A message from Rob Maxwell:
I need a little (a lot of) help! I was planning on posting a letter
to as many national boating message boards and blogs, about the Upper
Chattooga boating ban, as I could. But wife, kids, job, life, and
daily “Chattooga” posts on BoaterTalk.com keep getting in the way.
So, now I’m calling on you, the Southeastern Boating Community, to
help me get the message out to a national boating audience.
Below you’ll find a letter I’ve written to boaters all over the
country outlining how the Upper Chattooga boating ban and
restrictions effect them. Please take a few minutes and post it to as
many local, regional and national boater related message boards and
blogs as you can.
Then e-mail it to all your boating buddies, nationwide, and ask them
to do the same. This case will affect every boater in the nation
sooner or later. Everyone needs to get involved.
The letter below will explain how.
Thanx – Rob Maxwell
PLEASE POST AND E-MAIL ****************************
TITLE:
USFS Considers Banning Boating in all Federally Managed Lands!
BODY COPY:
Whether you know it or not, on August 18th the Forest Service will
establish a precedent that can lead to the banning and/or severely
restricting boating in all Federally Managed lands. Yes, your
favorite rivers and creeks that are Wild and Scenic Rivers; Federal
Wilderness; or in National Parks and Recreation Areas may soon be off
limits to all boating.
What’s going on? Whitewater boating was banned on the upper sections
of the Chattooga River 30-years ago by a single rouge park ranger,
without public comment or impact studies. He simply waived his hand,
and it was so. Now 30-years later, politically powerful special
interest groups, with significant pull in Congress and the Forest
Service are fighting to maintain this boating ban, which should never
have been established in the first place.
How does this effect you? The Upper Chattooga “Capacity and Conflict”
study, commissioned by the Forest Service, outlines rationale and
management practices for severely restricting or banning boating on
federal lands. The report is well footnoted with dozens of studies
and management techniques from across the nation. If studies and
practaces that took place in the north, south, east and west can be
used to continue a boating ban and severe restrictions on the Upper
Chattooga River, the Upper Chattooga River case can be used against
you and your rivers. You can check out the “Capacity and Conflict”
study and its array of footnotes here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/fms/forest/projects/20070608-Chattooga%20%
20Integrated%20Report%20final.pdf
Imagine a day when the Forest Service closes your favorite run and
says, “They did it on the Upper Chattooga, we can do it here.” There
will be no impact studies. Public comments won’t matter. Political
pull or a single rouge park ranger is all it will take. The precedent
will have already been set on the Upper Chattooga.
How can you help stop this? The deadline to send in comments to the
Forest Service is August 18th. If you are too busy to learn all the
details and craft the perfect comment letter, there is a link to a
well thought out form letter below. Simply add a few personal touches
and e-mail it to the Forest Service, the Chief of the Forest Service,
and your Senator and Congressman. Its simple, all of their e-mails
are also listed below. Let them all know you are against bans or
restrictions on any user group, in federally managed lands, without
proper justifications and impact studies. Remember, the river you
save could be your own.
A form letter:
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article_view_articleid_30112
_display_full_
For detailed facts on the Upper Chattooga boat banning check out
these sites:
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Project_view_id_chattooga_
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Wiki/do-
op/id/aw:chattooga_faq
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article_view_articleid_30112
_display_full_
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/fms
E-mail your letter, by August 18th, to the Sumter National Forest at:
comments-southern-francismarion-sumter@fs.fed.us
E-mail the Chief of the Forest Service in DC at:
Ask your Senator and Congressman to write a letter condemning this
unjustified boating ban.
Find your Congressman at: http://www.house.gov/
Find Your Senator at: http://www.senate.gov/
Help your boating brothers in the Southeast stop this unjustified ban
before you have to fight it in your own backyard.
Thank you
–Rob Maxwell
Atlanta, GA
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