December 2004
Grassroots Conference Teaches Perseverance Pays Off
October 15-17, 2004, the Winter Wildlands Alliance hosted the 2nd Biannual Grassroots Advocacy Conference at Bogus Basin Ski Area in Idaho. The 40 attendees including activists, Forest Service personnel, skiers, snowshoers, snowmobilers, attorneys, and a sound scape consultant were welcomed to the conference by Mike Finley, former Director of Yellowstone National Park. His message was to collect data and monitor areas of concern and present statistics, documentation, and photos to the land management agencies. Now the President of the Turner Foundation, he directs grant making in this area. Sessions at the conference included how to participate in the seemingly complicated process of travel management planning, legal strategies available to non-motorized winter users, how to build a statewide diverse advocacy group, setting up a nonprofit (501 (c) 3), fundraising, and the economic significance of non-motorized users. Kathie Rivers, Attorney at Law, presented a detailed report of winter use trail designations on all US Forest Service lands. These data, which are difficult to grasp even by the land management agency, are especially useful information for new groups seeking equal access for non-motorized users on public lands. Dave Holland, the Director of Recreation, Heritage, and Wilderness, for the US Forest Service, presented a session on how to use the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the Winter Wildlands Alliance developed earlier this year. His suggestion was to use the MOU to partner with the Forest Service to help provide data that will be useful to both the Forest Service and the non-motorized community. Specifically, social data, including demographics and how skier/snowshoer presence enhances communities, and impact information-clear research that provides unequivocal data are sorely needed for better management of public lands.
The conference was rounded out by three case studies on groups who have had both successes and failures in working with the forest service on non-motorized winter issues. Leslie Lovejoy of the Friends of the Routt Backcountry in Steamboat Springs (a chapter of the Colorado Backcountry Snowsports Alliance) discussed the process of coming up with a vision and following through with as many people, businesses, and government entities as possible. Buy-in from diverse groups, especially the local government, is important in trying to convince the Forest Service to establish non-motorized winter recreation areas.
Dale Neubauer of the Central Oregon Backcountry Skiers (Bend, OR) discussed strategies that engage the land managers. These include the safety issue of having pedestrians (skiers and snowshoers) in the same area as high speed machinery (snowmobiles), the noise issue, documentation (especially photos of environmental damage), the importance of resubmitting information provided in the past and telling the land managers that you have a full copy of the resubmission ready to go to the press. He also discussed the importance of capitalizing on setbacks. If the Forest Service acknowledges an issue, does not act upon it, and there is a problem, it becomes a public relations nightmare for them.
Sally Ferguson, acting Director of the Winter Wildlands Alliance, finished the conference with a mandate to act. The biggest lesson from the weekend was that forging relationships be it with your constituents, other groups (no matter how diverse) with similar goals, the land management agency, and even the opposition, is one of the basic tools that will bring success. Two snowmobilers attended the conference this year-likely because this group feels that the pendulum is swinging back and they realize the need to converse and cooperate with the nonmotorized users. Finally, she urged all of the activists to use the Memorandum of Understanding in our own backyards and give the Forest Service more of an understanding of where non-motorized interests are in an effort to gain equal access to public lands. Participants in the conference coming from Washington, DC, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and California received a comprehensive notebook that will help them in their work to gain access to non-motorized areas on public lands in the winter.