DNR / Ahtanum Status 2010-2011

[Tampico]

The DNR situation for the next season is basically the same as last year. The Yakima Ski-Benders will be leading the fundraising effort again this year. We bascially need to raise the same as last year, roughly 20k+ to ensure grooming for this year.

We are off to a better start this year, with some commitments already on the books due to the earlier start and some pre-fundraising efforts on the behalf of the Ski-Benders.

The Ski-Benders will be holding a regular club meeting and DNR-Ahtanum fundraising meeting on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 @ 7:00PM at the El Rincon in Yakima. We will also have information at the VanAmburg Enterprises booth at the WSSA snow show. I will be there a lot of the time.

It is imperative that we increase our participation of donors this year to lighten the load on those that gave last year. The Ski-Benders put a lot of effort into keeping the Ahtanum open last year, with the club putting up some of its internal monies plus proceeds from our crab feed and poker run.

Some Details-

The funding is for DNR supervision of its lands in South Eastern Washington. The funds that we donate only go to the DNR. The sno-park plowing and trail grooming are paid from your gas tax % and license fees, which run through WSPR (Washington State Parks and Recreation). The DNR and Yakima Ski-Benders do not control the grooming and who operates it.

The fundraising will have to continue until a) The state has an increase in revenues (haha) or b) The state legislates a fee option (similar to a forest service pass) for DNR lands. B is my preferred option, makes it fair for everyone, and as a comparison to what we pay to ride, probably would be a small amount relative to the other options.

I feel that we do not have the option of simply waiting this out, and hoping that grooming will come back in the future. Once we lose it, it is gone. With no grooming there are no berms, hence no closure to wheeled vehicles. With no plowing, there is no sno-park access (may be gated) so a mess on the North Fork Rd when the snow gets deeper. Frankly, an adequate donation amount per sled, if we could even get 70% participation, would eliminate a lot of hassles and problems.

Due to logging, the Ahtanum has an greatly increased riding area. I honestly thinks it rivals McCall, ID, with all the new open area and access that it provides. A lot of this would be very hard to access with out a groomed trail system, especially up the middle fork to Clover Flats and Beyond.

It is to easy to blow this off by blaming politics (although politics is to blame). Simply, we don't have much of a choice. We band together as a sport and pay a reasonable fee, or we lose more ground, no matter what the reason. We have to access to our prime riding areas. If you know anybody that rides these areas, let them know whats going on. The more people that participate, the easier it is on everyone else.

I will post on the grooming situation at a later time, the first grooming meeting should be Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at the Naches Ranger Station. I have not received any thing on this at the present time.

The fund is at US Bank, downtown Yakima branch under Donations/Ahtanum Fund 2009 (we didn't change the fund name, but the funds will go towards this upcoming season). Let me know if you deposit funds directly so I can give you a receipt.

My contact information: devin@greenacrefarms.com
cell 945-1741

Thank you,


Tampico
aka Devin Dekker
Ski-Benders Vice President
Ahtanum grooming coordinator, Yakima county grooming council

 

[Snodawg]

TTT for ya Devin.

I'll be looking for you on Saturday with my check book.

 

[jacmmaxwell]

Can donations be made via paypal? I may or may not ride that area and I may not have much to offer but willing to help keep any area open that I can.

 

[94fordguy]

Made this thread a sticky.

I will make sure to stop by the VE booth and make a donation for the cause sometime tomorrow... Whatever happens in politics, we can't let an area become innaccessible when we can help it.

 

[Tampico]

Thanks for the support. I probably won't be there until early afternoon, but Paul Younie, a Ski-Bender and the current district 5 south WSSA rep should be there off and on in the morning.

Thanks again.

Tampico

Also be nice to put some faces with the "code" names!

We haven't even thought about paypal, great idea though. I will try to work on it.

 

[94fordguy]

Just back from the first Groomers meeting for the Yakima area for this season. Good turn out and good discussion from the Forest Service, DNR, and State Parks, along with the others in attendance.

