Ok- the rough number:

One of the Seven Samurai who I get my marching orders from is Andrea Matzke. Yesterday near the end of the deadline she dropped the mountain of petitions in FERC's already swamped lap. The combined total of paper and online signatures presses up against the 7,000 mark.

7,000 individuals have spoken out against this since 2012!

Add to that the appoximate numbers...

- 97 online comments from Sierra Club Members
- over 500 (easily. Accurate totals were had to keep a grip on- possibly 600 or more) Comment Cards. Those of you who helped us get those out to concerned people deserve a HUGE pat on the back!
- definitely more than 79 online comments during this last 90 day round, the majority of those are from paddlers. A notable amount of those paddlers from out of state.

That gets us within range of 8,000 voices of Opposition.

Another Sky Samurai, Lora Cox, summarized these totals nicely in one of her FERC comments.

Incidently I forgot the paper I wrote all those numbers so precisely on. Will come back and update this particular post, but suffice to say,

Like every ripple, wave and hydraulic adds to the symphonic choir of The River, FERC has now heard the Thunderous Roar of Mighty Mama Skykomish and her Indefatigable Spirit- THROUGH US! Because these suits who are charged with deciding her fate are far removed from her banks, and The River Can't Speak For Herself!

Thank you, JP for spearheading the efforts for the paddling community. I'm very happy to see our community step up to speak for the river. I truly hope that this project is squashed at this stage (and looking though all the documents I've looked though I would certainly hope it does).

If not, the next stage we'll really need to reach out to other recreational groups. The anglers and the hikers especially. We are a small group. Those groups are much much bigger and have the same interest as us in keeping rivers and other natural places unspoiled. We had a nice spring snowmelt level of comments, but if this goes further we'll need a November pineapple express flood of comments.

well said dude-

UpDate: so I got a little more detail to dump on this thread about Agency Responses. I got all caught up on every comment submitted by individuals, not one of which supports the project, BTW. Next I skim read the final Agency Filings, most of which are a minimum of 3 pages.

The most encouraging input I've read so far comes from both the Snoqualmie and Tulalip Tribes. Snoqualmie simply took two pages to Clearly say "No Way".
Tulalip evidently took 25 pages, but I didn't read it all. I skimmed down a bit to get a sense of the content, then back up to page two where I read the following:"The Tulalip Tribes strongly recommend that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deny this application."

I find the stance of both Tribes VERY encouraging and welcome feedback from anyone on this forum who has any quantitative guage or impressions of how much weight this will have. Early next week I will retrace my steps and thoroughly read all these last minute Agency Filings with particular interest in what Tulalip has to say. It is a thorough report. And I sh*t you not if this thing gets stopped in its tracks at this phase I will most certainly compose a sincere thank you letter and send it to both Tribal agencies.

I'm hopeful, but as we all know there is always another sequel to "Friday The 13th", "Halloween" or, the most horrific movie of all for the Sky to have to star in, "A Nightmare on California Street"

I will not be satisfied until I can dance on the grave of P-14295.

Edited by jP - 28 Apr 2016 at 4:52pm

Seriously, whether the comments influence the outcome or not, its our only mechanism to effect change.

So my closing statement for now is that despite my sh*t talkin ways, I have always valued the ecclectic and rich mix of demographics that comprise our sport and the culture that is a product of it. And I firmly believe with every molocule of water in my body that We as a collective group are intrinsicly predisposed to be able to effect change in regards to these matters. Why? Because our time on the river changes us in subtle yet powerful ways. Not only as individuals and how we respond and approach situations, but perhaps more noticably as loose groups of semi autonomous units. Think about it.

Our time on the river quickly bonds us to one another out of necessity. As we adapt to an environment historicaly hostile to humans, over time without even being aware of it, these adaptations are habit forming and expand as we move through the world off the river.

I'm saying as a soft counter point to Joe's point that we are a small group, that we all share unique untapped potential to be a very focused, and productive group. But since we don't attempt to tackle these larger goals often, perhaps few of us within our (paddling) community are aware of just what our combined energies and strengths really are.

Somebody please feel free to copy any of this if it resonates with you and sling it out over FB. I don't require credit for having said it. But I believe deep down there really is something to this, and I would encourage the entire paddling community to reflect on this, and more importantly explore it through action.

We would never want to reverse the river's flow, but we can influence the flow of public opinion more than we realize. But we gotta step out of our myopic focus of our selfish Pursuits Of Boof and talk to the "normal people" we meet along our adventures. I am now getting into the topic of public engagement. Because thats how we make stuff happen.

Writing "peace, love, and save the river because I love kayaking" is great if you want to write one letter. I'm asking just a few of you (because I know most of you won't put down the bong or stop playing Super Mario Bros or Ok Cupid or whatever video game being fixated upon long enough to even read this.) to take a flight with The Eagle with me for a second and look down upon the big picture. If YOU have read this far, perhaps YOU also believe something about this.

WHAT IF you could transform your comment to FERC into twenty, or a hundred more? Its not a what if because many of you out there have helped us do just that these last 30 days. It is PROOF that it works. Its an effective strategy. But let's not kid ourselves: few off us strayed very far from our insular bubble within our lovable paddling community.

Engaging Non boaters is essential. Your tree huggin kayak brother or sis is low hanging fruit, dawg. And of noticeable yet limited impact. Tp accomplish these noble goals and reap their rewards it takes engaging the public. And this is easier than most of you think. That last summer like sunday we had I got about 60-80 cards out there without hardly even trying. Yeah, I was targeted about it but it was easy. It was the slightly not-as-low hanging fruit abundantly found in the PNW's cultural values.

If you love this sport, you need to realize you have the ability to be an embassador and you have way more influence than you realize simply by being friendly and engaging people spontaneously. They are often fascinated by our quirks and our exploits. You can't say you don't know what Im talking about.

All you gotta do is let them in. Now, once you have them and the ice is broken up, you need to have your facts straight and some articulate ability to get a message across. So the caveat is you need to know the issue.

Sorry this took so long to express but the bottom line is if you can relate to them, they will be receltive to your cause because they are already further along in their beliefs than you may give them credit for.

Hows that for a long post?

Much later yall

Edited by jP - 28 Apr 2016 at 5:17pm

You are correct on this! I didn't notice a lot of voice or presentation at the meeting I went to from fisherman or other outdoor enthusiasts outside kayakers.

One of the best letters I read on FERC was from a local outdoor lover than mentioned the surrounding hikes and beauty.   I have been very narrow-minded in my thinking about saving the rivers. We definitely need to reach out to the hikers that love Lake Serene and the other places accessible by the same access road as the project. We also need to push the Index loving crowd that includes our rock climbers and boulderer's that climb right at Boulder Drop. Snowboarders and skiers not being able to get to Steven's Pass to ride because of huge delays in traffic, would be another group I didn't think to target.

We will have to remember them if the fight continues on, but I truly hope FERC realizes how important and beautiful the Skykomish river is and stops the project.