Calgary SUN, May 25...........let them know how you feel!

[MTSman]

 

Ian Robinson


Sun, May 25, 2008
Unnatural acts
UPDATED: 2008-05-25 04:04:10 MST
   
Ted Morton is the minister of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.
Which is a bullcrap, politically correct, feel-good, moronic name for what used to be called in most jurisdictions, sensibly enough, the natural resources portfolio.
I guess it only makes sense that when you ask somebody with such a bullcrap title a question, what comes out of his mouth is ... um, how to say this delicately ... appropos of his ministry's name.
After the annual May long weekend debacle, with its inevitable photos of landscape torn up by all-terrain vehicles, Morton was asked in the legislature how the government plans to prevent further wilderness degredation.
Morton said the province's new land use framework includes more trails for off-road vehicles.

"The solution is more trails."
Yeah. That's right. We have a morons-with-ATVs problem, so the solution is to give them more places to wreck.
Not for nothing does the American-born Ted come from the culture that gave us the line: "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."
He also uttered the obligatory nonsense that politicians must, which is to point out that not all off-roaders are bad, it's just those few bad apples.
Uh, Ted?
Yeah. They are.
When I was 11, snowshoeing through the bush checking on my little rabbit trapline in the dark, a snowmobile nearly ran me down.
That was the first, alas not the last, time my life has been threatened in such a way.
Since then, my antipathy for the knuckle-dragging yahoos who race through the bush on any manhood substitute -- snowmobile, ATV, dirt bike, four-wheel drive truck -- has only grown.
Camping used to be about enjoying nature, and getting back into the serious wild took serious effort.
You hiked it or canoed it.
You had to earn it with sweat and calories burned and blisters on your heels and callouses on your hands.
It was the drag of the pack on your shoulders and that glorious feeling of weightlessness when you could finally shrug it off.
It was the call of a loon across the lake, the howl of a wolf, the chatter of a squirrel, a burst of birdsong.
It was not the sound of an engine red-lining and a choking cloud of exhaust.
Let's get something absolutely straight here.
People who propel themselves through the bush with internal combustion engines are not exactly nature lovers.
The people who head out to scare the crap out of the wildlife -- and any remaining 11-year-olds who still venture outside away from the X-box -- would be just as happy if somebody dug a giant pit in the middle of Calgary, filled it up with mud and let them play.
I saw the pictures from McLean Creek.
These aren't nature lovers.
They aren't fit enough to be nature lovers.
The ones I saw in the photos and the ones I've laid eyes on up close and personal when I've camped there, are so fat and out of shape, they couldn't wheeze and waddle their way on foot to the neighbourhood 7-Eleven if they were giving out free Slurpees.
And, although some might think I'm exaggerating, I once saw an ATVer scrape her knee on a rock ... and she bled that yellow gunk they pour on nachos.
Seriously.
So can somebody in authority grow a pair and just ban the damnable things?
What ATVs and dirt bikes and four-wheel-drive vehicles do is allow morons to impinge upon irreplaceable wilderness far beyond the scope of a human on foot.
Banning them would have the effect of limiting how deep we forge into the lands that belong to all Albertans.
And it will be returned to those of us willing to earn the experience of the wilderness.

[SwampSinger]

I saw that .. this guy is a moron.

People won't stop using the back country and we (all users) make an impact on the environment... we all have to be responsible. The hiker that leaves junk on the trail is as bad as the HS grad that parties at May long and leave junk or the quad/ Bike/ truck that does not stay on designated trails. ... Users have to be educated and have to become responsable ...bottom line!

All activities create an impact on the environment. Like CLEAR cutting...if there is no plants or trees to hold the ground in place .. what do you think it will happen. MASSIVE EROSION... if you want to talk bout screwing up an ecosystem... chop ALL the trees in a forest and see what it does. It will extremely affect the flora, the fauna and the water shed. It disturb every organism on that ecosystem.  It's not the truck/ bike or quad that destroy the environment... we do minimum impact on the trail that we are allowed to do on.


This Ian guys is looking for drama... just look how he writes... using the term "Bull crap"... that's how a high school student writes when they are pee off.... not a professional reporter.

He should write about Paris Hilton weekend parties for the Enquire! 

[Elsifer]

My response: I cc'ed the "Feedback" and the "Letters to the Editor" people.

