EJS 06 Challenge follow up.

Stone Crawler

Registered User
Wanna make a difference?

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Wanna make a difference? Just go out and try to make some small thing happen that shows what 4 wheeling is really all about.



For years I have given money to off road activist and volunteered my time to fight the so called greenies. I am sure I some how helped, but I never saw a change. I went to meetings to stop the gates at Coyote Canyon and Surprise Canyon. I went to meetings to stop S7, S11, and S what ever it was that finally passed.( I think S21) I have dealt with the B.S. Cranston fed us, Frankenstien and Boxer followed suit over the years with massive land grabs. I gave when I had no money to give and then gave my time on top of that untill I got burned out and felt betrayed when a 4 wheeling activist that was working for us took a job with BLM.

Today I recieved a thank you letter from Moab that made a hell of a dent. I am sure you all know about my challenge here on Pirate and a lot of you participated. I wanted to share the Emails I recieved so that those of you who gave your time can see that you made a difference in what goes on in Moab. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE. It was worth it because one enviromental activist now knows we are not about tearing up Moab. I know that none of the people I have met 4 wheeling ever wants to hurt or take advantage of our ability to recreate on public lands. There is a small group of uneducated peolple that put a sour taste in the publics opinion of "OUR" sport. This was a big step in changing that opinion. Thank you to the 4 wheelers that helped clean up Potato Salad Hill in Moab over EJS 06. You made a big difference.

Jeff Knoll




Hi Jeff,

I hope you had a peaceful trip back home. Thank you so much for your email. I was honored to meet you and your friends last Thursday. You really helped me see what is possible and I am thrilled by it all! Or, as I told Samantha, "You made my decade!"

I would love to work with you on fine-tuning this project and expanding it onward and outward.

I gave your email address to a reporter from our local paper. When I told her about you and your challenge, she wanted to get in touch with you. I hope that it was okay to do so without checking with you first!

Those recycle bins we put at PSH were small, but they were very heavy, good for windy conditions. They used to be Forest Service cans, and a whole bunch of them ended up at the recycle center. I was going to PSH and emptying them half way every day. They were well used, but still a lot pf cans and bottles ended up in the dumpster. That's why I would set up 3 sets of 3 or something of that nature next time. That way they would be on either side of the dumpster.

Sunday morning I went over to PSH to pick up some bags of recycling someone left and empty the recycle bins and there were a couple of young men picking up trash and recycling. I talked to them for a minute to see if they were connected to your group, but he said he was with Stay the Trail, or Stay the Course. I told him what we were doing and he wants to work with us next year as well. They brought trash cans full from where they were camping. They let everybody in the area use the trash cans. I'm going to do a google search for his site.

The Solutions don't usually have much in the way of funds. We get by on very little, and don't need a lot. (Our hands and our hearts.) This past week I did use a lot of gas - besides doing PSH, we installed recycling at the Old Spanish Trail Arena, which is the Red Rock 4 Wheelers home base during JS. We took out over 146 pounds of beverage containers. (About 2100 aluminum cans! I don't know how many plastic bottles because they are all different sizes, but it was 50 pounds worth.) We also removed for recycling about 200 pounds of cardboard. It was the first time there was a serious recycling effort made at this event. We had to do the whole thing though....I am waiting to see how they feel about the results, because I got the impression that there are mixed feelings about the value of recycling among club members.

Anyway, I would love to do more next year. If I had funds I would pay a couple of really good people, like David, for one - (he's one of the Solutions) to work full-time during EJS. He put the bins at PSH, helped with cleanups, checked the Arena regularly and helped sort and deliver the recycling to our center. It's good to have a couple of people available for all the moving about necessary.

I really appreciate your efforts, interest and wisdom about this whole situation. As you know, I feel that if efforts like this had been made all along, we would not have the animosity that sometimes exists between people with different interests. We would have consideration and compromise!

Tell your daughter that one of the goals of Solutions is to remove every bit of glass from both sides of the creek. We have removed several thousands bits and pieces and won't stop until they are all gone!

Take care and write after you catch up with things! I'll think about some ideas for next year!

Sincerely,

Sara


Greetings Jeff,

Just a follow up with you to let you know how much of a difference
working with Sara made for the perceptions of the local environmental
community here in Moab. She is eternally grateful to you and mentions
it often, and as an influencer you can imagine how powerful that can be
in the minds and hearts of others.

This years event went very well, with fewer traffic incidents and lower
accident rates than in previous years. The success and direction of
the clean-up has encouraged all and we'll be working towards organizing
a larger effort next year, with plenty of notification time to get the
word out in the off-road community before arrival. You'll be seeing it
all over MAC-21 next year as well.

Samantha.




Thanks again to the volunteers who met the challenge, and Rocky Mountain Extreme .com for spreading the word.

Jeff Knoll
 

Stone Crawler

Registered User
Just a heads up, I forgot to mention we had reporters from, Crawl magazine, JP magazine, 4 wheel drive and sport utility, and Moab adventure channel at the clean up participating in picking up trash. I look forward to some good coverage.
 
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