Though we do have this hurdle to contend with again this year, it sounds like the ball is infact rolling along, but more support is still needed to reach the goal. I finally was able to make a donation that I was planning to make at the snow show to help keep the necessary process rolling.

If I understood correctly, there have been a few improvements to accessing the Tampico snow park this year, a few large turnouts have been made in the road into the parking lot, and the groomer sounds like he will be ready to go as soon as the snow flies, a couple nice things to hear after last year's problems

If we can get some more donations to get the funding taken care of, we should be in for a stellar year this year

 

[Tampico]

Whoa, where did my "sticky" status go - update

The Ski-Bender DNR fund, including the KLIM grant we won at the WSSA snowshow, is now at about $5300+. We still have some verbal committments to receive, but as you can tell, we are lagging somewhat. We do hope to start hitting it harder now that harvest (and hunting season) are concluding.

I would like to thank all that have given so far! We greatly appreciate your support. We will send thank-you's out once we reach our goal, or our fundraising season ends.

Remember that we are all volunteers, if you have any way to help us out, please do! A lot of us are taking time out from our jobs to get this accomplished.

It does look like their will be legislation attempted to fix this problem next year. It will be some sort of fee program per person for a year-round access to DNR lands.

Thank you again!

Tampico
Yakima Ski-Benders

 

[Snodawg]

Hey Devin, Just a thought here, but have you thought of setting up a table or something at the sno-park on weekends to try to generate some donations. My guess is alot of the people that ride up there don't have a clue that we need funding. Sounds like we have quite a ways to go yet. It would truly be sad to lose some of the states best riding areas.

'Dawg

 

[LoggingWilly]

Premier Power Sports is having open house on the 20th,Joe Parsons and the Sharps will be there. They will be collecting donations also.

 

[Bagger]

Hey Devin, Just a thought here, but have you thought of setting up a table or something at the sno-park on weekends to try to generate some donations. My guess is alot of the people that ride up there don't have a clue that we need funding. Sounds like we have quite a ways to go yet. It would truly be sad to lose some of the states best riding areas.

'Dawg

Devin, I'd be willing to spend a weekend cooking in the snowpark. If we advertised and got the word out it might help. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.... pretty sure I could get the meat donated, and I'll cover whatever isn't.
I'd also be willing to put up a donation station (think the deals the park/forest service uses at trailheads. I might even know someone that's a much better welder than me, huh Snowdawg?
Just a couple of ideas, give me a holler if you wanna work it out.....

Bag

 

[Snodawg]

OK, Bag, would you like that in steel or aluminum? Ha Ha We could put one with a big sign on it in Devin's driveway.

Yes, I'd be willing to do that if needed. I'd even help with the cookout, if you don't mind me sampling the fixin's.

 

[Tampico]

A couple of answers (maybe)-

Logging Willy - "Premier Power Sports is having open house on the 20th,Joe Parsons and the Sharps will be there. They will be collecting donations also." Collecting Donations for what? The Ski-Benders hope to have a person/table there also collecting for the DNR cause. So far as I know, neither of those mentioned above have volunteered to raise funds for this particular cause. Both did give last year, however, and I thank them for that. If they are helping for this cause, awesome! I will try to confirm something tomorrow. Matt from Premier has been an excellent help in this cause.

Bagger and Snodawg - the idea for a booth at the snoparks is a good one, we are discussing this at our meetings. The main problem so far is getting someone to man the booth/desk at the snoparks (mainly the Ahtanum). The riding season basically begins when my kids get home from college (which coincides most years when the riding season starts), so when theres snow, I want to ride all I can. I will get in touch with you both when the crowds get big (the area doesn't officially open to us until 12/15) and maybe we can sit up there for a day and solicit donations. A couple of people may do a better job than just a single person. Thanks to both of you.

We do have more (major) verbal commitments, but I really don't want to count these until they hit the bank. I also have some other major companies with a number of 'bilers with each one, so hopefully I will have good luck with them also. I am also trying to hit those first that we missed last year. Our crabfeed (December 11) is a major event, so hopefully we will hit a lot of people there.