   Subject:    Your column on "Unnatural acts" - Sun, May 25, 2008
   From:    [email protected]
   Date:    25 May 2008 13:37:00 MDT (CA)
   To:    [email protected]
   Cc:    [email protected], [email protected]

Hon. Minister Ted Morton speaks the truth about "More trails".
After last years debacle in the Indian Graves area. This years offroad festival that is the May Long weekend pales in comparison. (No burned out cars, no living room sets left behind, and a resectable amount of garbage and trash placed by the campers into appropriate and provided receptacles).

SRD has essential compounded the issue. After the complete closure of the Indian Graves area, and the partial closure of the Waiparous area. The only place left for quality and challenging, designated OHV trails is the McLean Creek area.

So all the users (and abusers) of the other areas within a 2 hour drive from Calgary are forced, no, shoehorned; into one tiny area.
McLean creek is the only OHV designated area where Jeeps, Quads, and Motorbikes can run the trails together. Unless the trail is a designated single-track trail, for motorcycle use only.
Trail use segregation is quite likely coming to the McLean area, as the GAMP (Ghost Area Management Plan) did for the Waiparous region. Trucks on truck trails, quads on theirs, bikes on their trail systems.

One thing you neglected to mention is, McLean creek is a designated OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) area. If anyone as a hiker or boater or mountain biker wants to come and do their thing in an OHV designated area. Then they as users of that area had better be prepared for the roar of engines and the braaap-brraaap from a two-stroke motor.
I as an OHV enthusiast do not take my equipment and go play in designated hiking and mountain bike trails. Not only is there legislation preventing me, I don't think that doing so is a proper etiquette.

Trail segregation has been long taking place, hence hikers and bikers have their playgrounds, and we as OHV users have ours.

I as an avid Jeep driver and 4x4 enthusiast (or Wheeler as we are known), belong to the Calgary Jeep Association (The CJA, www.calgaryjeep.com), the Alberta United Recreationist Society (The AURS, www.aurs.org), the Alberta 4 Wheel Drive Association (The AB4WD, www.ab4wd.com); I adhere to a myriad of common sense, self governed rulesets. I clean up after myself and others, I respect the trails, the land the trails are on, and the other users of those areas. What we pack in, we pack out. We also adhere to the Tread Lightly (http://www.treadlightly.org), principals and guidelines. And apparently we use our highly developed human brains.
The closure of the Indian Graves are last year angered me. Due to the (in)actions of a select few, the avid and responsible users of that area were left without an area with challenging trails and beautiful scenery. In the end, a knee-jerk reaction to the actions of a select few, punished an entire spectrum of responsible users of that area.

You as an avid hiker, have no place arguing over how a Designated Off-Highway Vehicle area should be closed, and our hobbies and equipment should be banned. I don't poke fun at your spandex shorts, three piece pants and tilly hat. Don't make fun of my hobby, or call me a knuckle-dragging yahoo!

To paint all off road users with your broad sensationalist (and derogatory) brush, does not help resolve the issue. Nor does it provoke some sort of thought process into how these areas, the users, and their attitudes can be improved. There will always be those types of users who like nothing better than spinning their tires, while playing in the mud. So long as there is motorsport, there will be those types of drivers, and the earth will suffer.

Then there are responsible 4x4 users. Who enjoy the views, enjoy challenging trails, with steep cutlines, the possibility of rollovers, the technical driving that goes along with those obstacles. We are out there for the beautiful day, the spectacular scenery outside our great city, and to be thankful that we live in a country where these magnificent natural resources are so close to home, and can be accessed in a multitude of ways.

I invite you to come along with the CJA, or the AURS, or the AB4WD; and see what responsible 4x4 use looks like. Then perhaps I can feel less like a knuckle-dragger, and more like a human for enjoying my hobby, and enjoying and preserving my playground.

Thanks for listening.

Chris


-----------------------------------
Chris Lobkowicz (VA6CPL)
[email protected]
403-xyx-yxyx
(address blocked out) NW
Calgary, AB
T3Kxxx

[Mr-B]

Very well put, thank you Chris... I too shall write and voice my concern about being called a knuckel dragging moron....as a knuckel dragging moron I picked up 5 bags of garbage with Dom and some of the crew this past Saturday, how many bags did Ian fill?

