No representation...
Dec 06, 2012 | 950 views | 0 0 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend | print
With regards to the Outdoor Retailers letter to President Obama: First and foremost, I am an out-of-state visitor to the Moab area. I typically visit, at minimum, twice a year. Once a year for Easter Jeep Safari, and once a year for hiking/biking. So while I am not a resident to the area I do care what happens there and have been following the news on this subject closely.

While reading the article, one comment stood out: Bruce Adams, chairman of the San Juan County Commission, was not familiar with the monument proposal, but said he doesn’t see the need. “I’m surprised. I didn’t know there was this terrible problem,” he said. “We work closely with the Bureau of Land Management to keep ATV [all-terrain vehicle] people from going pell-mell across the land. There have been no extraction leases offered in that area for tens of years. Why do we need another layer of public land control for the residents of San Juan County?”

Why are these outdoor companies fighting for something that has not been requested? This same argument can be made with shutting down “unused roads and spurs.” Why close something nobody uses or wants to use? To me it sounds like the issue is already closed? Why waste tax dollars stopping what isn’t happening?

The list of these “outdoor” companies is ultimately suspicious as well. As I said, I am a Jeep owner and do recreate in the area with my 4x4 Jeep, responsibly. Yet, this alliance of outdoor companies is without an active member of the off-road industry. A beer company can make the list, their only tie to being an “outdoor company” is having a beverage named after a bike tire. But still there is no representation from a single 4x4 or ATV group. Without that involvement this movement only furthers suspicions that access restrictions will soon follow. This movement for a national monument is nothing more than a backdoor political move to restrict access. I’ll be boycotting these companies until their support for OHV access is in writing.

—Thomas Yash

Alliance, Neb.
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