DNR Considers taking away more riding areas !!

[john]

This Thursday, January 29th at 5:30 is the Public meeting for the Chena River Recreational Area.

This is a great chance to air our concerns regarding boating access, campground parking, hiking, SNOWMOBILING and other issues regarding some of the “options” outlined in the Chena River Recreational Management Plan.

As you know, access, especially when it concerns traditional use, such as riveboating, camping, 4 wheeling, fishing, etc. is something we seem to be constantly fighting to protect.

Please take a moment to look over the plan. You can pick up a copy at DNR, or click here and http://www.dnr.state.ak.us & click on Chena River Recreational Mgmt Plan.

The more people we get to the meeting, the better. Remember… if boating access becomes restricted on parts of the Chena, it can quickly change to all of the Chena, and the traffic patterns on many of the other interior rivers that you may be using now will be affected. If you wish to comment, (and we hope you do), it is important to sign up to as soon as possible after you arrive at the Noel Wein Library. Please remind those at the meeting that they left out one very important option in their list of suggested options for this area……THE STATUS QUO !…
(In other words.. if it ain’t broke… don’t fix it !)
Remember, this is public meeting, for public input, and not a lynching. It is most important that the questions and comments we raise are common sense in nature.

Yelling and screaming just makes us look like the extremists, even though it is abviously an emotional issue.

Thanks in advance for attending. See you there!

Sincerely

Craig Compeau

Some important points to bring up:

*Why make major changes based on “potential conflicts” if there are almost none now.

*If conflicts do arise, why not address those issues, rather than just restricting select users

*Why are changes being proposed that make it more difficult to access the river by road.

*Won’t “reclaiming” ie closing some popular access points cause increased “bank tramping” on the remaining access points?

Note: If you are not able to attend, please email your comments, (at least a sentence or two), to: ChenaRiverUse@alaskapolitics.com We will be forward the