January 29, 2008
Dear CalUWild friends –
We took an Update break in December because there wasn’t a lot to report, but 2008 is off to a busy start. There are two important public comment opportunities we hope you’ll submit comments for. They don’t need to be lengthy, but it is important that the BLM, Forest Service, and Park Service know that citizens are concerned about and involved in the management of the lands that belong to all Americans.
Many thanks to everyone who responded so generously to our annual membership appeal, sent out in December. We know that there are many organizations working on many different issues and worthy of support, so your contributions to CalUWild mean a lot and are appreciated. If you did not receive a letter or email for some reason or you’ve misplaced it, you can still send in a contribution by printing out our online membership form and mailing it with your check.
We run the organization on a shoestring budget, so we don’t send out repeated membership reminders. And we don’t use direct mail, either. These seem to be contrary to nonprofit wisdom and practice, but for a small organization like ours, in addition to saving printing and postage costs, it allows us to spend more time writing comments and getting information out to our members. We also hope that not having an online contribution system is not a deterrent to people. Cost is a major factor there, but if you have suggestions for a secure, effective system, please send me an email
In the meantime, financial supporter or not, we thank you for your interest in our wild public lands. That’s your most important contribution!
Best wishes,
Mike
IN UTAH
1. Monticello BLM RMP Comments Due
DEADLINE: February 8, 2008
(ACTION ITEM)
2. Backcountry Volunteers 2008 Service Trips
IN CALIFORNIA
3. Off-Road Vehicle Conference
In Joshua Tree
April 5, 2008
IN ARIZONA
4. Judge Rejects Challenge to River Management
Plan in Grand Canyon National Park
Appeal Announced on Park’s 100th Anniversary
IN OREGON
5. Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
Eugene, OR
March 6-9, 2008
IN GENERAL
6. Fee legislation Introduced
(ACTION ITEM)
7. US Forest Service Outfitter Rules
Comment Period Extended
NEW DEADLINE: February 19, 2008
(ACTION ITEM)
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IN UTAH
1. Monticello BLM RMP Comments Due
DEADLINE: February 8, 2008
(ACTION ITEM)
The comment period for last of the six Utah RMPs is coming to a close next week. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance sent out this following alert yesterday (slightly edited).
Tucked into Utah’s southeast corner, the Monticello district boasts some of the most extraordinary ancient cultural sites in Utah, including granaries, cliff dwellings, and rock art. Here, one can still enjoy undeveloped vistas and find solitude in remote, seldom-visited canyons. These experiences are slowly disappearing, however, as off-road vehicle use becomes increasingly popular, and oil and gas development rapidly encroaches on pristine areas. Southeastern Utah is renowned for its dense collection of Ancestral Puebloan artifacts, kivas, and dwellings. Unfortunately, less than 6% of these public lands have been surveyed to document and record these irreplaceable prehistoric artifacts.
Spectacular Arch Canyon, with its rare perennial desert stream, has already seen devastating ORV damage. Meanwhile, speculative oil and gas exploration occurs at the doorstep of Hovenweep National Monument, leaving lasting scars near the Utah-Colorado border. Nevertheless, under the proposed Resource Management Plan, lands rich in cultural heritage sites-such as Arch and Recapture canyons and lands along the San Juan River, putting these exceptional archeological treasures at increased risk of vandalism and looting.
Here’s what you can do:
Comments due by February 8, 2008!
In order for the BLM to make substantive changes to their proposed management plan, they need to hear substantive comments from the public on the RMPs’ proposed management initiatives. If you’ve visited places like Grand Gulch or Cedar Mesa, hiked in Arch Canyon or Recapture Wash, marveled at Comb Ridge or floated the San Juan River – and especially if you’ve ever been disturbed at your favorite quiet spot by the roar of off-road vehicles – please write to the BLM and tell them about your experiences. Make your comments as specific as possible. Share with the BLM experiences you have had in specific places and explain how the Monticello Draft RMP fails to adequately protect these places. Especially salient are reports of user conflicts such as the drone of motors disturbing the peace of a hike in Arch Canyon.
Click here for information on the RMP, including maps of proposed off-road vehicle routes, a list of threatened places, and a chart comparing the various alternatives.
Comments should be sent to:
Bureau of Land Management
Monticello Field Office
RMP Comments
P.O. Box 7
Monticello, Utah 84535
Or by email to:
UT_Monticello_RMP_Comments@blm.gov
Please also email a copy of your comments to Scott Braden at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance so they know which places are getting adequate comment coverage. For more information email Scott or call him at 435-259-0276.
Thanks!
2. Backcountry Volunteers 2008 Service Trips
Our friends at Utah Backcountry Volunteers report an impressive and successful 2007, with seven completed service trips, 52 volunteer participants, 1,600 hours volunteered, and $30,032 in volunteer labor donated to Utah public lands.
They recently announced their 2008 schedule, with more trips planned than last year, to places like Zion National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Manti-LaSal National Forest/San Rafael Swell, Dark Canyon Wilderness, the Stansbury Mountains, and Cedar Mesa/Grand Gulch Primitive Area.
In addition, they have a brand new website with a complete schedule of trips and more.
We urge you to consider a service trip to Utah. It’s a wonderful way to have fun seeing the landscape intimately and meeting new people. At the same time, you’re doing some good and sending a message to the agencies that you support quiet uses of the land, rather than motorized recreation. Not bad!
IN CALIFORNIA
3. Off-Road Vehicle Conference
In Joshua Tree
April 5, 2008
As you know, off-road vehicle use and abuse is a huge issue on public lands all across the West. I recently received the following announcement for a conference in Joshua Tree, sponsored by some of the groups with whom CalUWild works closely. For more information, click here. Spread the word!
