Senate Avalanche Bill

[AltaPowderDaze]

good oportunity for resort skiers, backcountry travelers and those that enjoy TR's to show their support. every little bit helps. this just happens to be a big bit.

x-post from t-tips

Representative Don Young's House companion bill to the avalanche bill introduced in the US Senate by Senator Stevens, HR 2039, has a good chance of moving but needs calls and notes from supporters, especially from Utah, Colorado, Washington, and California.

If you'd like to do something positive and concrete to prevent avalanche deaths in the US, this is your chance. The bill deals with availability of weaponry and ammunition for avalanche explosive delivery and prevention of catastrophic urban avalanche events, as well as education and forecasting.

These issues should all be of concern to us. War and age are rapidly depleting the supply of surplus artillery and ammunition that ski areas and transportation corridors depend on, driving the cost of ammunition up and leading to a situation where in ten years most avalanche programs will have no guns or ammo unless we act now to provide alternatives.

Threatened communities need forecasting and longterm buyout or structural protection plans, and of course all of us snow enthusiasts benefit directly from backcountry forecasting and education programs.

Government support has become so weak in the last ten years that volunteer-based nonprofit avalanche centers have sprung up in an attempt to fill the vacuum, but none of these well-intentioned programs will survive in the long term without government funding, and even the forecasters for the existing government-run centers have to spend much of their time seeking grants and other scraped-together funds to make ends meet.

The money has been cut sharply from the $15 million the Senate had initially proposed, but this bill is still a good start. The bill is to be amended and funded as detailed in a briefing paper I posted on my download site as "20060530HamreStevensBillFinalBriefHR2039.doc"

House cosponsors are particularly needed, and members of the Forest Subcommittee of the Resources Committee are key, in particular:
Utah-Chris Cannon
Washington- Cathy McMorris and Jay Inslee
California- Dennis Cardoza and Richard Pombo
Colorado- Mark Udall and Thomas Tancredo

[splat]

APD - people pushing for a cause on the net would be so much better prepared if they ghost-wrote letters that people could electronically send with a push of a button after filling out a form with their names and particulars that would then send it to their congressman. I know it's a software burden to be set up to do that, but it is so much more effective than hoping people will write their own letters. Most political action sites are set up that way and it works. Not that I won't get on this, just a suggestion I hope you'll pass on to whoever is organizing the effort.

[skifishbum]

Bump
I hate asking Chris "Macho Size" Cannon for anything, but this is a good cause.
The UAC. does an outstanding job w/ what limited recources and budget they have.

[AltaPowderDaze]

The UAC. does an outstanding job w/ what limited recources and budget they have.

true. have you ever been to their office? i was shocked at what little space they had. their budget seems proportionate to the office size too.


splat,

good idea. i'll pm the guy who posted it and see if we can make that happen. maybe even use a petition site to show support. anyone have some ideas?

[ak_telemike]

true. have you ever been to their office? i was shocked at what little space they had. their budget seems proportionate to the office size too.


splat,

good idea. i'll pm the guy who posted it and see if we can make that happen. maybe even use a petition site to show support. anyone have some ideas?

apd - better to email Bill at the Southeast Alaska Avalanche Center website. I'm sure he won't mind if you come up with something like that. We've been doing something similar to get support for funding here in Juneau.

saac02@gci.net

[cj001f]

Ask to amend the bill directng how the funds are to be apportioned.

[Ermine]

apd - better to email Bill at the Southeast Alaska Avalanche Center website. I'm sure he won't mind if you come up with something like that. We've been doing something similar to get support for funding here in Juneau.

Yea, I would think AK needs the funding more than UT? I couldn't give a rip about the artillery (might just mean more useless heli bombing), but yea, it's always good to fund the Forecasting Centers. Most of the centers you know don't throw bombs. To me they're totally unrelated. One's about money (keeping corridors open) and one is about saving lives. I'll write a letter w/ a plug for the Forecasting.

[SIDESLIP JONES]