OK, here's the scoop: in recent months the Nicolet and Chequomegon (I'll get it spelled right one of these days) National Forests (in Northern Wisconsin) have been merged into one forest with one over-ruling body. "So what?" you might think. Well, the reason why we at WisPIRG and other environmental organizations care about this is that previous to the merger the forest had different policies altogether regarding several things. One of these things is the policies regarding ATVs (all terrain vehicles). In the pre-merger Chequomegon forest, the supervisors allowed ATVs in the forest. They suggested aside a hill within the forest to be used for recreational purposes. Now that hill is torn up and ecologically devastated due to the excessive uses of ATVs. Also, once the ATVs are in the park, it would be near to impossible to keep them limited to a certain area. The leaders of the new forest realize this and say it should be an all-or-nothing kind of deal. The Nicolet forest had a better policy, in which no ATVs were allowed in the forest. But now there is pressure from local residents and sportsman-type groups to open up the forest to ATVs. There have been many petitions sent to the forest headquarters to allow ATVs in the forest. Now it is up to us and environmental groups to do something about it - to apply pressure towards keeping the polluting, ground tearing ATVs out of the forest.
If you have any suggestions as to how to apply this pressure let me know. My ideas are to write a letter to the forests with the WisPIRG letterhead, circulating a petition, tabling for signed cards to send in to them, and going and campaigning in the community for support. In addition, we have faculty support, so we might be able to get some of them to sign on to it as well.
ATVs are not our only concern. However, this is the topic that the forest is currently mulling over. Once the decision on ATVs has been made, we can move on to other issues regarding the forest, or if things ain't working out, we can disband the committee.
If you would like to join in the fight for a more environmentally sound national forest, please e-mail your interest back to me. I need people who can write letters better than me (not hard to do, I'm a science major after all), who can drum up support in the community and the student body, those who can contribute creatively, and just those people who are interested in the committee or have other motivations. We should get going after break, as the sooner we can get the letters in, the more impact they will have. Thanks for your time, Matt Pagel P.S. If you could forward this to any WisPIRG member (or anyone else who is interested) who is not on these lists, I would appreciate it.
Page Designed and Maintained By Matt Pagel, proud member and a committee
chair of WisPIRG. I invite all supporters and opponents to e-mail me with
their views on WisPIRG (and other PIRG organizations). Our main opponent appears to be the College Republican orgainazation
who appears to only oppose us because they feel we are a little vassal of the Democratic Party. I myself feel that is hogwash. We do not favor one party over another
in any way, shape, or form. I myself am a moderate (I actually voted for Perot the last election). I strongly support environmental legislation, which might
be against the Republican Platform. I myself do not see what would be more conservative than to conserve the environment. I know some Republicans that do
favor the environment (of course as well as several Democrats). Well enough ranting and raving. If CRs and other opponents could please outline to me why they dislike
WisPIRG, I would appreciate it. Also, if other students and faculty have comments on how to improve WisPIRG (or just would like to say that it is a great orgainzation), please let me know
that as well.