We Won! Thanks for the help NW kiters!

knewschool · Since 23 Dec 2010 61 Posts Wyoming

Not sure if you remember a few months back. I was asking for your help to sign a petition against gas drilling in Bondurant, Wy where we kite at the headwaters of the Hoback River here just outside of Jackson. Well, we won! Check it out and thank all of you guys who helped out.

http://www.jhunderground.com/2012/10/05/wyo-range-hoback-saved-from-drilling-threat/

Thanks,
Will Taggart

pjc · Since 06 Mar 2005 649 Posts Addicted

Looks like you still need to rise a pile of money to buy the drilling rights.

Hooray for "Friends of" organizations!

knewschool · Since 23 Dec 2010 61 Posts Wyoming

Don't worry about that, I've been saving up. I hope raising that money goes smooth. I've already donated, and next week, I'll donate some more. However I'm poor, but conveniently I hate money.

However, we've deffinately lost in the past. See Pic.

pjc · Since 06 Mar 2005 649 Posts Addicted

wait, don't those kiters know the water has been destroyed and the land ruined? sort of looks like they're having fun, and there is a well right there. huh, you mean two activities can co-exist near each other, my understanding is compromise is impossible.

Wind Slither · Since 04 Mar 2005 2622 Posts The 503 METAL

pjc, I know your bummed about the cable park, I am too. But if you think big development isn't capable of some serious damage in the name of consumption and profit you need to get around more...like outside of Oregon and outside of the US.

I don't know all the details and I'm sure the argument against the park was mis-guided, but I kind of get the "draw a line in the sand" mentality when it comes to protecting our resources. Because you give an inch, they take a mile.

Sorry to highjack Will, congrats on your victory! Thumb's Up

pjc · Since 06 Mar 2005 649 Posts Addicted

right, i see the mile taken right there in that photo. that rig thing is clearly like 1 square mile.

also, basically a misleading photo - that big thing is pretty expensive, they take it down after a month and move on. nice propaganda though.

i just think it's funny to see all the "let's compromise for the cablepark" folks revert to type when they no longer have a personal upside in development.

yay for winning. winners win, everyone else lose. lamentations of women, etc.

waynepjh · Since 27 Jul 2008 212 Posts jackson wy Stoked

knewschool · Since 23 Dec 2010 61 Posts Wyoming

I'm not anti-development here PJC. I'm not an extreme environmentalist either. Just say the word and I'll sign your petition to reconsider the cable park. I'll even pay to use it when I come there.

I've been a whitewater kayaker for over 20 years and my concerns from water quality come from seeing what happens after traveling around the world. Everyone thinks a little more this and a little more that in the water is barely calculable. When you can't even boil water to make it safe because of chemical polutance it starts to become a problem to me. We are so close to a town, whose entire water table is destroyed from frack leakage, and those people can't even give their property away now, and the gas company brings them jugs of water every week.

As far as the cable park goes, we are pushing for a whitewater park just south of town on the Snake River. It's more similar to your situation. Turning a dike made of giant cement chunks and rebar into a nice park with a surf wave or 2. The opposition to that is incredibly frustrating. We'll be making things better but the "greenies" like to attack the easy wins. The “greenies” are even shutting down a heli ski company that shares our space in the winter. That one really pisses me off. You don’t even want me to keep going.

Push on for the cable park. It took 8 years to get the sweet skatepark where I grew up in Utah, and 5 years to get one in Jackson, Wy.
This is our 4th year pushing for the park, and we've raised $10,000 for assesments and plans for it's developement and there's still more walls to break down. So I feel your pain.

bwd · Since 04 Aug 2007 385 Posts Obsessed

pjc · Since 06 Mar 2005 649 Posts Addicted

knewschool · Since 23 Dec 2010 61 Posts Wyoming

Hey I hear ya guys, and I appreciate the skeptisizm. I'm familiar with the fracking is safe perspective.

Keep in mind that some of my perspective comes from gas workers in the Jonah gas fields, and even they agree that this particular drill site was not a good idea.

The rest of my perspective comes from people of Pavillion, Wyoming who are specifically the people I think of when I worry about fracking. The suits, however slipped through the cracks of the big oil. The town gobbled up settlements that now 40 years later aren't looking like such a good deal. How were they supposed to know the water would be bad for so long? To me the media seems quieter than normal on the issue. I feel like they were a bunch of poor ranchers who didn't even know what was going on at the time.

It's possible I have clouded judgement and the smoke and mirrors from the locals of Pavillion, Wy have gotten to me. But personally I'm convinced it was worth while to stop this specific gas field from Bondurant.

pjc · Since 06 Mar 2005 649 Posts Addicted

I thought this issue was bogus, in as much as there was a compromise in place of long standing (development can occur here and not there) and then, when the development on the other side of the line starts to go forward, everyone freaks out and starts tossing wild accusations around about downstream pollution.

I guess that original compromise wasn't a compromise at all --- I wonder if that will impede future attempts at similar compromises. Why divide a piece of land in half for preservation and development, if the preservation half will eventually hold sway over the whole thing?

The implication that the pretty looking place in the photo you attached will become foul, toxic and flammable in a short period of time seems wacky to me, but I could be wrong.

But a buyout is always the best solution, the company doesn't have to lay anyone off as a result. Good luck collecting the rest of the dough.

soundwave · Since 02 Jul 2010 21 Posts Astoria

When did these damn "greenies", just a hand full of gender and existance confused nut jobs get so much control over people. get the freaks out and stomp them back into the caves of mother nature where they belong.

LIke the cable park. Time to play dirty and more viscious and yes, it is ugly and somehow considered uncivilized or beneath us when really its just an excuse for losing because you don't, but wait, they are playing that way and guess what, they win.