IMPORTANT - Review of Steward's Trip to D.C.

[KTMrad 512]

WEB LINK HERE

Very important to send in your letters of support of HR1581 ! The greenies will be overpowering with their letters to oppose this !

Dear Randy,

Last week I was invited to testify before a Congressional House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest and Public Lands in Washington DC. The purpose of my testimony was to provide facts and information to legislators from the perspective of the largest on the ground grass roots volunteer organization in the Sequoia National Forest as to why 43 million acres of Wilderness Study and Roadless area public lands should be released back to multiple use under HR 1581 Wilderness and Roadless Release Act of 2011.

WHAT IS TESTIMONY FOR HR1581 ALL ABOUT?

Those of you who have been reading Stewards recent alerts will know that all of these 43 million acres had been found unsuitable for Wilderness over 20 years ago, but had never been released. Stewards offered extensive written testimony to Congress including maps and documents showing why these lands in Sequoia National Forest and surrounding BLM lands are unsuitable for Wilderness. I also provided a five minute verbal testimony and answered questions from Congressman.

At the conclusion of my testimony I hand delivered a file storage box jammed full of over 3000 letters submitted by the public in support of HR1581 to release these unsuitable lands back to multiple use. In response those opposing hurriedly left the hearing and came back with what looked like a folder containing a few letters. We caught them off guard, but rest assured they will get their spin machines in full gear and try to churn out letters of opposition, so please keep those letters of support coming. (Link at bottom of page)

Sequoia National Forest Retired Ranger Dave Freeland also testified in support of the bill about why multiple use lands are so important. Having Ranger Dave support the bill was extremely powerful as he was the man in charge of the Sequoia lands contained in the bill. He has over 35 years of experience in the Forest Service.

Others who testified in support of the bill also did a great including Dan Kleen President of NOHVCC, Melissa Simpson from Safari Club International, as well as elected officials Congressman McCarthy, Congressman Pearce, Senator Barraso, Honorable Mike Noel-UT and Honorable Kent Connelly-WY.

Here is the list of 95 organizations supporting the bill. Please call Ben McFarland 661 327-3611 to add your group and grow this list.

All our testimonies were well received by the committee legislators, who not only appreciated hearing the facts, but especially appreciated Ranger Dave and myself having taken the time to travel across the US in order to meet with them.

While in DC I also met with representatives from ARRA, MIC, AMA, NRA who attended the hearing in support of the bill. They along with Blue Ribbon Coalition provided advice to me on testifying.

OPPOSITION BASED ON MISINFORMATION

There were also people there to testify in opposition of the bill including Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt , Undersecretary of Agriculture Harris Sherman , Director of the BLM Bob Abbey, and Outdoor Industry Association President Frank Hugelmeyer.

It was particularly interesting to see that those who opposed the bill often based it on the same misinformation. For example they claimed this bill would release ALL Wilderness Study Areas and Roadless Areas or 62 million acres of land, but this is untrue. This bill only releases those lands found unsuitable for Wilderness in 43 million acres. They also claimed this bill would hurt the environment by handing over these lands to unrestricted timber. oil and gas development. Also untrue, since these lands would still be managed under the strictest regulations in the world which prohibit such wholesale development. You can hear more about that in the video of my testimony as well as Ranger Freeland's (sorry about the poor audio quality -CSpan had problems).

OUTDOOR INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION REPRESENTS ELITIST POSITION

As a trade organization created to promote recreation it was surprising when Frank Hugelmeyer, President and CEO of Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), testified in Opposition to HR 1581. A bill that would be good for the environment, good for the economy and good for recreation.

HR1581 would help ensure the public can continue to be allowed on lands where the majority of the public recreate, so one would think that an Outdoor Recreation organization, like OIA would heartily support HR1581, but not so.

While OIA claims to represent hundreds of their recreation member companies, in reality perhaps most of the recreation companies are members of OIA in order to attend the OIA trade show to help sell their products. Most of them probably have no idea the OIA wants to lock up more lands for those elite few who have the time and physical ability to hike very long distances-the public be damned!

Are you a customer of any of the following companies? These are just a couple of the member companies which Outdoor Industry Association appears to represent as opposing HR1581. These companies need to hear from you expressing your dismay at their trade organization's closure agenda.

