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Show POINTBLANK "...dishonest, inaccurate, and downright shameful." By Gordon Swenson, Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club Tam a life-long Utahn and a long-time Sierra Club member and volunteer. In the 1970's I worked on the opposition to the Kaiparowits Power Plant and on the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Master Plan and wilderness proposal. Currently, I am a mentor in the Utah Chapter Adopt-A-Wilderness Program. I have been the Sierra Club's representative of BLM field inspections in Garfield and Kane Counties, relating to the R.S. 2477 litigation, and have worked on various other R.S. 2477-related projects, including 25 to 30 field documentation’s of actual or potential county R.S. 2477 claims. I have read your diatribes against the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club over the you, Mr. Orr and Mr. Sleight would take the energy that you have applied to chaptertrashing and attacks on the motives and integrity of long-time activists over the past several months, and apply that energy toward issues work instead, then you could accomplish a lot. If you don't know what to do or how to proceed, there are plenty of people both inside and outside the chapter who would be very happy to offer specific suggestions, and there are even books available to help you get started. past several months, and have found them to be dishonest, inaccurate, and downright Sierra Club groups require additional bureaucracy, and shameful. have many functions in addition to issues work, such Your basic argument is that you want to form a Sierra Club group so that you can as coordinating program mectings and outings. work on issues. Fine, there are plenty of issues to work on. The Utah Chapter Adopt- — You have made it clear in your diatribes that outings are A-Wilderness Program still has many unclaimed wilderness units needing adopters. There are always EAs needing comments, scoping meetings needing participants, your lowest priority anyway. timber sales needing scrutiny, grazing allotments needing monitoring, and brushfires needing to be put out. In your articles you have listed a whole series of issues local to Moab, which you say need work. So work on them. You can do that without an official group. There is no Sierra Club The first salvo that I can recall in your attacks on the Utah Chapter was the rule that says that you can't work on issues until you have formed a group. It is common statement in your paper--August/September,1999, before the first vote on group to do issues that work directly through Sierra Club. chapters. My own Sierra Club formation-—that the Sierra Club: issues work has always been directly for the chapter. Sierra Club groups require additional bureaucracy, and have many functions in addition to issues work, such as "sometimes seems more interested in doing upscale and expensive outings for rich coordinating program meetings and outings. You have made it clear in your diatribes and trendy yupsters than really fighting for issues." that outings are your lowest priority anyway. The only one of your Moab group issues which involves any controversy within I have two comments on that: the chapter is the Glen Canyon draining. As to that the Glen Canyon Institute, with (1) The reason that the Sierra Club members who come to Moab are rich and the cooperation of the Sierra Club's Colorado River Task Force, is already handling the . trendy yupsters is that the people who come to Moab are rich and trendy yupsters. serious work of the Citizen's Environmental Assessment. I'm sure that they'd welcome Sierra Club members who aren't rich can't afford to spend much time in Moab, and volunteers. To the extent that your main goal is to make more noise than the GCI, those who aren't trendy don't belong there anyway. If you dislike or despise the you are already doing that through the Glen Canyon Action Network and your people who keep the Pack Creek Ranch and most of your advertisers in business that's newspaper, notwithstanding any futile attempts by the Utah Chapter ExCom to get fine, but don't confuse them with the rest of the world or with the rest of the Sierra you to turn down the volume. Club either. So what's the problem? You are making all of the noise that you want regarding (2) Your salvo quoted above and Mr. Sleight's threats, made before the first Glen Canyon. If you really want to work on any other issues, then Work on them. If | CAN'T FIGURE OUT YOU PARK SERVICE RANGERS. YOU RAISE THE FEES SO TUM MT iit siedge tla ili) NOBODY CAN AFFORD TO GO THERE AND YOU SAY YOU NEED MORE MONEY BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE..YOU GO AROUND PACKIN' A GUN LIKE YOU'RE COPS, BUT “YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE PARK RANGERS 'CAUSE EVEN YOUR GOOFY HATS... YOU LOVE NATURE. WHY DO YOU WEAR THOSE SILLY HATS? | THINK I'M ON TO SOMETHING. |