May 21, 2006
Dear CalUWild Friends –
There are five items of interest this month that require attention. So please take a few minutes to contact the appropriate decisionmakers regarding one or more of them. Because all of the items include contacting Sens. Barbara Boxer and/or Dianne Feinstein, rather than include their contact information in every item, here are their most important addresses, phone, and fax numbers.
Because of the ongoing irradiation of correspondence to Washington, DC, it’s best to write letters to local offices:
Honorable Dianne Feinstein
1 Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA 94104
Honorable Barbara Boxer
1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111
Alternatively, you can FAX letters to their offices:
Feinstein: 202-228-3954
Boxer: 415-956-6701
If you phone instead of write, here are the DC and some local numbers:
Feinstein: 202-224-3841
310-914-7300
415-393-0707
Boxer: 202-224-3553
213-894-5000
415-403-0100
Complete contact information for California’s congressional delegation may be found on CalUWild’s website.
I hope you are able to find some time in the near future to get out and enjoy some our wild places. Thanks for all you do helping to preserve them for the future!
Mike
IN UTAH
1.No Further Word From Sen. Bob Bennett
On Zion-Mojave Proposal
(ACTION ITEM)
IN CALIFORNIA
2. Wilderness Bill Introduced for the Eastern Sierra
(ACTION ITEM)
3. House of Representatives Passes Bill to Allow Hunting
On Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park
(ACTION ITEM)
IN MONTANA
4. Bill Introduced to Allow Motorized Access
For Dam Maintenance in Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
(ACTION ITEM)
IN ALASKA
5. The Arctic Wildlife Refuge Always Needs Your Support
(ACTION ITEM)
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IN UTAH
1. No Further Word From Sen. Bob Bennett
On Zion-Mojave Proposal
(ACTION ITEM)
In last month’s Update, we discussed the proposal put forth by Utah’s Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson for a comprehensive public lands bill for Washington County, in the southwest corner of Utah. Among the objections: the sale of 25,000 acres of public lands for development in an area already experiencing phenomenal growth. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance reports that the senator and congressman received over 100,000 e-mails from around the country opposing the provisions of the proposal.
Thank you for your part in that astounding number!
Sen. Bennett so far has not released any modifications to his proposal in response to the public comments, but we hope he will do so.
In whatever form it takes, the bill will be first heard in the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources. California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a key member of that committee and a strong supporter of wilderness (although not a cosponsor of America’s Redrock Wilderness Act). Please contact her office and let her know that the proposal as it currently stands is unacceptable.
We’ll keep you posted as the situation develops.
IN CALIFORNIA
2. Wilderness Bill Introduced for the Eastern Sierra
(ACTION ITEM)
Last month, Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA25) introduced a bill in Congress that would add two areas in his district to the National Wilderness Preservation System and designate 24 miles of the Amargosa River as “Wild & Scenic.” Rep. McKeon’s district runs to the east from Santa Clarita at the northern edge of Los Angeles, encompassies Death Valley National Park, and extends north past Mono Lake.
Rep. McKeon’s bill would add about 40,000 acres to the Hoover Wilderness near Sonora pass and 640 acres to the Emigrant Wilderness. The Amargosa River is the only river flowing into Death Valley.
We hope that this is just the start of Rep. McKeon’s championship of wilderness, because his district contains nearly 1/3 of the lands included in Sen. Boxer’s statewide California Wild Heritage Act.
The bill’s number is HR 5149, and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein both introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S 2567.
Please call Rep. McKeon’s office and voice your thanks!
Washington, DC: 202-225-1956
Southern California: 661-254-2111
Also, please let your own representative know of your support for this legislation. And it wouldn’t hurt to contact Sens. Boxer and Feinstein to thank them for their ongoing championing of wilderness in California and elsewhere.
3. House of Representatives Passes Bill to Allow Hunting
On Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park
(ACTION ITEM)
The following comes from Vicky Hoover, CalUWild’s co-coordinator.
On May 11 when the House of Representatives passed the Defense Appropriations bill, it included a controversial proposal by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA52) to allow members of the military to hunt deer and elk on a national park island off the Ventura County coast. Opponents fear that the plan could limit public access to Channel Islands National Park and threaten native species.
