Around the Office, Autumn 2009

Much to our delight, there hasn’t been a wildfire in sight this summer. It’s been pleasantly cool, with a few hot days sprinkled in here and there to remind us that it’s summer, though the record-breaking rain in August definitely made us question what season it really was. And in the midst of all this really nice weather, we’ve been managing to get a bunch of work done, too…

Field survey project

This June we hired Heather McAdams and Adam Bender (yes, the third Adam employed by Wildlands CPR at one time) to conduct a series of road surveys on the Lolo National Forest. This project is part of a cost-share agreement we entered into with the Lolo to begin surveying some of their roads to provide critical and needed information as they address road management over time. Heather and Adam have been doing a terrific job documenting weeds, drainage problems, inaccuracies with the maps (including both roads that exist on the land but don’t appear on the map and vice versa), and otherwise assessing the condition of dozens of miles of roads on the forest.

Unfortunate news – we’re closing our UT office

We’re very disappointed to report that we will be closing our UT office as of September 30. We opened this office 2.5 years ago as part of our multi-state campaign to influence travel planning on national forest lands. Wildlands CPR has been hosting two “state coordinators” (one in Montana, one in Utah), while other organizations are hosting similar positions in their states to address off-road vehicle management on Forest Service lands. Since the agency was supposed to complete all travel planning by the end of 2009, the campaign was initially designed to end this December. As we approach that time, we’ve been assessing our needs for future years combined with our shrinking budget as a result of the
economic slowdown. With only limited funding, and with travel planning largely completed in UT, it only made sense to close the UT office. Laural Hagan will continue to work for us on a part time contract to finish two important projects, after which Wildlands CPR will no longer have a formal presence
in UT. We’ll all be sorry to see Laural go – she has brought a very creative approach to her position, building up an amazing network of rural UT activists who have been outspoken about ORV problems – quite effectively countering many myths. She’s also brought fierce determination, extraordinary humor, a
sharp intellect and a talented writing and drawing pen to her position and to Wildlands CPR. We’ll miss you Laurel, and we hope to be able to work with you again in the future.

Thanks and keep it coming…

Wildlands CPR is in the midst of our annual gifts campaign – celebrating our 15th anniversary. Help us keep the organization strong by contributing to our annual gifts campaign today. Our campaign goal is $40,000, and we’re making progress, but we’re still in the early stages of the effort. Thanks so much to all of you who’ve already contributed, and to all of you who will be doing so soon. We’d also like to thank the Bullitt and Wilburforce Foundations for generous grants to support Wildlands CPR.