Compass Magazine

U4 Land Use BY Marc Bryson

W elcome to another issue of the Compass magazine. Hopefully you’ve noticed some of the changes in the U4 lately. We’ve been working hard to improve our communication to members, reach out to areas that are underrepresented and become a better organization overall. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Utah has had some pretty interesting developments in the Land Use area over the past few months. Hopefully you’re engaged and involved. We have a lot of stand up members that are involved but we could certainly use more representation when and where appropriate. We do need engaged people from all around the state. We also need a way to effectively communicate issues over our large geographical area. We are working on that but if you’ve got effective ideas, we’re all ears. Not just U4 could use more participation but are you a member of any of the following organizations? United

4 Wheel Drive, Blue Ribbon Coalition, Tread Lightly or ????. What organizations espouse our values in taking care of the land? Are we missing the mark on some of our core philosophies? Stealing numbers from a Crawl editorial by Kurt Schneider, “According to one of the most recent Forest Service studies on recreational OHV use, there are 57 million OHV enthusiasts in the United States.” I’d be embarrassed to know how many of those 57 million throw down $50-75 a year to belong to a group that tries to have a voice in governments around the nation. The bulk of the public land is in the west. OHV organizations should have large numbers and they don’t. I'm stealing the thunder of his editorial but he's got a great point. To me, Blue Ribbon contains the bulk of what I’d like in a national organization. They have resources we just can’t have. We have a few solid contacts in Blue Ribbon and our own president sits on

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