GoPro Camera's

Cabela Sporting Goods

Toyota

UPS

FedEx

Levi Straus & Co

Char-Broil Grills

Delorme GPS

Lowrance GPS

Timex

SPOT Tracker

Specialized bikes

You can read more about this problem and see the full list of OIA member companies at

http://www.savethetrails.us/OIA-Members.html

While in Washington DC I also had very productive meetings with the Chief of the Forest Service and the Deputy DIrector of the BLM, as well as many others, which provided important dialogue and better understanding of the need to keep trails open and disperse use.

This was an important and very worthwhile trip to testify in Washington DC and meet with decision makers and legislators.

Thanks so much for doing your part and donating to help fund Stewards efforts this year. Randy your donation enabled Stewards to step up and counter the misinformation that would otherwise have gone largely undisputed in DC. Randy you can be proud of what your donation helped accomplish.

However I need to mention that even with the recent increase in donations to fund the DC trip, our current paid Stewards members are now down to 9.4% compared to 12% last year. It is only due the few paid members like you, some making multiple generous donations each year, that Stewards have been able to continue to function. Please ask your friends who recreate in Sequoia to do their part and make a tax deductible donation. I know times are hard, but if we let our trails be closed it will be almost impossible and extremely costly to get them reopened.

With your help Stewards will accomplish even more to keep your trails open.

~Chris Horgan

Executive Director

Stewards of the Sequoia

[hobiee 28]

So randy if i am reading correctly.... the companies highlighted are basically is support of keeping these lands off limits????

[TrophyHunter 15]

"Most of them probably have no idea the OIA wants to lock up more lands for those elite few"

I read it as the companies are members so they can hawk their wares at trade shows. They're not aware of the organizations true agenda. The suggestion is to contact the highlighted companies and tell them where their money is going......the opposite of what their true mission is.

But that's just my take....

[650ben 0]

WOW, this list is huge with so called offroad and outdoor friendly companies....

Here are some of the members from the OIA list who would seem unlikely to support locking the majority of the public off their lands including:

Amazon.com, Arc'teryx Equipment, Body Glove, Cabela's, CamelBak, Campmor, Char-Broil, Boy Scouts of America/Philmont Scout Ranch, Bushnell Sports Optics World Wide, Canine Hardware, Carhartt Inc, Carson Optical, Christian Community Credit Union, Clarks Shoes, Clif Bar, Coghlan's Camping, The Coleman Company, Columbia Sportswear, Croakies, DAKINE, DeLorme GPS, Duofold, Dynafit Ski, Eagle Creek, Eddie Bauer, EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports), E-Z Up, FedEx, Field & Stream, Garmont, General Electric, General Industrial Tool & Supply, Gerber Knives, GoPro Cameras, GRABBER, Gramicci, Great Outdoor Store, GU Energy Gel, Hi-Tec Sports, International Mountain Bicycling Association, Kelty Packs, KOA, L.L. Bean, Leatherman, LEKI, Levi Strauss & Co., Lewis & Clark Outdoors, Lifeline First Aid, Light & Motion, Lowa Boots, Lowepro USA, Lowrance GPS, MiraCell Skincare, Mountain Hardwear, Naish, Nalgene, National Marine Manufacturers Assoc, New Balance, Nikwax, North Face, Mountain House, Outdoor Products, Outdoor Research, Ozark Mountain Trading Co, Patagonia, Petzl, Polartec, PowerBar, Princeton Tec Headlamps, REI, Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, Sierra Designs, Sierra Trading Post, Sigg USA, Specialized Mountain Bikes, Spenco Medical, Sperry Top-sider, Sport Chalet, Sportif, SPOT Tracker, Stansport, SureFire, Suunto Watches, Thule, The Timberland Company, Timex, Toyota, US Fish and Wildlife Service, UTC Retail, Vibram, Victorinox Swiss Army Knives, Yakima, YKK Zippers

You can read more about HR1581 at

http://www.savethetrails.us/WildernessRelease-HR1581.html

[PastaPilot 17]

Video of Chris Horgan's and Retired Ranger Freeland's testimony.

The Audio is bad but you can still make out what they are saying.

[KTMrad 512]

"Most of them probably have no idea the OIA wants to lock up more lands for those elite few"

I read it as the companies are members so they can hawk their wares at trade shows. They're not aware of the organizations true agenda. The suggestion is to contact the highlighted companies and tell them where their money is going......the opposite of what their true mission is.

But that's just my take....

Ken, I do believe you are correct. They may not know what the OIA actually represents....so they need to be made aware who they are supporting and that maybe they should not be.