Roger - extremely thoughtful and well-written - thank you for a balanced, success-oriented approach.
As a volunteer (MOW at Bonneville and Mojave) and wannabe racer, the deterioration of the salt is heart-breaking, The first time I ever went was 1970 or 71; the difference from then until I next returned in 2011 was frightening. The present situation has finally gotten some media attention, and hopefully it's not too late to fix it.
Your comments about the political aspects are spot on - like it or not, the BLM is a government beauracracy, and you have to approach it as such. I've spent my entire professional career in aerospace, both defense and military, and the quantity of mid-level bureaucrats whose only agenda is self-preservation is astounding. Having said that, until THAT system is fixed, which is highly unlikely given the amount of government growth in the last 20 years, you have to ask yourself - Do I want to be right, or do I want to win? Doesn't mean you have to always roll over, but you do need to pick your battles, and ALWAYS keep focused on your end game.
So - my question to the racing community is WHAT DO YOU WANT? There are many possible answers...
To be vindicated in my opinion
To villify the BLM
To get somebody fired
To find somebody to blame it on
To race at Bonneville
To me, there is only one acceptable answer, and it ought to be pretty obvious. We need to stay focused on that, and only that. To all of the "experts" who know how to do it better, or exactly what needs to be done, if it's that easy, WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE IT?
We have a golden opportunity here - we've got serious media attention and we need to keep the full court press on that and not let it become yesterday's 15 minutes of fame. My hat is off to you, Rick Vesco, Louise, and anybody else involved in this important activity. Let's get behind this movement and get it done. We changed the world once in the Viet Nam days, we can do it again. And yes, Roger, I will be calling you to see what, if anything, I can voluntees to help with.