.  Be sure to share with your politicians, newspaper editors, website forum moderators and your club/group.  Shout it from the rooftops!

More details and study results here from the Outdoor Industry Association:

http://www.outdoorindustry.org/images/researchfiles/OIA_OutdoorRecEconomyReport2012.pdf?167

Del

Public Lands to be all National Parks?

The BLM is attempting to turn into a pseudo-park system according to some watchers of government. In fact, Dave Skinner, a Montana based writer, in RANGE magazine (Winter 2011 issue) said the current plan for BLM from the Obama Administration called, Our Vision, Our Values, “ lays out a long-term strategy of empire building on a colossal scale, including a complete transformation of the BLM away from its historic multiple use mission in to the world’s largest zoo.”

BlueRibbon Coalition, Public Lands Department, headed by Brian Hawthorne, has reported and advised on the changes in public lands administration, as well as the dangers for motorized access, since the Babbitt/Clinton days. 

Bottom line: BLM is headed towards a landscape where historic uses like mining and grazing will be a thing of the past, and motorized recreation certainly discouraged, if not forbidden in many places.    Time for tolerance of government stealing our heritage has run out. Time for action is here!

Note that the Treasured Landscape and AGOI described below are moving targets;  not done deals.  BRC and other groups are engaged to protect multiple use/sustained yield.  The following pages/links will be updated when needed so you should stay tuned.

Here are my observations and summaries to help put this in perspective.

Dave Skinner called the beginning of this mess, the Babbitt/Clinton “Monument Orgy.”   Because they couldn’t turn all of BLM into one big National Park,  today we are facing initiatives and administrative things that just sound like closure.

Read the short story and get the right links here: http://www.delalbright.com/Access/nlcs.html

Del

Important America's Great Outdoors Initiative Update 8-30-2010

BLUERIBBON COALITION NATIONAL LANDUSE UPDATE!


BRC America's Great Outdoor Initiative Update

Important update on the Obama Administration's ambitious new conservation agenda

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscribers,

On April 16, 2010, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum that will radically change the U.S. Government's conservation policy. The Memorandum created the America's Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO Initiative) which, among other things, will take public input on how to conserve public and private lands and how to promote outdoor recreation among young Americans.

Many OHV enthusiasts across the nation have attended the meetings and reported in so we wanted to give our members an update. This information is also available on BRC's Public Lands Department section of sharetrails.org: http://www.sharetrails.org/public-lands/ under the section AMERICA'S GREAT OUTDOORS INITIATIVE - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

There are still many questions about the AGO Initiative and how it relates to its companion, the Treasured Landscape Initiative, and we are learning more every day... so watch your inbox for updates and action alerts..

As always, please call or email if you have any questions,
Brian Hawthorne Ric Foster
Public Lands Policy Director Public Lands Department Manager
208-237-1008 ext 102 208-237-1008 ext 107


READ/DOWNLOAD the entire update and details here.