April 2000
Tread Lightly! Conference Dialogue
Durango, CO -- On March 21, 2000, the BSA participated in the first of three dialogues with government agency land managers, members of the motorized industry, motorized users, and non-motorized users. Tread Lightly!, a non-profit educational group which advocates enjoyment of the great outdoors while minimizing impacts, organized this event with the hopes of bringing these divergent groups together to open lines of communication, find common ground, discuss issues, and develop a plan for continuation of responsible recreation.
This first meeting was designed to identify and address issues and open a constructive dialogue. We were broken into four groups: Industry, Agencies, Enthusiasts (motorized users), and Conservationists (non-motorized users). The question for the morning was to determine four major challenges facing responsible recreation.
Themes running through the four groups included education, health of the environment, communication, lack of funding, access, reliable data collection, and rule compliance.
The afternoon sections were divided into snowmobiles, hunting and ATV's, off-road vehicles, and water crafts. The snowmobiling group included Sarah Michael (Idaho Skiers Alliance and President of the newly formed national group, the Backcountry Snowsports Alliance), two government agency people, three snowmobile industry people, two snowmobile enthusiasts, and the BSA. The challenges facing snowmobiles included reducing emissions and noise, access, decreasing conflicts, increasing communication and education, and accurate development of emissions and pollution data.
The people from the motorized community were concerned that no environmental groups such as the Blue Water Network, the Sierra Club, or others were able to attend. These groups stated that funding for attendance was not available. Tread Lightly! has indicated that it will try to arrange for travel and meeting scholarships for the next two meetings in the dialogue series. It is hoped that this will bring more people to the table.
The BSA plans to attend the next two meetings provided funding is received.