FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Roadless Act Input Sought by State

[Andrew Goodwin <a.goodwin1@xxxxxxx>]

Jeff Hopkins wrote:
> Why should you be concerned? Anyone who uses the rural roads in the 
> National Forest, e.g., for star parties, should be concerned. The 
> still some major problem. 
>
> Jeff
>   
     This could be a mute point as most of our current observing sites 
are on BLM land (Sentinel and the new towers site).
The Cherry II and I sites are on "public use" land as administered by 
both the BLM and Prescott National Forest. My  (now  Rick's contact)  
has  said that there is no problem with using the two Cherry Rd sites. 
The 5 mile meadow (Buck Butte Meadow) site would be one possible site 
that might be effected but I don't think so as this has come up before 
when I attended NAU in Flagstaff and the roads of concern were mostly 
non passable except by the most die hard 4 wheel drivers and thus the 
reason to close some of these roads. According to sources there "the 
chance that we might be faced with another situation of a off roader 
being stuck and unable to call for help, is deemed to be  too great a 
risk"   Remember the two girls  stuck on a  road and almost died? The 
one girl had to have both of her lower legs removed due to frost bite. 
In most cases the forest service will down a tree across the road they 
wish to close and post a clearly designed sign. The often graded roads 
that we use will remain open except for the reason of fires and wildlife 
management. We should continue to foster a working relationship with the 
various agencies so they know who we are and what we do. (no camp fires 
and for the most part, non smokers) We leave the sites clean and free of 
litter. Only an occasional  hockey puck is left behind.

Just some thoughts.

Andrew Goodwin.

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