Re: President Bush Talks With IMBA, CA Bike Show Staff

On 20 Aug 2003 09:02:18 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Corvus Corvax) wrote:

."Slacker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote 
.> 
.> AUGUST 18, 2003 -- LOS ANGELES, CA (BRAIN)--On Friday President Bush spoke
.> at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area about his $5 billion
.> National Parks Legacy Project, and several times mentioned the importance of
.> hiking and biking in national parks. 
.[...]
.> In his speech, President Bush promised $5 billion over five years for
.> national parks projects. He referred to national parks as "the crown jewel
.> of America's recreation system" and encouraged people to take advantage of
.> the resource and volunteer to maintain it.
.
.Great. Just what we need. IMBA aligning itself with Bush
."environmentalism" will do nothing but destroy its credibility with
._actual_ environmentalists. Do we really want to put ourselves in the
.same league as snowmobilers in Yellowstone? As ATV'ers? Calling the
.National Parks a "recreation system" reduces them to the level of
.amusement parks, and the Dewbie mountain bike contingent that wishes
.to view all wilderness this way is doing no favors for the sport.
.
.Kudos to IMBA for a publicity coup, but they should be very careful
.with whom they go to bed, lest they alienate the portion of their
.membership who believe that stewardship and conservation come before
.recreation. Like me.

Thanks for having some guts. But it won't win you any friends among mountain
bikers.... :)

.CC

===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande