I generally don’t comment in this column about letters that are sent to the editor of the Sun Advocate unless I see something there that is very unusual. Joan Powell’s letter of last week was one of those.
Joan and Gary Powell have been two of the biggest supporters of providing marked and authorized trails for motorized transportation on both BLM land and in the National Forests in our area. I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to ride with them when they were doing an early outing on a trail that they had adopted through the Forest Service.
While we were there I saw them pick up garbage along the way that had been left by others, they made sure that trails had drainage that was working properly so as to not cause erosion and they even moved a few trees off the trail to be sure that people didn’t widen out the by-way to get around the fallen wood.
Joan and I have had many discussions about the importance of working with government officials on preserving motorized trails through systematic planning and use. She always urged everyone I ever heard her speak to to follow the rules of using motorized transport in all areas so that we could preserve our right to ride.
The letter was a shock
But that letter, well it was a shock. She is sick and tired of what has been happening to trail systems and how the bureaucracy tends to favor some groups over others. For Joan to throw the towel in on something she has worked so hard on and been a good partner on for so long tells the rest of us we need to get off our duffs and start voicing our opinions about what goes on when it comes to the use of federal and state lands.
Personally I understand how the Forest Service and the BLM have their hands caught in a proverbial wringer concerning what to do. They have lots of pressures from many sides, and some of the groups that would like to see motorized travel totally eliminated are well funded along with having a lot of political clout.
Those who do not live here, have never been here, and probably will never come here seem to have so much say over what we can do on the public lands than we do. The land is owned by all the people of the United States, but just like anything proximity for those that live somewhere needs to be an important issue when considering what is happening and what is being done with it.
Personally I do just about everything there is to do, and my age will allow me to do on public lands. I own and ride dirt bikes, four wheelers and have a side by side. I camp and I hike. I used to back pack, but sleeping on rocks doesn’t appeal to me as much as it used to. I have done some fishing, although it is not one of favorite things to do, but I do not hunt. I like guns a lot but the shooting range is good for me, because killing paper targets is what I prefer to do with them.
At some points in my life I also rode mountain bikes and I still use public land to run my dog sled during the winter, although as the dogs age I find adding younger ones to the team is a bit much for me to handle now. I have a snow mobile but seldom ride it.
I have always been cognizant of the rules on public land and tried to abide by them. I have stopped people from riding on trails illegally (sometimes causing anger among my friends and relatives) and I would report anyone that is tearing up an area going cross country if I saw them. I do that not only because I want to preserve our rights to use public land, but also because it is the right thing to do. It is the law.
Tilted towards special interests?
But when Joan gives up on the planning process because she thinks that the table top is tilted too much toward special interests, it makes me pause. There has been no bigger advocate for proper motorized use in our mountains and on our desert. If she feels that things are going to hell in a hand basket, then there is fire where the smoke is coming from.
We in Carbon County have always had to fight for what we want and what we think is right. From battling interests over the mountain that want to take our water, to state rules that make it so our government entities don’t get the amount of money they need to operate because of central property tax assessment on big companies, to hanging onto important industries that still have life in them that others want to crush out and working toward changing attitudes about Price and Green River as just being gas stops on the way to Moab, we have striven to preserve our lifestyle and our livelihoods.
Endless war
Those fights we must pick to preserve our communities come from all quarters: metropolitan areas, neighboring counties, our state government and certainly the feds.
I am perplexed by the inability of government entities to recognize when they have a good thing going with people in our community that want to do the right thing. A few years ago a local federal official told me that they “are not an occupying Army” referring to how they have long been regarded in our community.
Well if they aren’t, they need to prove it, because sometimes it looks that way.