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Category: Notes from DelThe news items published under this category are as follows.
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by Del Albright, Moderator, Land Use Network
I wish I knew how much money the anti-access folks spend on their image – and perhaps how much of that money goes towards tainting the image of recreationists. Have you ever wondered how the media always seems to be able to get its hands on plenty of bad press about multiple-use on public lands? It occurs to me that someone else is painting MY image – not me. I don’t think I like that.
Politicians certainly have no shortage of photos and “studies” showing a one-sided view of multiple use of our lands. Anti-access folks seem to be able to come up with plenty of fodder that taints the image of recreationists and other multiple users. Targeted activities include: driving on beaches that for years were public access (Black Sands Beach, CA); logging (everywhere, USA); mining (Utah and other western states); controlled burning (Los Alamos, etc.); snowmobiling (Yellowstone); and four-wheeling (most everywhere, USA).
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Sixty feet under the warm Mexican waters off the coast of San Felipe , the giant creature swam effortlessly, constantly on the prowl for food. Weighing a hundred pounds, he could pretty much eat anything he wanted, so when he saw the Corvina rock fish dangling in his path, not trying to escape, the monster went in for the kill.
On the surface, lulled by the tropical sun, I drifted in and out of a sleepy state as our old boat drifted lazily with the Baja current. The smell of salt air was strong, but the wind was light. We used parachute cord hand-line for fishing in these Mexican waters because the fish were so big, rods and reels were just too slow on the retrieve for meat fishing. I came suddenly awake when the hand-held fishing line began to tighten in my gloved hands.
Strung over my knee, down under my foot, then over the boat gunnels, the hand-line set up was designed to transmit the fight of a fish throughout the lower half of my body. Immediately there was no doubt that I had a big fish on the line. My gloves began to smoke as the line streamed out to sea. I tugged back with all my strength and began to haul the line in hand over hand. I pushed down with my shoe on the hand-line to increase the tension against the big guy on the other end.
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By Dan Stra and Del Albright
Note: For the sake of brevity the masculine gender has been used in this article.
Volunteer (noun); an anomaly within the human race. Rarely seen, the volunteer frequently works in the background while doing things for the benefit of others. Volunteers work for free and with the best of intentions yet they get little thanks - nor do they expect it - and, in fact, are frequently criticized and sometimes publicly insulted when things don't go well. Volunteers get enjoyment from the success of others. Volunteers have a very short life span with an average life span of less than 7 years. With proper care and feeding this time period may be extended. On the other hand, improper care and feeding of a volunteer can significantly reduce its life span. Due to the rarity of a volunteer any actions that would reduce its lifespan are to be avoided at all costs.
Motorized Recreational Club Volunteers
Historically, motorized recreation sports have always required a high percentage of volunteers. The list of things that need to be done to make a club or other organization run smoothly can easily exceed the capacity of one person or a small group of people.
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About once a month I get a note from Del Albright. Each one provides some insight into some of the problems we face with our land being locked up. Soon I'll have a spot here dedicated to the Del archives. Until then, here's this month's piece of insight from Del!
Basic Training for Life
(Rules for Recreationists)
By Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador
Does it seem to you that not all recreationists follow the same rules?
Have you ever encountered an angry land owner upset with someone who did not close his gates? Have you ever had a loaned piece of equipment returned to you broken? Can you recall meeting an inconsiderate trail user? Are you tired of picking up after others?
I'm sure you answered yes to most of these questions because these things are common in our sports. In my opinion, these things need to stop! Well, I have some suggestions that might help. In fact, I'd like to share with you these rules of life I found the other day posted in an RV park. I think if we all followed these, we might find our lives and our recreational pursuits in better shape. Check these out.
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by Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador
I would like to introduce you a management system that you can use to organize your organization (or event or conference or meeting or training). It works wonders and is used by thousands of agencies across the United States. It's called the Incident Command System (ICS).
ICS is a management and communications system that provides a standardized method of getting the most out of folks and making your activity all the more productive. It's designed to give you an organization to meet your objectives.
First used by emergency service providers (like fire departments), ICS has now become widely accepted as a management tool to handle about anything that requires organization. I've used it for conferences, meetings, training sessions, workshops, and recreational events. It works. And boy does it save time and confusion.
I am one of the trainers and developers of the ICS system, especially as it applies to conferences and events. I can help you get this idea off the ground if it has appeal to you.
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by Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador
(Note from Editor: This month Del doesn't really address Land Use directly. However, I found his article useful regardless and chose to go ahead and publish it here.)
For those of us who’s recreation depends on some sort of wheeled vehicle, there is little more important that your tires. I've seen a lot of trail and highway breakdowns related to inadequate tire selection and maintenance, that I thought I'd share a few thoughts in this article. And believe it or not, I get nearly daily emails from folks asking about choosing the right tire for their wheeler or their tow vehicle.
The information here applies to RV’s, four-wheel drives, ATV’s, assorted tow vehicles (pickups and horse trailers) and about anything else that runs on rubber.
First off, you must select the right tire for your rig. By that I mean size, tread and application. Don't get the biggest ugliest tire on the market just because you like the looks of them. They may be a nightmare for you.
