Congressman Draft Letter Opposing the Obliteration of Roads and Trails

The Forest Service recently released a proposed rule allowing them to obliterate roads, trails, bridges, culverts, dams and fences without any public involvement. Allowing the Forest Service to close routes that the public needs.

Stewards of the Sequoia submitted a substantive comment letter to the Forest Chief objecting to this back in August. Our letter was also provided to Congressional Representatives and it is gratifying to see Congressman signing their own letter outlining a number of the objections we raised. We want to thank Congressman McCarthy and all the signers for standing up to protect access to our public lands.

Make a New Years Resolution to Be Part of the Solution to Keep Trails Open

Maintaining your trails is key to keeping them open. Stewards of the Sequoia members have performed maintenance on almost 2000 miles of trails by clearing over 2400 downed trees, installing over 2800 water bars and clearing untold miles of brush from the trails.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER and you can help keep your trails open

Stewards have recently adopted seven more trails bringing our total to 18 Adopt A Trails the Sequoia National Forest.

2013 Spring Trail Appreciation Schedule

You can learn more at http://stewardsofthesequoia.org/events-schedule

New Film "Axed-The End of Green" Goes into Production

A new movie will tell how Big Green is harming the environment with endless lawsuits and needlessly killing our economy.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jking/axed?ref=email

Do You Own Camelbak, North Face Gear or Outdoor Research Gear?

Anti Access Crowd Pushing for Another 1.4 Million Acres in National Monuments and your Dollars are probably helping to Fund It!!

Well you cannot deny they are persistent. Four years ago when leaked documents showed a plan to lock up millions of acres in more National Monuments without public involvement, President Obama claimed this was not true. As proof he created the America Great Outdoors Initiative which could have shown huge public support for more land lock ups. Instead with your help Stewards of the Sequoia Executive Director was voted the Top Innovator Nationwide and his ideas and others about more motorized and mountain bike trails representing over half of the Top 40 Ideas as voted by the public.

Since it was clear we had derailed this avenue for closure another tact was taken. The Anti Access crowd have set up the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) who have a letter signed by over a hundred outdoor retailers supporting locking up another 1.4 million in Monuments.

Whiletestifying before Congress last year, Stewards Executive Director witnessed the Outdoor Industry Association Director testify that thousands of outdoor retailers wanted more lands locked up. This was of real concern to us so we contacted many of these companies like Coleman and Cabellas and found they had not heard about these closures they supposedly supported.

OIA now claims only a hundred rather than thousands, but they are still peddling misinformation by ignoring that these lands currently support more forms of outdoor recreation and therefore more business than they would if locked up in National Monuments.

OIA falsely claims these lands are "endangered due exploding off road vehicle use". In reality plans were recently completed with full public involvement which only allow OHV use on designated routes and increase environmental protections, but OIA wants to ignore that and lock up more lands.

Who are the companies Outdoor Industry Association represents? A few months ago their website had a very long list, but now it is a secret and only other paid members are allowed to see this list of outdoor companies. http://my.outdoorindustry.org/custom/directory/

Why would it be a secret? After all companies join OIA in order to be promoted. Perhaps because OIA does not want you to know who they are so you cannot call these companies and let them know they are alienating their customers by being listed as supporting OIA extremist closures.

OIA is actually a tradeshow company and only represent a handful of special interest elitist companies like Camelbak, Outdoor Research, North Face and others.

UNLESS THESE COMPANIES HEAR FROM CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU they will continue to support closures.

CALL THEM NOW if you buy their products. Tell them you strongly object to the Outdoor Industry Association letter they signed.

Ask them why they want to lock you and millions of other customers out of their public lands? Do they want to loose your business?

• North Face 888-863-1968
• Camelbak 800-767-8725
• Outdoor Research 888-467-4327
• See more companies in the OIA letter

Christmas is coming please consider boycotting the companies who signed the closure letter.

Sequoia National Forest Launches New Website

Sequoia National Forest Supervisor, Kevin Elliott, recently announced the launch of the new Sequoia website at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/sequoia. The website uses updated technology to follow the work of the forest & connect people across the nation to government information. New national forest website technology & templates are creating a consistent look & feel across the agency, making it easier for viewers to navigate through the hundreds of National Forest sites available. "Technology is playing a bigger role than ever in forest management & the new website has plenty of resources to keep people informed about what is happening," stated Elliott. "Our new site has the information people need to plan vacations, track wildfires & stay informed about ecological restoration plans, projects & events." The new website was designed to provide up-to-date information from the Sequoia National Forest, provide interactive maps of campgrounds, educational resources, historical archives, photos & eventually online video travel clips.