Bad News........

[Dirty LJ]

What you are about to read can happen to your favorite trails through one method or another. The best way to keep your trails open is to get involved by writing letters, becoming politically active or donating money to fund others to do those things as well as lawsuits. It is far easier to keep the trails you love open, than to re open closed trails. I hope this will serve as a WAKE UP CALL to everyone to become MORE INVOLVED NOW BEFORE YOUR TRAILS ARE CLOSED.

Some will say that you cannot stop these closures. That is just plain wrong. I just attended a Sequoia Forest meeting last night & they totally rethought their initial plan to close over 62 campgrounds/recreation sites after receiving petitions with thousands of signatures that Stewards & other groups helped gather. Please consider donating the cost of a set of tires or a tank of gas to the groups who are fighting to help keep your trails open or become more politically active. Thanks

Chris Horgan
Stewards of the Sequoia
Division of CTUC 501c3 Non Profit
www.stewardsoftheseaquoia.org

All,

The message is kind of hard to accept so I will try to explain.

Clear Creek has been CLOSED by the EPA for reasons relating to asbestos for at least 24 months while they do a full EIS. (Environment Impact Statement). Since the EPA is higher on the food chain than the BLM. I imagine that after the EIS it will be closed to all OHV use forever. Where are people supposed to ride in that part of the state?

I would like to thank the AMA and The Blue Ribbon Coalition for their diligence in keeping these areas open for Americans to recreate in.

If you want to show your kids and grand kids what Clear Creek was like here is a cool video of Brian Sperle and Garrahan brothers ripping it up. http://youtube.com/watch?v=zX8iqvJydI4 That is about as close as any of us are going to get from here on.

I can see the future Craigslist postings now: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/mcy/663664634.html

This is the beginning of the end. Clear Creek is probably gone FOREVER. No seasonal closure, no reduced trails, it is GONE, you can't ride there. As a dirt bike club I see land use issue as our number one priority. All the heated discussions about defib units and first aid kits are meaningless if we have no place to ride.

Adam