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ORV RALLY
BE THERE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd 2006, NOON – 2PM, CAPITOL BUILDING STEPS,
OLYMPIA
Be a part of the massive ORV Rally in Olympia, on the Capitol Building steps,
on Friday, February 3, from noon to 2 pm!!! Uninformed legislators, led
astray by those who would erase all ORV recreation from the face of the earth,
and bolstered by unelected bureaucrats with their own agendas, continue to back
all of us who participate in these wonderful, family-based forms of recreation,
into a corner.
Last year, at the first major ORV rally in the Capitol in decades, you showed
up in force, with your rigs hauling your toys. We gridlocked Olympia and put a
huge crowd on the Capitol Building steps. We could not be ignored. When we
yelled, the thunder rolled through our Legislator’s halls and offices. You made
a difference - bills that would have crippled our recreation through funding
thefts and private property restrictions were stopped in their tracks, and our
efforts to educate legislators on the issues and facts won some important
converts and supporters. Most of all, our pressure was behind finding the
Grays Harbor County solution to reopening Thurston ORV Park (Straddleline). Further, we got a bill passed which allowed rural communities to designate ORV
routes, with over 600 miles designated in Colville National Forest so far.
But ours is not a normal political battle, where two sides negotiate and try
to end up with both winning, or at least neither losing. The enemies of ORV
recreation clearly will not stop until they reach their goal – our sport no
more. No surprise that they are trying to get their hands around our
throat again this year, and thus we must never let up. We’re not just fighting
for our favored form of family recreation, this is indeed a fight for our
freedom to pursue happiness as we wish!
So just try to wipe us out! We’re fighting back like the proverbial
cornered animal. We’re taking it to the next level in every arena, including
this second annual ORV Rally! And this one is going to be even more effective.
For starters, instead of filling Olympia with our rigs and toys to
demonstrate our economic impact, we are going to fill it with ORV people. Carpooling will accomplish this – and it is a must
as parking is being limited.
Cram every ORV buddy you can into your car! We can fill the steps, the
lawn, the courtyard, and beyond. We can easily be the biggest crowd our
legislators have ever seen, and when we roar on February 3, the whole town will
hear us. Parking will be at Deschutes Parkway by the lake, protected by
the WSP, and shuttles will be provided to get us over to the Capitol Building
(it’s only a half mile).
The second big push for this rally is to book each legislator’s calendar
solid all day before and after the noon to 2 pm slot, with voting constituents
ready to talk about our issues. This is just as important as making a big
splash on the Capitol steps! It’s easy, use www.apps.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder
to quickly identify your legislators from your district, and access their
private official email address. Use that to make an appointment with them for
Rally Day!
We have plenty of issues, and talking point papers will be widely available
before and during the rally, to use in your meetings with legislators, should a
member of the press ask you questions, or just to be fully informed yourself:
- North Fork and Pilchuck/P2000
Road ORV closures – bureaucratic closures with no real attempt to mitigate
the underlying issues, forcing more ORV use into ever smaller available
opportunities.
- DNR closure of Multiple
Use trails in the Tahuya ORV area.
- Shelton County ORV closures.
- Noise bills, attempts to
eliminate ORVs with insane noise level requirements that ignore all other
noise sources, many of them truly loud.
- ORV liability issues – we’re
pushing a bill to limit liability on private land owners who provide ORV
opportunities – this is critical!
- Insisting that public land not
be managed by "Closed Unless Posted Open" – No "King’s Forest!"
-
ORV tabs and limiting DOL
skimming of ORV tab funds – a bill by us to reduce what they take for
administration to a reasonable amount. When we allowed our tabs to be
increased from $5 to 18 to offset the theft of our gas tax refund, the DOL
continued to take 18% off the top! It shouldn’t cost them any more to
process per tab regardless of how much the fee is.
We’ll use the same staging points as last year, wear your gear, bring the
whole family, kids too!
Rally Staging Points:
- Cycle Barn - Smokey Point
- RMC - Renton
- Tacoma Mall - Tacoma
- South Sound Honda- Olympia
- Mason County - Shelton Denny's
If you want to make your own signs, the official slogans are:
- Open Areas = Quiet
Neighborhoods
- OHV Use Is Not A Crime
- OHV Use Builds Strong Families
- DNR Land Is Not "The King's
Forest"
It costs to make the signs and other rally materials. If you would like to
make a donation, contact Rally Treasurer Brett Wise at (425) 226-4320 x.207 or
BWise@rentonmotorcycles.com.
For more information on the Rally, to volunteer, etc., contact Ed
Bushnell at 425-931-3332 or Angie Marek at 253-537-3172.
If you love ORV recreation, you’ve got to find a way to be there! We need to
win the current battles, for sure, but one day we’re going to win this war!
We’ll see you on the Capitol Building steps February 3rd!
Winter 2006/Tory Briggs
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