Indeed, this misguided proposal is an effort to use part of our venerated national park system for special interests. We need to stop this provision from passing the Senate. Senators Feinstein and Boxer have previously expressed opposition to the idea, and they need to hear from you now that you, as a citizen, oppose this idea also. Senator Feinstein, especially, as a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, needs to know you support her efforts to get the “Duncan Hunter Channel Islands National Park military hunting” provision removed from the Senate bill.
Thanks for helping preserve our national parks.
IN MONTANA
4. Bill Introduced to Allow Motorized Access
For Dam Maintenance in Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
(ACTION ITEM)
Wilderness Watch, a national organization dedicated to the proper management of existing designated wilderness areas, is one of the organizations with which CalUWild works closely. They recently sent out the following alert.
SAY “NO” TO BURNS’ DAM BILL!!
Legislation would allow more than 100 miles of road building, unlimited motorized use in Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
Senator Conrad Burns (MT) has introduced legislation (S.2633) that would allow dam owners in the Bitterroot Valley to build roads and use unlimited amounts of motorized equipment for accessing and maintaining 16 dams in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The bill would allow roads to be built where trails now exist in Bass Creek, Big Creek, Blodgett, Canyon, Carlton, Chaffin, Fred Burr, Mill, One Horse, Sheafman, and Tin Cup Creek canyons. These canyons represent many of the major entry points into the 1.3 million-acre Wilderness.
Specifically, Burns’ bill would:
• Grant unrestricted rights-of-way (ROW) up to 120 feet in width where the trails now exist, and up to 500 feet from the high-water mark around the dams and lakes. The bill essentially gives away the public land within the ROW, and allows the dam owners to sell the ROW to anyone.
• Exempt activities on the dams, lakes and rights-of-way from the Wilderness Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Dam Safety Program Act, or any federal law to protect fish and wildlife or maintain water quality.
• Allow unlimited motorized travel along the rights-of-way and unlimited use of motorized equipment at the dams.
• Strip Forest Service jurisdiction from the lands and give it to the State. The dam owners would not be liable for any claim or damage resulting from their operation of the dams, except where one could prove negligence of the owner.
The Burns’ bill is entirely unnecessary. The Wilderness Act recognizes the valid rights of water users to maintain dams in the Wilderness while preventing dam owners from further degrading the wilderness character of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman explained how the law would apply to pre-existing dams:
“Water developments have been allowed in these wilderness-type areas. The works generally have been constructed and maintained by means which did not involve motorized transportation. We would construe the provisions of S.4 as permitting the continued maintenance of these existing projects by means which would not involve motorized transportation as in the past.”
The Burns’ bill would strike a blow to the Wilderness Act and could set the stage for road-building in many other areas in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The solution is for the Forest Service to assist the water users in finding wilderness-compatible, non-motorized ways to maintain the dams, as it’s been done for the past 100 years. Wilderness Watch and others have offered to help many times.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Write or call Senator Burns and tell him what you think of his dam bill. Urge him to encourage the Forest Service and water users to seek wilderness-compatible, non-motorized solutions.
Hon. Conrad Burns
187 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2644
Fax: 202-224-8594
Write or call your own senators and congresspersons and make them aware of your concerns with the bill.
For more information contact:
Wilderness Watch
P.O. Box 9175
Missoula, MT 59807
wild@wildernesswatch.org
http://www.wildernesswatch.org
IN ALASKA
5. The Arctic Wildlife Refuge Always Needs Your Support
(ACTION ITEM)
There is an impasse in Congress right now over the budget fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the north coast of Alaska. The Senate has included revenues from Arctic drilling in its version of the upcoming budget. The House has not passed a budget and has so far not included drilling in its discussions. (And it may be that the House passes no budget at all this year.)
That does not mean, however, that friends of wilderness can let down their guard. The pressure to open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge continues, and today’s high gasoline prices are being used as an additional excuse now to allow energy exploration.
It would be helpful to call your representative and senators to tell them that you are opposed to drilling in the Refuge. Also remind them that petroleum from the area won’t be flowing for at least 10 years and, while it’s not known exactly how much oil is actually there, the estimates are that it would reduce the price of gasoline by only $ .01 (one cent)/gallon. That is hardly worth the tradeoff of losing a priceless wild area.
Sens. Feinstein and Boxer are strong opponents of drilling in the Refuge, but it is still helpful to contact them so they use their constituents’ views to help persuade others to oppose drilling as well.
Thanks.