News Release: We ARE the environmentalists!

I'm not sure how many of you saw in the Salt Lake Tribune today the article about the off-road group that hit the Utah capitol hill yesterday to demonstrate their support of keeping motorized access in public lands, but there was a great picture of a guy holding a sign that read:

"News Release: We ARE the environmentalists!"

First of all, we're sorry we missed the rally. We need more people out fighting to keep these public lands open to motorized vehicles. One of the reasons why we started this site was to become more involved in keeping Utah ATV trails open to the public. We want to thank all the ATV riders that attended the rally in our behalf and look forward to joining the fight in the future.

Now on to the sign. Having grown up in Utah as avid outdoorsmen, we have come to love the outdoors and everything about it. And the thousands of other hunters, fishermen, off-road enthusiasts, snowmobilers, campers, hikers, and all others we have met have the same deep feelings about the outdoors. We realize that preserving the outdoors is critical to our future and to the future of our kids. I can't tell you how many times we've been in the outdoors and have done things to improve the environment. We've picked up trash, kept others from going off the trail, reported law breakers, fixed signs and fences, and many other things. These groups donate millions of dollars and hours to keeping the outdoors what they are and preserving the environment.

Unfortunately, there are those few that give the group a bad name. Those that go off the designated trails, those that poach animals and fish, those that "shred" the landscape with their aggressive riding. However, it needs to be understood that "those" people are the minority and that majority of the hunters, fishermen, ATV riders, and others want these people punished as much as the "environmentalists" do.

Our hope is that we can join together and fight those individuals that are truly harming the outdoors. We hope that people will begin to see that most of the hunters, fishermen, snowmobilers, off-roaders "are the environmentalists" and are working just as hard to preserve the Utah outdoors.