Dear Fellow ASA Member,

Back in the 70's, the wilderness area north of highway 78 was instituted by Congress and the rest of the dunes were intended for motorized recreation in perpetuity. We all know how that turned out. Along come other groups that want to close the rest of the area.

In the past, concessions have been made allowing other lands to be designated Wilderness, while leaving remaining lands open to Multiple Use. Contrary to these past agreements Wilderness advocates now want the remaining lands.

There is a petition that works to make this tactic outdated. CLICK HERE to sign it.

Pass the link on to as many pro-access people you know.

The American Sand Association
Unite, Inform, and Mobilize

Questions and comments can be sent to: asaboard@americansandassociation.org

Repost.



But thanks,

This is important enough to post or bump....

Free

I just want to say that I spoke (at length) to one of the leaders of the organization that started this petition. He was very enthusiastic and is clearly a pro-access advocate. He is heavily involved in the fight against some nasty wilderness legislation that is working its way through the system and is toiling feverishly to get as much backing to fight it as possible.

But he didn't have a lot of information to share about the petition itself. While he was able to confirm my assumption about the goal of the petition, for more detailed info he gave me another name to call and that will be what I do next and I will post more information when I have it.

In the meantime though, I do need to say that this petition does not work to make any anti-access tactics outdated. What it will do is hopefully demonstrate to some legislators that there is a genuine need for an additional land use designation, one that properly describes certain types of land use and would allow that designation to be used to retain access in the same way that, for instance, a wilderness designation prohibits access.

In other words, a Congressionally mandated Wilderness Area, which prohibits certain types of activity, will remain a Wilderness Area forevermore, requiring Congressional intervention to remove the designation. This petition is gathering support for land use designation that would allow Congress to mandate an area as Back Country which would remain a Back Country Area forevermore, requiring Congressional intervention to remove the designation.

The first step, of course, is getting that Back Country designation on the books, and that requires support... this petition is gathering that support. There are many, many steps to follow.

The reason I raise this point is, I have been approached via PM and email about this petition and it seems some are regarding it as an immediate solution of some kind. It is not, and I really do not want to help give people a false sense of accomplishment or worse, expectation.

Please don't get me wrong... supporting the quest to get a new land use designation on the books is a dandy thing. And signing the petition will show support for the quest.

But it will not reverse any other land use designations and it is not, by any means, a short-term solution to our access problems.

Vicki

All the Back Country designation would do is give congress another option that is less stringent than Wilderness (no vehicles).

It does not take away Congress' ability to designate Wilderness. Just gives them the option to do less if so inclined. There is no way that Back Country designation will pass in the current congressional makeup, and even if they did pass it, it wouldn't be used until a more conservation congress is elected. The current congressional makeup will be pushing for only full-blown Wilderness designations, and nothing less.

That is my 2 cents.

That's two cents I happen to agree with strongly.

I would much rather see the organizations pushing their members to get involved in SB 742 right now... that's something that has very real, very immediate, consequences.

Vicki