Hyalite Access Update

Hello everyone, I'm sure you are all anxious to hear the latest news on the ice climbing community actions regarding the Gallatin National Forest Travel Plan. Quite a lot has been going on behind the scenes but we are still up against the wall and are required to make a formal appeal which is due February 1, 2007. In a nutshell, the Forest indicated to Bill Murdock (County Commissioner & ice climber) they may be willing to reach a discretionary compromise without an appeal as it is in the Supervisor's authority to do so. Encouraged by these overtures, several of us spent many, many hours of coalition building with other user groups and developed a clear and simple plan requiring only minor "tweaks" to the Record of Decision (ROD); one which would have solved most of the concerns ice climbers have over future access to Hyalite Canyon. On January 12th, Bill Dockins, Bill Murdock, Sean Becker (City Commissioner and ice climber) and I along with several representatives of other user groups (BSF & motorized) had a meeting with the most of the Gallatin Forest administration (seven total including Becki Heath) and although they claim to be "listening" and are "very pleased" to see joint efforts between user groups, it is very clear they are happy with, if not proud of, the ROD and will resist any changes tooth and nail. Needless to say, many of us are now fired up. Fortunately, we have also been working on the official appeal process although it now needs to kick into high gear. Immediate concerns are determining who can be appellants, which is something of a frustrating, moving target. That is, what the regulations state versus who the Forest Service claims can be an official appellant is not entirely clear. The Access Fund and The Wilderness Society have been helping Bill sort through the legal and writing processes of the appeal. To my knowledge, several people have already volunteered to be appellants: Peter Aengst, Pat Callis, and Chris Naumann. There are a few more "substantive" comments related to ice climbing access in the final period, but as I said above, there may be additional opportunities to add to the appellant list. If this administrative appeal process does not work then our only option would be litigation along with the huge costs involved (50K or more). [b]A CALL TO ACTION[/b] So what can be done right now? [i]JOIN or RENEW NOW[/i] Although the initial appeal process does not require full legal counsel and will not be too expensive, there have been (and will be) some financial costs. Most importantly, an quality appeal will require a certain level of legal research to create the strongest case possible. As the Forest said, "The responsibility is to prove us (the F.S.) wrong. And we don't want to be wrong." They actually said that. Our own, Bill Dockins has been a huge asset volunteering his time and expertise but he can not do it alone and we will need to hire some help. If you are not already a member of the SMCC, please [b]JOIN NOW[/b]. If you are a member but haven't sent in a renewal in recent memory, [b]PLEASE RENEW NOW![/b] [b] Additional Information on joining can be found at:[/b] http://www.montanaclimbers.org/memberships.html [b]OR, You can send a check NOW made out to the SMCC to:[/b] PO Box 6762 Bozeman, MT 58771-6762 [b]OR, pay with a credit card at:[/b] http://www.firstascentpress.com/buy.html (I donate all the credit card merchant expenses so the entire membership fee goes to the SMCC) If you want to contribute more than ten bucks on your credit card you can simply enter however many SMCC memberships you want to get mulitples of $10. Don't worry about extra memberships, since the internet credit card service takes care of the processing and after that the whole process is manual handled by myself, Meg Hall and Jim Earl. [b]Also, please join the Access Fund:[/b] Go to: www.accessfund.org [i]Fundraising[/i]: Any additional contributions or fundraising ideas are encouraged. Neva Steward has offered help from the Nova Cafe to sponsor an event. Help with this and any other idea are needed. Anyone interested in helping Neva or spearheading other local fundraising efforts please contact me at joe@firstascentpress.com and I'll forward the information. [i]Ice Climbing Survey:[/i] If you haven't done so already, please fill out the ice climbing survey at [i]www.hyalitecanyon.com[/i]. Although we need responses from anyone interested in Hyalite ice climbing, only about 380 people from across Montana have done so. [b]Less than half of the emails sent directly to the SMCC mailing list have responded.[/b] PLEASE, take a few minutes of your time and spread the word. Here is a direct link. http://www.surveymonkey.com/Users/15554011/Surveys/719923082702/42E381A… [i]Letters to the Editor:[/i] I would encourage everyone to write a letter to the editor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (refer to http://bozemandailychronicle.com/webmaster/ for details). No one knows exactly how this might help but a full press in the court of public opinion can't hurt. I can't suggest what to say nor would I suggest you simply rephrase anything else that has been published already (I'm working on getting them all posted). Write from your heart and specific to your own experience and needs. Suggestions on what the Forest Service should do are not needed. Write about how this personally affects you. [i]Letter Writing Campaign:[/i] At some point, we will probably need to launch a letter writing campaign to our state and federal representatives. Anyone willing to spearhead this should contact me. [i]Snowmobile Route:[/i] A few climbers have attempted the alternate snowmobile route and have failed miserably. Jonathan Kempff (the road guy with the Forest Service) said it was assumed the route would need some work to be usable. We need to figure it out. We need someone with a snowmobile willing to work on this. I can loan a GPS unit and digital camera if needed. I also have some maps of the proposed road (or at least what I can figure out so far). Contact me and we can perhaps talk with J. Kempff directly to reference his maps and details (if any). This effort is not to clear the trail and make it passable but rather to document the terrain and suitability for climbers. In other words, if you go, we need complete records - date, names, type of machine, times, observations, anything you can think of. [i]Additional Help:[/i] At the December 21st meeting at Spire and via email since, many people have volunteered to be soldiers. Thank you all. Up until now there have not been many clear-cut action steps. Moving forward, the biggest steps you can do to help right now are the ones listed above and spreading the word to all your local climbing friends and partners. As the February 1st deadline approaches, I am certain many additional tasks will reveal themselves. Please stay posted and active. Thank you all in advance for your time, energy and support. Please stay posted. Joe Josephson