The White River Forest Alliance would like to extend a thank you to everyone
who attended the public dialog and forum held on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at Dos
Gringos in Carbondale. Thanks also to Nelson Oldham and the staff of Dos
Gringos who graciously kept the place open late for this forum.

More than 100 wilderness advocates were present, representing a wide
spectrum of user groups, including ranchers, the disabled community,
mountain bikers, dirt-bike riders, hikers, snowmobilers, 4-wheel drivers,
and cross- and backcountry skiers. The forum primarily focused on what is
the true definition of Wilderness, what it means to us as a community and
how we can better work together and develop protocols to preserve our wild
lands while still being able to continue to utilize them.

Scott Fitzwilliams of the White River National Forest and Perry Will from
the Colorado Department of Wildlife were on hand to answer questions
pertaining to their specific organizations. Fitzwilliams spoke directly of
how we can all help augment the staff of the White River National Forest in
maintaining our public lands and educated us as to the process of the WRNF
Travel Management Plan. Will explained in detail the effect of what might
happen to funding for and care of wildlife in the event of blanket closures
of wilderness lands to Wilderness designation.

The White River Forest Alliance is a purely volunteer, Wilderness advocacy
group representing the multiuser in working for protection of our public
wild lands. The goal of the White River Forest Alliance is to create
awareness through education that alternative ways of protecting public lands
exist while still maintaining access and encouraging individuals to take
personal responsibility in gaining a better understanding of and
collaboration between user groups. We encourage the community to become
educated as to what Wilderness means and the processes of what constitutes
Wilderness designation.

White River Forest Alliance