AERC Trails Committee News

[connie B Berto <cberto@juno.com>]

Hello Riders:    There will be a Trails Committee meeting at the Reno
convention on Saturday, the 27th of February, from 1 to 3 pm.  The room
info will be in your packet.   Also, I'll be part of a panel discussion
mediated by Julie Suhr on Friday, I think the hours are from 3:30 to 5
pm.
    Next:   the missing Trails Fund  $$$ have been found!    The money
was in a separate account of the Bank of America branch in Auburn, and
somehow the existence of the account  was forgotten, the number lost, 
whatever.   The BofA was going to send the money to the State of
California, under the Unclaimed Accounts policy!  Gulp!    But -- trumpet
sounds here--- Doyle Patrick got wind of it and this account -- a few
thousand dollars -- has been retrieved and put into the more
recently-formed Trails Fund.   Thanks to Doyle and the AERC office for 
this fine deed, and for keeping track of the $$$$ of the money in the
Trails Fund.  Thanks to Crockett and Sharon Dumas, who, I believe, were
responsible for starting that initial Trails Fund!     Don't forget, this
fund is to help endurance riders defray the registration fees at
important state, regional, or national trail conferences.
    Next:   As Trails Chair  I have written a letter, OK'd by Pres. Dane
Frazier and Doyle Patrick, about the Grand Staircase/Escalante Draft
Management Plan.  (Did you all read the fine message on GSENM that
Crockett  Dumas put on Digest # 94?)    In this letter, I point out the
shortcomings of the Plan, from endurance riding point of view, when none
of the Alternatives allow for the continuation of current recreational
use except Alternative A, "No Action," which hardly a good way to
effectively administer a recreational area.   I am suggesting an
Alternate F with special wording.   If anyone wants to read what I have
written, email me and I'll send it off to you.
   Send your letter to Pete Wilkins, Team Leader;  Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument; 337 South Main Street, Suite 010,
Cedar City, Utah 84720.  SEND COPIES to the Utah Senators:  Senator Bob
Bennett, 431 Dirksen Bldg., Washington DC 20510-4403, and Senator Orrin
Hatch, 131 Russell Bldg.,  W.D.C. 20150-4402.
     I'd like to close with this thought.  Write a letter to the editor
of the Salt Lake City Tribune and to the Deseret News, about Grand
Staircase/Escalante.   My letter points out the deficiencies of a plan
that does not take continuation of existing low-impact  usage into
account,  does not  acknowledge the economic benefits of this usage, that
stifles the concept of a Heritage Industry within the state of Utah. ( I
have made the looong trip to Utah five times, with horse, rig, and crew,
spending some significant dollars in that state. This will go out the
window, without endurance rides there.)   Write to:  Public Forum, S.L.C.
Tribune,  P.O. Box 867, S.L.C.   UT   84110, FAX 801-237-2316.   The
Deseret News:  30 East 100 South, SLC  84111  (no FAX # ). 
    Thank you for reading this.  Cheers (;-),   Connie Berto (CA),   AERC
Trails Chair

        

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