In 2005, desert communities held a conference to address off-road vehicle abuse of our private and public lands. The event was a great success and helped to launch many successful initiatives to obtain law enforcement and to protect our precious desert lands and our quality of life.
Community ORV Watch (COW), the California Wilderness Coalition (CWC), the Morongo Basin Conservation Association (MBCA), the Desert Protective Council (DPC), The Mojave Land Trust and the Alliance for Responsible Recreation (ARR) (partial list) is organizing a conference about how our desert communities can protect ourselves from ORV abuse of private and public lands. The conference will take place on Saturday, April 5th at the Joshua Tree Community Center.
Dr. Howard Wilshire, respected desert advocate and author of The Environmental Effects of Off-Road Vehicles [and CalUWild Advisory Board member], will be our keynote speaker. The conference will feature reports from grass-roots activists, speakers on a number of relevant topics and a panel of representatives from local, county and federal law enforcement agencies who will be asked about their efforts to address ORV abuse.
IN ARIZONA
4. Judge Rejects Challenge to River Management
Plan in Grand Canyon National Park —
Appeal Announced on Park’s 100th Anniversary
Late in 2007, a federal judge in Phoenix ruled against Wilderness Watch, River Runners for Wilderness, Living Rivers, and Rock the Vote, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the National Park Service over its Colorado River Management Plan. CalUWild had worked with these and other groups a few years ago in a futile attempt to persuade the Park Service to manage the Colorado River in Grand Canyon NP as wilderness by banning the use of motorized craft in the Canyon. We also sought more equitable access for private citizens who wish to raft on their own though the Canyon. As it stands, commercial outfitters are given the majority of trip slots for their clients.
The plan developed by the Park Service continued the use of motorized boats, and although it replaced the 20-year-long waiting list for private boaters with a new lottery system, the majority of users remained commercial customers. The Park Service denied the administrative appeals of its decision, so wilderness advocates were left no choice but to sue in federal court. CalUWild was not a plaintiff in the case.
The plaintiffs argued that the National Park Service ignored its own regulations that uses in the Canyon can’t impair wilderness character. Additionally, years ago the Park Service had proposed phasing out motors, but that never happened.
The judge wrote in his decision that the Park Service’s rules requiring it to manage “potential wilderness” as wilderness “does not require the Park Service to remove non-conforming uses – in this case, motorized rafts. It requires the Park Service to manage the Colorado River corridor as wilderness to the extent possible given the existing use of motors.”
Wilderness advocates disagree strongly with this position, and so two weeks ago on January 11, the 100th anniversary of President Teddy Roosevelt’s designation of Grand Canyon as a national monument, the plaintiffs appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit. Here is what the plaintiffs said when they filed the appeal:
A century ago, President Roosevelt proclaimed, “We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as something to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children’s children will get the benefit of it.”
George Nickas, Executive Director of Wilderness Watch, builds on that commitment to protection. “No doubt Teddy Roosevelt would be appalled if he were here today and saw how the park service has commercialized the Grand Canyon and allowed the song of the canyon wren to be drowned by the racket of outboard motors.”
Tom Martin, Co-Director of River Runners for Wilderness agrees. “President Roosevelt was forced to strongly defend his Grand Canyon proclamation against repeated opposition all the way to the Supreme Court. One hundred years later, we are in a similar fight and likewise determined to win the best possible protection for Grand Canyon’s Colorado River.”
We’ll keep you posted on the progress of the case.
IN OREGON
5. Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
Eugene, OR
March 6-9, 2008
Every year, the students of the University of Oregon School of Law organize and host a fantastic four-day environmental conference. Although billed as a law conference, there are panels, presentations, speakers, and workshops on a wide variety of issues. Only a few of the most technical workshops might not be of interest to members of the general public. Over 3,000 people attend, including many visitors and speakers from around country and the globe, making it an excellent place to learn about new topics and meet all sorts of interesting people. Although it involves travel for Californians, I encourage you to attend if you have an interest.
Full information may be found on the conference website.
IN GENERAL
6. Recreation Fee Repeal Legislation Introduced
(ACTION ITEM)
Last month, Senators Max Baucus and John Tester (both D-MT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to repeal the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA), otherwise known as the Recreation Access Tax (RAT). The RAT was the permanent replacement of the Fee Demonstration program, and was supported by the Bush Administration and pushed through Congress on a rider by Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH), a state not known for its vast federal public lands.
The bill, S.2438, allows only national parks to collect entrance fees, and would allow fees at other facilities only if they are developed campgrounds, swimming areas, or boat launches. The bill specifically prohibits the BLM or Bureau of Reclamation from charging any user fees. Because of this prohibition, the annual Golden Eagle Pass for admission to National Parks will be reinstated.
CalUWild has long opposed the imposition of user fees, especially for activities such as hiking, parking, or picnicking, which take little in the way of infrastructure. Instead, we support funding for all the land management agencies, at a level that permits them to do the jobs they were set up to do. The money is available—it’s a question of the country’s priorities, meaning that citizens who care about our public lands need to make their voices heard.
Call your Senators and Representatives and let them know what you think!
So far there is no companion bill in the House, but we’ll keep you informed as the matter progresses.
7. US Forest Service Outfitter Rules
Comment Period Extended
NEW DEADLINE: Feb 19
(ACTION ITEM)
In November, we wrote about a Forest Service proposal to give commercial outfitter special privileges in National Forests. The original comment deadline was January 17. The Forest Service has extended it another month, so if you missed getting comments in, you still have a chance. Click here to review the alert we ran from River Runners for Wilderness. It contains all the relevant details and information. Then please submit a comment accordingly. You’ll be glad you did!