THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED

Yesterday a large group of people came together to learn how to take their individual and group efforts against wilderness and turn them into a cohesive, united, well-funded and successful front against the 9 million acre federal land grab that is called the Red Rock Wilderness Act. Even more frightening is Interior Secretary Salazar's most recent attempt to accomplish by Secretarial Order, that which he knows will be defeated if he has to follow the requirements of the Congressional Wilderness Act. That Secretarial Order is legally frightening as an assault on our individual and states' rights at an unprecedented level.

It was an incredible meeting of the minds at Provo yesterday. Thank you Mike Swenson and USA-ALL for creating the seminar; to all the Utah Congressional Delegation for sending representatives to educate us on communicating with our delegation; to Bill Howell for his inspiring constitutional briefing; to Assistant Attorney General Mark Ward for his "roadmap" (pun intended)for successful litigation that will keep our public roads open; and a special thank you to Alan Peterson and Scott Wheeler and the Castle Country OHV group for their years of dedication to preserving our access while most of the rest of us were asleep.

I recently saw a favorite old quote of mine from the sci-fi book, Dune -- "The Sleeper has awakened". Yesterday, while sitting in the Seminar, listening to the presenters,and watching the commitment of the people in the audience, I concluded that truly, THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED.

I have an idea that may allow every one of you to participate in protecting our public right of access. I will be posting more information in the near future. Please come back and join this very important project to share all of your local knowledge of the roads in your own county and the counties where you recreate. Even if you can no longer get to those wonderful old roads because of age, health or distance, YOU CAN HELP PROTECT THEM. See you soon to tell you how you can do that.