Southern, UFWDA and BRC bringing the heat!

uploads/5/Tellico_NOI_FINAL_4-27-09.pdf

Please see the attached letter. This week the SFWDA along with the UFWDA and BRC issued a notice of intent to Sue under the Clean water act.

"The Forest has engaged itself and the public in a nearly two-year process of swallowing the SELC NOI conclusions hook, line and sinker. The central conclusions of the February 27th letter and the Order/DM closely follow the allegations, if not specific wording, of the NOI. The NOI allegations and Forest’s acceptance of them cannot be squared with the facts or applicable law. Notwithstanding their concerted effort to pursue collaborative and creative solutions at transitioning to a meaningful, active management system at the Area, the Recreational Groups find themselves backed into a corner by the Forest’s actions. Such actions reflect erring on the side of eliminating use that has been continuing for decades. Sadly, the Forest apparently perceives an unsolvable dilemma, despite the fact that alternative, more successful management strategies have been proposed to the Forest from internal and external sources. Absent a meaningful response to the concerns raised here the Recreational Groups will find themselves with no resort but the courts."

Yep. SFWDA and the lawyers from BRC and United have been working behind the scenes to get this NOI done and out the door. We now have 60 days before we can file suit.

We are not giving up and have moved this into the court system because the FS would not work with us.

Glad to see this!

Amen.

I read the document and I am very glad to see this action taken. This will yield more results than irritating law enforcement and generally making asses of ourselves.

Good Job!

Standing ovation....and thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Standing ovation....and thanks for keeping us in the loop.
ditto

If they would just work with us we wouldn't have to make them look bad in court. Oh well they brought it upon themselves.
In the words of :mr-t:, "I pity the fool!"

AWESOME!!!

Mike

This is the correct approach. Make sure we have sent a copy of the 60 letter to the US Department of Justice.

Excellent

Go get em!!

Sweet!

where do we send the $$

where do we send the $$

Thanks!!! We sure need the money!!!

http://www.sfwda.org/trails/tellico/donate.html

Sent some more money. Only $5 this time I'm running a little low. Maybe it can buy 5 $1 burgers for the legal team?

Excellent. I just read through the file on SFWDA and I'm glad to see action taken.

Thanks!!! We sure need the money!!!

http://www.sfwda.org/trails/tellico/donate.html

About time!!! Donation Sent!

Southern, UFWDA and BRC bringing the heat!

uploads/5/Tellico_NOI_FINAL_4-27-09.pdf

Please see the attached letter. This week the SFWDA along with the UFWDA and BRC issued a notice of intent to Sue under the Clean water act.

"The Forest has engaged itself and the public in a nearly two-year process of swallowing the SELC NOI conclusions hook, line and sinker. The central conclusions of the February 27th letter and the Order/DM closely follow the allegations, if not specific wording, of the NOI. The NOI allegations and Forest’s acceptance of them cannot be squared with the facts or applicable law. Notwithstanding their concerted effort to pursue collaborative and creative solutions at transitioning to a meaningful, active management system at the Area, the Recreational Groups find themselves backed into a corner by the Forest’s actions. Such actions reflect erring on the side of eliminating use that has been continuing for decades. Sadly, the Forest apparently perceives an unsolvable dilemma, despite the fact that alternative, more successful management strategies have been proposed to the Forest from internal and external sources. Absent a meaningful response to the concerns raised here the Recreational Groups will find themselves with no resort but the courts."

Eegggggggggsellent.

Nice!

Donation & sticker order sent! Thanks for sticking up for us! :)

Donation sent!

sent what $ i could to help out!! go get em!!!!!!

Thanks again to all those that have sent in a donation. Even small ones are appreciated!

I'm not sure how this can get setup... but who ever is heading up this cause needs to get donations coming in through GoodSearch --> http://www.goodsearch.com GoodSearch is a free donation type search engine that sends a penny or so every time you search to your designated charity.

Please let us know when it's up and running!! Oh and some motivation for you, yeah TU has multiple causes listed!!

awesome

This is great news. Thank's for stepping up and keeping us informed.

I had a couple guys come into my place yesterday and they told me that the FS made their final decision about a week ago. They told me that the FS final decision is the complete closure. This may be just BS, but has anyone else heard anything as to this information? Even in BS there is some truth. The reason I feel there is some validity to this is because the FS met with Shuler's Office, Town Counsel and Couty Commission Leaders before they met with the Stake Holders on this last go around.

I wouldn't believe anything until I heard it from the horse's mouth.

heather yall are my heroes!

We have not heard that any decision has been made. If the FS follows the NEPA process (which we all know they have not been very good at doing so far), then they will come out with the Final EA that addresses all the public comments received. The document will do one of two things:

1) Acheive a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for their PROPOSED action. If that is the case, then they will stop the process and go with whatever they call their "proposal." That proposal is supposed to be their preferred alternative in the draft EA, but we know that that was bullshit anyway and their proposed action is closure.

OR

2) The EA finds that there is significant impact and they determined through the process that more analysis is warranted and they move into an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to determine their course of action.

But, like I said, we haven't heard anything, yet.

heather yall are my heroes!

Thanks, but really the folks that rallied and continue to rally behind this cause are the heros. We have a tough fight on our hands, but one that can be won. But it can't be won without public outcry and financial support.

ive been sending letters, and filled out that old survey on the sfwda web site (http://www.sfwda.org/trails/tellico/UT_survey_2008/UT_OHV_Survey.pdf), i realize its probabaly old, but i whink it still makes a point. especially the part that states how often you visit, and how much you spend in bold on each trip. and within these letters i enclose one of those nice save tellico stickers (http://www.cafepress.com/rescuetellico):)

If I'm reading this right, the 60 days is up. Have we recieved any response? Are we filing suit this time?