Re: You pay your money or you take your chances

Thanks Paul for posting the entire article. I think that several of you like Sycamore that have picked up on the "selective misinformation", and intention to mislead the reader with unjustified phrases like "popular pastimes aren't even legal", 'benign anarchy" or "aura of an outlaw oasis".

Paul may be correct I saying that Emmett Berg has never visited the springs himself. On the other hand Mr. Berg may have been to the springs and may have also read this forum as well as Katerina's website. We really don't know. I do see that he has talked to Ranger Burns from USFS, Bary Nelson from the BLM, as well as Mike Castro which makes me think that Mr. Berg did do a certain amount of research before writing the article, and then 'selected' what material to use. This is the way most of our media works today, rather that unbiasedly reporting on a situation so that the recepient can form their own opinion, they present it in a way to influence the opinion of the recepient. I personally wonder what was his hidden agenda or motives to present this place that is so magical to many of us in set a negative way?

I wonder how Mike Castro feels about the article? Mr. Berg cleverly quotes Mike as a way of indicating that he had his oportunity to give his side of the story, and therefore would endorse the whole article. However, it certainly does not paint him in the best of light. It says that the lawbreaking today consist of lettering, spray-painting and dirt biking on pedestrian only trails, but earlier refers to Mike on his 'dirt bike, armed with a pistol, on the lookout for scofflaws'. Mr. Berg comes close to painting him as a bandit from the wild west that turned in his horse for a dirt bike. It indicates that "rarely there is an uniform or badge in sight", and the a couple of sentence later say that the only "full-time enforcement is carried out by Castro", but that "he has no authority beyond his property" (notice how it does not say law enforcement but only implies it). Towards the end it quotes Barry Nelson indicating that Mike "helps management efforts". I know if I was Mike I would be concerned with this partial endorsement situation. If he is envolved in an accident or incident outside his property or even in it, will he receive the full support of the authorities, or will he be hung out to dry on his own and left bearing the blame?

Was this article supposed to be an endorsment of Mike Castro's predicament, a critcism to his actions, an effort by USFS and BLM to obtain more goverment support to increase there satffing, or the beginning of an effort to raise awarness and exagerate a problem to justify closing the springs down? I honestly do not know and do not have an answer, but feel that the threat is out there. Of course this is only my opinion.

I personally feel that it underlines the importance of the need for a group like the one we are trying to form, and that we need to hasten our efforts to find our common ground and increase our numbers. We can continue to fine tune our position later. In addition to our current efforts I would recommend people write to Mr. Emmett Berg and share the positive aura the place has for many of us. Recognize that everything is not perfect at the springs, however bad things happen in the rest of society and we do not close them down. Is there any more risk of something hapenning at these springs than in the backcounty of Yosemite National Forrest? Unfortunatelly, kids are kidnaped from malls and now even from their own condos, but those places will never get closed down because of economic interest. Unfortunatelly, our hot springs do not have that economic interest protecting them, all they will have is a group of concerned hotspringers that value the environment and freedom. Let's work together to protect the place we value so much.