Newsletter: The July newsletter is in, and a new trip report the Bonanza Peak. Beginning in May our meetings will be held on a new day! Our new day is the first Tuesday of the month. August’s meeting will be at 7:00 p.m. on August 5th at Skagit Valley College in Robert Hall room T-41.

SAC Mountaineering Class: Due to only six students having registered, the mountaineering class has been cancelled for this year. Stay tuned for next year's schedule! Chris is itching to exhibit his organizational skills.

Mt. Erie: The ACFL advisory board met on June 5, 2008. They primarily discussed two areas of the draft plan: motorcycle use and the dog off leash area. Regarding motorcycles, the board seems to support a five to six month seasonal closure to motorbikes, a ban on two stroke engines and a prohibition on all bikes over 250cc. They are also looking into the possibility of having new rules enforced by citations. Other points raised by the board were that the plan for motorcycles be reviewed every year, and if the restrictions don't work, a complete ban on motorcycles may occur. Further non-emergency trail closures are still to be subject to public debate. Two ACFL trail committee members brought up some more points. The seasonal closure is cutting into half of the user group's time, and there is a need to qualify all reported damage. If some trails are taken away from the bikers, other more suitable trails should be added on. As mentioned at one public hearing, loop trails are less destructive than one way trails. With virtually no discussion, the board voted unanimously to deny the dog off leash area. They did, however, discuss the mechanics of letting dogs swim off leash in the lake. REMEMBER, this is only a draft plan so far. The final draft will go before the city planning council and then the city council, probably in the fall. Although currently the board is closed to public comment, hopefully the board will allow another opportunity to register public opinion. The next ACFL board meeting will be on July 1st at 7 pm at the Anacortes Sr. Center. The first topic to be discussed will be the South Side of Mt. Erie, including the scrambling and climbing areas.

North Cascades management Plans: Ross Lake National Recreation Area is updating their management plan this year. According to Roy Zipp, an Environmental Protection Specialist, because of the National Environmental Policy Act, by law the rec area management is required to carry out certain steps for this process. First they did a series of public comment periods, in where, by the way, most advised "no changes”. Now they are developing their internal management plans. Next they will hold "Alternative Workshops" open to the public to listen to comment on the proposals. There will later be a review of the proposals and an environmental impact analysis. Roy will let us know when the next series of public workshops take place. Here's a link to their project website. We will also receive a hard copy of what information they now have. You can go to their website to see the four possible recommendations. The final plan won't be finalized next year. The Forest Service is also developing a Suiattle access and travel management environmental assessment which will decide which roads stay open and maintained, which will just stay open and which will be closed. The Forest Service is also planning on repairing a bridge over the Suiattle River for the Pacific Crest Trail and also may replace the Ice Caves bridge.