...continued.
Prior to the start of the meeting I just evesdropped on conversations and checked out the crowd of attendies. I wanted to get an idea of how this event was going to go down. Based on what I heard I figured it was going to get heated.
Meeting Notes:
- NGO's, Non-Government Organizations.....
- It was difficult to gauge how much representation there was from the various interests. I'd say all had some amount of representation. Hiking/mountain climbing groups had the most representation via several NGO's. ORV groups had a good presence too.
- I did see an SCI sticker on a truck parked near mine, but I never found another hunter in attendance so I'm not sure how many of us were there. Did anyone else from Huntwa attend or know another hunter that did?
- The expected division between the many NGO's, specifically environmental groups vs. ORV groups was apparently. Just listening in to some of the pre-meeting conversations I'd expected they were going to challenge each other to an arm wrestlin' match during the meeting
The mood shifted as the government officials went through their speeches.....They delivered the message well. IMHO these were people that really care about our outdoors and they would genuine like to see American's renew their interest in the outdoors as a majority. Their message was clear, 'we're here to listen to all of you and we want input from all outdoor interests...........except ORV
The speakers mentioned ORV recreation many times despite the fact that the Administration has left it out of the video and most of the talking points.
I was caught off guard when they said everyone would have an opportunity to share their views and that we would be split into groups. I ended up being the only hunter in my group of about 25 people.
List of the composition of the group I was in:
1 person from:
- a Yakima River fly fishing conservation org
- an ORV group that primarily focused on Tahuya Forest.
- leaders/presidents from a scuba diving group, a kayaking group, and a group thats focused on the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge
- a member of a group from the Castle Rock area, I don't recall the exact name of the group...maybe Mt. St. Helens rescue
multiple people:
- Two board members from the Sierra Club.
- Several people from hiking and mountain climbing groups.
- several people from the Historical Society and city parks groups.
- there were about four people from various environmental groups that I don't recall the name of and
- There were a few Seattleites that were mainly focused on city parks.
- Including a couple good lookin' college ladies from UW
Our groups' discussion started out a little slow.....mostly the Seattleites were talking about needing more government funding for Puget Sound environmental projects and City Parks. After this initial conversation of socialism and federal hand feeding the more seasoned outdoor recreation types started to speak up. I was a little surprised by what they were saying because their concerns are the same concerns we've had in the hunting community for quite some time. Some of their comments were:
"the problem is the federal government",
"we can't get permits from the Fed to even take school kids on trips into the NF's",
"access is limited and causing congested",
"our society is so fast paced that limitations in access are detering interest",
"certain designations such as Wilderness area's deter interest because some usergroups are excluded"
"the NGO's have the money and time, we just need the federal government to work with us"
"the Fed should hand the national forests over to the State"
"the Fed shouldn't have ownership of the Mt. St. Helens area.",
"The NGO's need to work together".