Brian

[Mr-B]

my 2 cents have been sent as follows:


 Subject:    knuckle dragging yahoos
   From:    [email protected]
   Date:    25 May 2008 18:44:00 MDT (CA)
   To:    [email protected]
   Cc:    [email protected], [email protected]

Mr. Robinson

   It seems as though you may have a few of your facts biased, RE: Sun, May 25, 2008 Unnatural acts.
    Firstly the people that I associate myself with are trades, business, and professional people from all walks of life, not knuckle dragging yahoo's who bleed "that yellow gunk they pour on nachos". It is very disheartening to realize a writer with a publication such as The Sun, would stoop so low as to name calling. Allow me to understand you line of thinking, your saying the misguided ways of a few week-end enthusiasts, allow you to paint all week-end enthusiasts with the same brush? Is it your opinion that all motorized off road enthusiasts are "knuckle dragging yahoos who race through the bush on any manhood substitute"? I understand you enjoy hiking, how do you get to your favorite hiking location? With that being said, is it safe for me to say all writers with The Sun are biased name calling misinformed morons?
   Secondly, as an avid law abiding 4 wheel driving, week-end enthusiast whom is employed by one of the most reputable environmental companies in this fine country we call Canada. Should I not be just as disgusted by the damage and lack of nature awareness of this past long week-end? The answer to that question is a resounding YES. However the damages and garbage left behind this year, pales from years past. I believe that some of the ideas Mr. Morton can and have been questioned, however it takes time, energy, and patience to have the best of both worlds. The different four wheel drive organizations whom work with the various levels of government , work hard at making sure that nature and wildlife are left intact after a day outdoors. This past week-end , I joined the Calgary Jeep Association at McLean Creek to pick up some of the gifts left behind by grad students, campers and of course the misguided four wheel driving knuckle dragging yahoos, I personally picked up 5 bags of garbage, sorry I must have missed your presence with the rain, and mud. Although Global News was able to join us, or do you paint your peers in the local television industry with the same brush? Can you tell me where the reporters from your publication where Saturday morning?, they were invited to join us.
   In closing Mr. Robinson I feel it safe to say that I as an Albertan, am willing to work with the guidelines set out by Mr. Morton and his cabinet, and to continue the learning and educating curve required with human existence .I know that I will be paying for a membership with theCalgary Jeep Association, as I respect the good they are trying to do. Thank you for your insight into what the SRD is suppose to be. I wonder what the Calgary Herald looks like every morning?

Yours Truly, a knuckle dragging yahoo.

Brian Frerichs
[email protected]
Calgary, AB
 

[scott/kerri]

very well done

[red95jeepyj]

Very well put brian.I think this moron should probably re word that just a tad bit.Just like the other fella was saying as avide back country user's we all have our duty to keep it clean.You go in with it and you come back out with it.Well i have a feeling that he uses the same brush everything lol All of us avide 4 wheelers are nature lovers too we just experience the outdoors differently to your over painting calgary sun guy

[SmilinVamp]

Judging by the moron's character, I fear anything written to the guy might be twisted (or spun) to his own advantage.  Bullies require a reaction or it ain't worth bullying... I'd use caution.

[Bnine]

Here's a well written article all about Robinson.

Oh ya, the link

http://ezrawinton.com/2006/10/14/the-trouble-with-fascists/

[XJHERO]

forget sumthin bill?

[Bnine]

My reply

I had the pleasure or reading Ian’s Sunday article on motorized use in the back country. I am astounded the Calgary Sun would even employ a person as naïve as Ian, let alone put some of his offensive writings into actual print.

The stereotyping and all out bigotry I read in that article was absolutely repulsive. The irony of Ian calling back all motorized country users “Knuckle dragging morons” while sounding like a “Knuckle dragging moron” himself was almost laughable. Derogatory name calling, the use of stereotypes, and labeling an entire community as fat and lazy simply illustrates exactly how ignorant Ian really is.

As a downtown professional of ten years, and an avid back country user, both motorized and non motorized, I definitely take offense to Ian’s article. My family and I donate both time and money to ongoing projects in the back country every year. Constantly working towards a sustainable system in the back country that is designed to have the least environmental impact possible, and support all user groups. From hikers and climbers, to quaders and 4x4 users.

As much as I would like to see and apology, and a retraction, I have my doubts that it will happen.

What I request is that Ian at least makes a small effort to inform himself about the community he so easily labeled as fat, lazy, knuckle dragging morons.

The Calgary Jeep Association holds an open meeting the third Wednesday of every month, 7:00pm at the Austrian Canadian Club. Perhaps if Ian could take the time to attend one those meetings, or even a volunteer event, he would be able to form an opinion that was actually based on facts.

Yours truly,

Bill Berry
Calgary Jeep Association