Someone (Joe Pylka?) raised the problem of loss of access as shoreside and upland areas become increasingly privately owned, or "preserved" for wildlife conservation and the like. This is a major concern for me, and I have similar stories of loss of local access, with growth of wildlife protection areas the most significant over the last five years. Paddlers could take a lesson from climbers, who founded The Access Fund years ago, whose sole mission is to preserve and improve access to climbing areas for the public. TAF: http://www.accessfund.org/ We have seen ACA retract its tentacles from conservation within the last year, and in any case I suspect that the flatwater crowd would be better served by its own organization, __as long as ACA continues to have a strong WW bias.__ What flatwater campers need is significantly different from what the WW crowd does, although I know many delve into both sports. I'd devote time and money in this direction. Locally, there is effort extended toward identifying and saving paddle camping spots on the Columbia River, but it has been piecemeal, the devotion to duty of Steve Scherrer and his cronies notwithstanding. Steve had a personal motivation when he was a co-owner of Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe Supply in Portland, but has continued even though he and spouse Cindy are no longer owners of ACKCS. It's time we got on this and developed some national visibility. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Feb 3, 2005, at 2:22 PM, Dave Kruger wrote: > Paddlers could take a lesson from climbers, who founded The Access > Fund years ago, whose sole mission is to preserve and improve access > to climbing areas for the public. TAF: http://www.accessfund.org/ I don't know much about it but I believe the Maine Island Trail Association has also found a successful formula for creating access to private lands. They have been able to show owners that the stewardship provided by the association and its members is a good thing. Whether their approach can work elsewhere I couldn't say. For a recent trip in Maine I was more than delighted to pay the membership fees for the access they provided and have even renewed just for the newsletters and stuff. Maybe there is a paddler from Maine who could fill us in? http://www.mita.org/ Michael *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
-----Original Message----- From: Dave Kruger Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 2:22 PM "I have similar stories of loss of local access, with growth of wildlife protection areas the most significant over the last five years." Hi Dave, etc. It's interesting how the aim differs between conservation groups. Or maybe it's the approach. Here in SW Florida the approach has been to know nature is to love nature, and thus folks will vote/spend such that it can be preserved. To this end the Great Caloosa Blueway trail (www.greatcalusablueway.com) and camping sites have been created for the purpose of saving the natural places by making it easier for the population to see/experience it first hand. I find it interesting that in other places activities such as paddling and camping are prohibited in an attempt to preserve nature. Perhaps it is the sensitivity of various species to human activity that creates the difference. Perhaps you would like to contact the folks in Lee County to get some data from them regarding their experience with this approach, and could use their model for your national group? Just a thought, Carey *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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