Contents
Opening page
Editorial Staff
Introduction
Club and General News
Warrior's Racing
Access Updates
Featured Stories:
Triumph and Tragedy on
Liberty Ridge
Why I Love Mountain Biking
Between Spring Rains
The Biscuit Fire
All in a Day's Ride
Guest Commentary
Nature vs. Politics:
Greenpeace is Wrong
to Oppose Logging.
Commentary
The Price of Freedom
Closing Thoughts
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Introduction
Warriors,
It's been a hot, muggy summer. With the weather we've been having, it seems like we're in Hawaii or Florida
instead of California. As is our tradition, the Warrior's Society keeps pretty quiet during the summer. It's our
time to relax and prepare for our trail work and event season, which runs from October to June.
But time does not stop, and we have a few important access updates that we encourage you to read and act upon. The
wilderness issue is heating up again. Senator Boxer reintroduced her California Wilderness Bill, and as you read
on you will find that wilderness proponents are taking a piecemeal approach to wilderness designations as a backup
to Boxer's Wilderness Bill.
The Forest Plan process continues with the planned release of the draft plans coming this fall. We have an update
on the Forest Plan process, and we again encourage you to be involved as this process proceeds into 2004 when the
final plans are released.
But it's not all work. We have our usual great stories and other news as usual, including pictures of the recent
"Earth Liberation Front" (ELF) protest at one of our last trail work events. We also have some pictures with a
short description of some of these ELF members who protested our trail work.
We hope your summer has been a fun one and that you enjoy this summer issue of Smoke Signals!
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Club and General News
Warrior's Society Now Affiliated With MTBAccess
To all our supporters,
In a past access alert we mentioned that we're now affiliated with a new national mountain bike access
organization called MTBAccess. July 15th was the official launch date of this organization.
Please join the Warrior's Society in supporting and joining this national mountain bike access organization, which
will be fully focused on protecting and defending responsible mountain bike access to our public lands.
Organization Formed to Focus on Mountain Bike Access
A new organization has formed to address mountain bike access issues in North America.
Designed with a single mission in mind-"To protect and ensure fair and reasonable trail access for mountain
bicyclists"-MTBAccess represents mountain bicyclists who want their opportunities to ride protected with vigor and
determination.
"We intend to meet a need in the mountain bicycling community," said Board President Jennifer Klausner. "Mountain
bicyclists need representation that aggressively works to ensure that we don't lose trails to poorly conceived
wilderness proposals, that we don't lose opportunities because of failure to incorporate mountain bicycling in
management plans, and that closures or restrictions based on bad science or no science will be resisted
vigorously."
MTBAccess will insist that federal agencies adhere to standards of fairness and scientific accountability. The
organization also will push to include mountain bicycling in the recreation components of agency land management
plans.
"The mountain bicycling community has had a lot of positive dialogue with the agencies, particularly the U.S.
Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management," Klausner said, "but in terms of on-the-ground action, the
dialogue has produced little of consequence. We will help the agencies put words into action.
"MTBAccess will work actively with other recreational user groups when it is to our mutual advantage," Klausner
said. "And that includes motorized recreation. We will not, however, support recreation that is irresponsible or
harmful to natural and cultural resources, regardless of the mode of transportation."
The MTBAccess board of directors and advisory board includes mountain bicycle advocates with many years of
successful advocacy experience.
"We're not here to compete with IMBA," Klausner said. "IMBA does a great job of outreach and education. Our
purpose is to focus on the kind of advocacy that no organization is doing at the national level."
MTBAccess is headquartered in Tucson and plans to establish an active presence in Washington, D.C. within a year.
The executive director is Mark Flint.
For more information contact:
Mark Flint 520-299-9151
Jennifer Klausner 310-820-3456
Steve Anderson 520-721-7095
Or see the MTBAccess website
Support Our Advocacy
We have no paid staff and operate under a very low overhead in an effort to use your contributions as efficiently
as possible. Our representatives have years of experience in land use issues and are motivated by a passion to
protect your access to your public lands. They are only reimbursed for travel costs.
We depend upon your participation in our events to help fund our advocacy. Our next event is the Toad Festival on
Saturday, October 25th. For more information on the Toad Festival see our
web site.
We are also offering Warrior's Society hats and t-shirts for sale to assist us in our advocacy. The money raised
by these sales will be specifically earmarked to assist us in our state and federal advocacy efforts to protect
our access.
The hats come in black and tan with the Warrior's Society feather on the front and "Warrior's Society" on the
back. The t-shirts are tan and feature the Warrior's Society logo and staff on the front pocket with the choice of
a graphic of a wheel on the back incorporating the Warrior's Society logo and staff or our "Protect our access and
conserve our public lands - it's up to you" statement and graphic.
The hats and t-shirts are $11.99 each plus postage (insured) and sales tax. Up to three items can be mailed for
the same cost of postage for one item.
To view the hats and shirts click here.
You can also order online on active.com
using your credit card.
(Click on "register now" and follow the directions to order using your credit card.)
You can also purchase these items at:
Switchback Cyclery
In Orange at 3426 E. Chapman at Prospect (714) 628-3913
The Path bike shop
In Tustin at 215 W. First Street, east of the 55 Fwy (877) 425-2453
Rock and Road Cyclery
In Mission Viejo at 27825 Santa Margarita Pkwy (949) 859-5076
In Laguna Niguel at 27281 La Paz Road, Laguna Niguel (949) 360-8045
We thank you for your support and promise to continue to do our very best to protect your access to our pubic
lands as efficiently as possible. We will also continue to push for sound scientific management practices that are
not biased against access.
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