Here's my take on the meeting.... This was sent out to our own lists... Don't take offence to the "harshness"...
I'd say the meeting was VERY informative... as the first speaker started, I wasn't sure if we were in the kettle... but after another few minutes, I realized we were among friends who are dealing with many of the same issues that we are in terms of access, Endangered Species Act, public misconception of what we do.. It even seemed that there were some there that had that misconception until Tom Brule did his presentation... We brought along about 20 copies of our Economic Impact Statement (which Tom quoted in his report ) All of them were taken..
We also spoke to some of the landowners present and there was definately the ideas flowing. We have made some inroads and have some contacts. Several of the presentations centered around how these landowners can make money off of their lands... starting other forest based businesses, having land leases and Tom's presentation about the benefits of wind power and 4x4 use to both the private landowner and the local economies where these landowners live.
These are people we have to stay in touch with and build a solid relationship with. I'll be firing off an email to their director soon.
I'd like to thank everyone that attended.... There were an awful lot of people there in general..I sort of counted about 25 people from the 4WD community... possibly some there that I don't know so there could have been more. The clubs that I saw represented were: CTJEEP, Eastern 4 Wheelers, New England 4 Wheelers, Rock Attitude, NEJ, Long Island Off Road and Freedom Trailriders. (Sorry if I missed any) Of course, our two associations were also represented directly by me (Land Use Chair), Scott Hatch (Chair of NEA4WDC) and Bruce Conroy (Region D/Northeast EC4WDA Chair)
When the EOEA person began to speak I could tell he was a bit uncomfortable... afterall, he was sort of the chicken in a den of wolves... every other word was UMMM...
He was very deliberate in his words and made sure that The Nature Conservancy was not mentioned much... maybe two times that I remember... He spoke of the Forest Reserves that will be defacto wilderness areas, about 15,000 acres each. He tried to convince these people /us that we won't lose anything that we don't already have access too... then proceeds to say that October Mt State Forest and Mount Greylock are two of the 27 sites they are reviewing... after all the reviews, they will produce about 4-5 of these forest reserves.
Now according to this guy, Bob OConnor, the Nature Conservancy only helped out in the gathering of data...hhhmmmm.... I can't say that I'm fully comfortable witheven that... even if it IS true... When we asked questions regarding OHV use and the fact that October Mt has numerous roads and trails currently open to motorized use and how could this state forest possibly have been included as an area that had Forest Reserve/Wilderness potential due to the fact of so many roads and how could it be even considered, his comments were rather evasive, stating that he was here to talk about forestry... we re-iterated that we had been put off before and really would like an answer... Again, as he squirmed like a worm on a hook, he tried to divert the question, saying that we'll have our chance to speak... but he would not committ to allowing us in on any ofthe intial planning meetings... we'll have the public comment period to be able to voice our opinions... and IF the majority of the people say that October Mt shouldn't be a reserve, then it won't be...
For those that don't know... October Mt is home to several roads that WE ALREADY use! Another area... Savoy.... ya know where OFR is... and guess what... a 10KM radius from there includes nearly EVERY road that we wheel on. Here's another deal... with each Forest Reserve, comes a 10KM buffer zone... Can anyone say WILDLANDS PROJECT!!! I haven't been able to find out just what won't be allowed in these buffer zones but the info I have found shows that land use will be severely restricted... whether on private lands or on public lands. Of course, major throughways will be still open... IE Paved roads... BUT the towns where the old town roads that we love so much exist, will surely be under pressure from the state and TNC to close them. Think of it like this.... If Oct Mt and Savoy Mt state forests get chosen as Forest Reserves and then the 10KM radius goes into affect we stand to lose: Undisclosed, OFR, Washington Mt road, Ashley Lake Rd, Top O The World, Elephant (oh wait thats in Vermont... doesn't matter... these reserves don't have state boundaries to worry about) Sucker Pond, Boulder, Sky Mt road, Bear Swamp, Old Dodge, and more..... Not a bad loss huh?
I have a map of the pre-selected sites... you can see it by going here:
http://www.mass.gov/envir/forest/berksh ... ssment.htm then look specifically at 1) Determining the size of a Forest Reserve and 2) Forest Reserves in MA.
This should really get you up in arms. This is an area where we do a good deal of our wheelin and with out our strong involvement and regular input, we stand a very good chance at losing it. This means that when you are asked to write a letter regarding these Forest Reserves... you NEED to take the five minutes and actually write one... you CANNOT assume that someone else will do this job for you.
I really wish I could fully express the enormity of this and get you all to understand that when I say you.. I mean EVERY SINGLE PERSON who reads this has to write, I mean every single person who reads this and knows five others who didn't, those that didn't need to write letters and show up at these meetings... Unfortunately... I have that bad stomach feeling that MOST of YOU will not write and then many will complain that EC4WDA or NEA or Blue Ribbon or.... didn't do enough to help us keep these roads open.
The green groups have a whole bunch of college kids (who don't have jobs or anything else to do but work on causes like this) working on this stuff and they get a whole bunch of letters written and sent into the the forest service... we can certainly match their numbers IF we ALL write these letters.
As a matter of fact, lets consider this the first letter that needs to be written.... send your email to this address
env.internet@state.ma.us
and tell them you strongly disagree with the Forest Reserve idea and do not want it in MA. Thats it... simple.
Address your letter to Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
At next weeks Region D/Northeast mtg I'll have some maps with me that show what I'm talking about and will be urging everyone to take this info back to their clubs and get people to get these letters written.
I would also ask that everyone reading this take it to your own lists and other forums and post it. Anyone who wheels up in western MA needs to get on board and work to defeat the idea of Forest Reserves.
To finish off I'd really like to thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON that DID attend the meeting on Saturday... Know that YOU are helping and you can feel better knowing that.
The people who didn't go just because they didn't feel like it... well, if you were one of those folks (and you know who you are, I'm not talking about those who had to work either...) then you can count yourself as part of the problem. If you don't take the five minutes right now ( or within the next day or so) and write the aforementioned note, then consider yourself part of the problem. I'm sure the rest of the 4WD will thank you too for not doing your part.
Again THANK YOU to all who attended!!
Talk soon,