If you do give directly to the bank, please PM me and let me know, that way we can get you on our list to thank you later.

I know that some of the posters and viewers here have given donations, we greatly appreciate it!

As for the booth in my driveway, ya think the state would let me put up a toll?

Snow starts falling this weekend, getting close....

Tampico

 

[Bagger]

A couple of answers (maybe)-

A couple of people may do a better job than just a single person. Thanks to both of you.

Prolly do better with a couple of of people that look way better than we do too!!!
(I could dye my hair pink again.......)

Bag

 

[Tampico]

DNR

Bagger,

Neon pink would be easier to find in a blizzard...

Willy - Carl, our club president should be there most of the day to help with donations for the DNR fund.

If you want to join our club, feel free to do that also. We are REALLY great people! Really...

Gotta stay involved to keep our lands!

Tampico
Ski-Bender, Yakima County Grooming Council, SAWS, etc...

 

[LoggingWilly]

Tampico
I was just mentioning a place to go to give donations as there flyer mentioned it. I will be leaving a donation with Matt tomorrow to give to the cause.(pick up my new sled then head for a week of hunting)

Thanks for your time and effort,

Willy

 

[Tampico]

Willy - Thank you!!

Willy, thank you for your donation. PM me your address if you like so I can put you on our donor list; I can also give receipts if needed.

Have a good time hunting.

Tampico

Current estimated Ahtanum Sno park conditions: Saturday 11/20/10, 1340 hrs. approximately 33F, snowing lightly (has increased in last hour), slight easterly wind. Approximately 2+ inches new since last night, 2+ inches total.

Green Lake sno-tel is showing 10-11 inches. The snow depth instrumentation has been somewhat sporadic this fall.

A few trailers have gone by with sleds, LOTS of jeeps (probably the most I have ever seen in one morning) going up.

Tampico

 

[94fordguy]

Refresh



If you enjoy sledding out of the Tampico snow park, PLEASE consider making a donation to keep it open for the season, We all need to pitch in to help on this one.

 

[Snodawg]

One thing that we have noticed is that we don't see anything about this outside of Snowest. Have not seen any flyers at dealership's. Nothing in the news etc? Seems most people that use these snoparks, have no clue that funds are badly needed. It is a sad fact that last year, only 76 people donated the funds needed. 76 people!!! That's embarrising! There are that many people on a Saturday in the Ahtanum snowpark.

SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

 

[Tampico]

Snodawg,

I put fliers in all the dealers (3), VanAmburgs, ITEC, Prosser bike dealer, Chevron (Ahtanum) and Ranchhouse over a month ago. There has also been one major newspaper article, and a couple small bits in the Tuesdays outdoor sections. I also did a KIT interview about a month ago. I would hope that the dealers would keep them fresh (I assume everybody has a damn copy machine). Most people I talk to have heard about it, the typical response is "Yeah, I heard that, but they are committed to groom so somebody else must have fixed the problem" or a variation of that. I really don't know what else I can do on a personal level that will get the word out more than it is.

94 Fordguy and yourself have probably been some of the most active promoters out there, and I greatly appreciate it. I owe you two a beer(s) (where did that symbol go, anyway?), bagger gets a free one just cause he married a "swanner". This cause will also get attention at our Crab Feed on 12/11/10.

The good news is that we are over 6k in the bank, 8.0k in firm committments, another 1.2k in individual committments. This puts us a good ways to our goal.

I am purposely calling first those who did not give last year in order to be somewhat fair about it.

Another thing is a fair way to praise those business that have donated once we are completed. There are some who have been excellent supporters of this cause, and deserve some public praise.

It is going to take everybody to keep our lands open.

Thanks,

Tampico

 

[Snodawg]

Did you get any fliers at Owens, Valley and Premier (parts counter)? I haven't seen any, but I'm usually half blind anyways.
Kudos to you for efforts.

Would it be possible to put a big sign or something at the snowparks? Just a thought. Those are the people we want to reach.