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by Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador
As we’ve recently seen how precious and short life can be, many of us are viewing decisions about how we spend our time differently. We are now looking to the future more too. We’ve seen terrible things happen in this world lately that don’t seem to make sense. But they do cause us to reflect on just what the heck is going on in our own lives, and what kinds of things we want to do now and in our future. The question becomes: How do we decide on a course of action now, when the future is so unpredictable?
For young people, it’s a common malady that they want everything now. For us in the older generation, we still want it all, but realize that there are some things we can’t have.
So most of us struggle throughout our lives balancing what we want with reality. But this does not have to be traumatic. There are some tricks to learn that can help us deal with life’s mundane, but bug-the-heck-out-of-you, decisions.
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by Del Albright, BlueRibbon Ambassador
With the onslaught of anti-access propaganda, combined with some long existing turf battles between some recreation and multiple-use interests, it seems imperative to me that it's time for a change in the way we do business. Today, like never before, we must find a new cooperative spirit. The world is too small and our opportunities are too limited to waste our valuable time and energy. I’d like to offer some ideas on where we should be headed in the future as users of public lands.
In my many columns of the past, I've written about some on-going themes: changing our image as Recreationists/multiple-users; getting involved in our public lands; getting along with each other; educating and hopefully eliminating the motorized outlaws; and several other topics. They all hold true today more so than ever. If we're to make headway with our way of recreating and using public lands, then we must continue these efforts in a new spirit of cooperation.
No one group or organization can stand alone under the pressure of the anti-access crowd. No one group has enough resources to fight alone. We must continue to work towards banding together at every opportunity.
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(Managing Your Monkeys)
by Del Albright
It’s encouraging to see so many recreationists getting involved these days in the land use/public lands access battles. In fact, now we face a time when some of us old land use horses are starting to sag under the burden of doing this so long. We can’t afford to lose any of our activists to burnout, so I’ve come up with a cure to keep our fighters fighting.
I’ve found that a key to avoiding burnout and staying effective is to narrow your focus; concentrate your efforts. I like to think of our land use battles as a quail hunt. You ever hunted quail? Well, a typical hunt consists of hours of walking, wearing yourself out, then all of a sudden blazing away at a flurry of birds, usually missing most of them. The only one who gets any enjoyment out of this is your dog – who can’t stop dog-laughing at your new-found state of frustration.
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by Del Albright, Moderator, Land Use Network
I’ve written and spoke about it before: the vicious green circle. Is it real? You betcha! Can you see it? 10-4 on that. Can you experience it? Yep, again. What it is and why should you care one way or the other? Well, from what folks in the know are telling me the time has never been better to understand the "circle" and BREAK it!
Like any vicious circle (similar to arguing with your vehicle) it’s never ending and yet keeps coming around to its beginning. The last time I argued with my old CJ-7 about whom was boss, we spent hours of me being frustrated and getting no where. I think the CJ won.
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By Ron Schiller, High Desert Multiple Use Coalition; with some notes by Del Albright, Moderator, Land Use Network
The purpose of this article is to give you a shortcut overview of how to get involved in the management of your public lands. It will also tell you how to have "standing" in legal actions and be a key participant in what happens to your favorite recreation area. By no means can everything about public input be covered in one short article; but you'll find most everything you need here to get started and be effective.
Remember: public lands are your lands. You have the right to be included in the actions taken to manage your land.
The public process as mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, and other laws require all federal agencies to solicit and consider public input during the development of management plans, programs, regulations and other actions.
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By Del Albright
February is a great month. Some call it the "love" month, what with Valentine’s Day and sunshine on the way. Seems to me there’s also a lot of November birthdays out there? But writing for the "love" month gets me a little on my rambly soapbox.
Be that as it may, when it comes to land use and public access, love is not a word we use very often. Love our recreation? Yes, of course. Love those who want our form of recreation dead and buried? I don’t think so. But you know some words struck me funny the other day as I was watching Larry King interview the Rev. Billy Graham. Mr. Graham told Larry that it was possible to love someone but not what they do. Interesting concept, huh?
I suppose we could apply that thinking to land use and recreation. Can we forgive those who trash our reputations (via our means of recreating)? Can we learn to "love" our neighbor when they want us thrown off public land? Do we turn the other cheek when some vocal minority group uses bad science, lots of money, and many brainwashed, partially informed volunteers to advocate and pursue their form of personal self-interest?
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By Del Albright
For a multiple-user like me, this is the time of year I think about snowmobiling, snow-wheeling, and the fireplace. I plan to enjoy the snow this year; but I don't plan to crash any more snowmobiles like I did last year. Ouch.... And yes, I'll probably end up with my wheeler in a ditch or two on some snowy trail; but that's ok.
It's also that time of year to do the old New Year's resolution routine. Well, it's a given I've got to drop a few holiday pounds. Oh yea, and start exercising again. But there are a couple resolutions I'd like to ask you to adopt. The rewards will far exceed the effort.
1998 had some WINS and some major showings for our side that will go down in history. The victory over the Stanislaus National Forest CLOSED unless signed open policy was a biggie. Black Sands Beach showed one of the best turnouts for support from the OHV community. Yellowstone National Park found out who we were when they began shutting down snowmobiling. The Recreation Trails Program (Symm's Act) was funded as historically high levels. And there are other examples.
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