W
WMC
Banned
Thanks newtrout, Yammadog, Blindman, and all here trying to solve this problem of snowmobiles in Wilderness! You guys also put in work on the Wilderness Boundary placing signs last summer, thanks for that.
Whether it is talked about here or not, this problem is very well known and documented. So great job just confronting this issue. This has been a problem for decades, one cannot predict when it will come back to hurt snowmobile riding access in the area- nearly 30 years and nothing so far! When we go to the Wilderness, of course, we want no snowmobiles there. And there is that Federal Law thing- no motors in Wilderness, and USFS has the obligation to enforce that. But...that enforcement has not happened, so here we are on a Forum going at each other sometimes. Our other effort is asking for some areas closer to the car to be winter non-motorized as well, a long discussion from the link posted below.
The long discussion here before produced some good ideas. The idea that I hoped for was that somehow our 'sides' met and tried to understand each other, negotiated some non-Wilderness areas for skiers/ snowshoers/ winter campers to use without snowmobile traffic, and also picked good riding areas to keep for snowmobilers in this area. Then, if this miracle negotiation happened, a group of snowmobile riders and non-motorized winter enthusiasts together take the idea to USFS and then, and then, protect each other's interests in this area. Our State Rep Condotta last summer agreed that he would host such meetings, and OWNF Supervisor Heath told WMC at our meeting "include us" meaning USFS. If that ever happened it would be more productive than thrashing around going at each other and hatching conspiracy theories.
WMC, Wenatchee Mountains Coalition, and that Randonnee guy before that brought up this topic here- http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/s...d.php?t=209886
http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/s...d.php?t=218431
WMC is mostly a group of folks involved in skitouring the Wenatchee Mountains who talk about these issues, and we put forth our Proposal-
http://www.justgetout.net/Wenatchee/21163
Our effort is based on asking for USFS management of winter recreation in this area. Snowmobiles in Wilderness is part of the issue in this area. We leave the other stuff for the environmental groups, we are not seeking environmental mandates or new Wilderness designation. Several of us in WMC ride snowmobiles to go ski touring, I rode my new snowmobile 650 miles this season- to go ski touring, only a little offroad at four different peaks that I skitour from the top down. So as far as WMC is concerned, we are not out to ban snowmobiles other than what we ask for, some areas for winter non-motorized recreation accessible from the car, and some further back. WMC folks enjoy the mountains and are regular folks like those here as well, we pay taxes, we have families. We are military vets, one in 'Nam, one ex-logger, former FS folks, I am conservative and do not send money to ANY environmental organization and I take issue with some of the extreme agenda (have told them to their face). I paid dues to BRC for two years around 1990, I have a Jeep and a dirt bike, and a mountain bike, fish, hunt, hike, all the stuff that many others here do as well. We do not fit the many 'descriptions' of the perceived opposition described here. But we continue to seek, in a growing effort, we seek management of snowmobile riding as we describe in our articles etc.
Anyway, thanks for these efforts to keep snowmobile riding away from the Wilderness.
Whether it is talked about here or not, this problem is very well known and documented. So great job just confronting this issue. This has been a problem for decades, one cannot predict when it will come back to hurt snowmobile riding access in the area- nearly 30 years and nothing so far! When we go to the Wilderness, of course, we want no snowmobiles there. And there is that Federal Law thing- no motors in Wilderness, and USFS has the obligation to enforce that. But...that enforcement has not happened, so here we are on a Forum going at each other sometimes. Our other effort is asking for some areas closer to the car to be winter non-motorized as well, a long discussion from the link posted below.
The long discussion here before produced some good ideas. The idea that I hoped for was that somehow our 'sides' met and tried to understand each other, negotiated some non-Wilderness areas for skiers/ snowshoers/ winter campers to use without snowmobile traffic, and also picked good riding areas to keep for snowmobilers in this area. Then, if this miracle negotiation happened, a group of snowmobile riders and non-motorized winter enthusiasts together take the idea to USFS and then, and then, protect each other's interests in this area. Our State Rep Condotta last summer agreed that he would host such meetings, and OWNF Supervisor Heath told WMC at our meeting "include us" meaning USFS. If that ever happened it would be more productive than thrashing around going at each other and hatching conspiracy theories.
WMC, Wenatchee Mountains Coalition, and that Randonnee guy before that brought up this topic here- http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/s...d.php?t=209886
http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/s...d.php?t=218431
WMC is mostly a group of folks involved in skitouring the Wenatchee Mountains who talk about these issues, and we put forth our Proposal-
http://www.justgetout.net/Wenatchee/21163
Our effort is based on asking for USFS management of winter recreation in this area. Snowmobiles in Wilderness is part of the issue in this area. We leave the other stuff for the environmental groups, we are not seeking environmental mandates or new Wilderness designation. Several of us in WMC ride snowmobiles to go ski touring, I rode my new snowmobile 650 miles this season- to go ski touring, only a little offroad at four different peaks that I skitour from the top down. So as far as WMC is concerned, we are not out to ban snowmobiles other than what we ask for, some areas for winter non-motorized recreation accessible from the car, and some further back. WMC folks enjoy the mountains and are regular folks like those here as well, we pay taxes, we have families. We are military vets, one in 'Nam, one ex-logger, former FS folks, I am conservative and do not send money to ANY environmental organization and I take issue with some of the extreme agenda (have told them to their face). I paid dues to BRC for two years around 1990, I have a Jeep and a dirt bike, and a mountain bike, fish, hunt, hike, all the stuff that many others here do as well. We do not fit the many 'descriptions' of the perceived opposition described here. But we continue to seek, in a growing effort, we seek management of snowmobile riding as we describe in our articles etc.
Anyway, thanks for these efforts to keep snowmobile riding away from the Wilderness.
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