Capital Point, Red Desert, Wyoming                                                                                                      (Joan Hoffman)

One of CalUWild’s ongoing legislative priorities is America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, the comprehensive wilderness bill that would protect much of the wild lands of Utah managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Rep. Wayne Owens (D-UT) first introduced it in 1989, and the bill has since been enlarged, reflecting citizen inventories conducted over the years. After Rep. Owens left Congress, Rep Maurice Hinchey (D) of New York was its long-time main sponsor and champion. He, in turn, retired last year, and Rep. Rush Holt (D) of New Jersey has agreed to be the lead sponsor now.

In the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois has been the chief sponsor for many years.

Every time a bill is reintroduced, it is important that other representatives and senators show their support for the bill. This is not only important legislatively, but it also shows the BLM, which manages the lands, that there is support for protecting them in their wild state, balancing development pressures on the agency.

California’s delegation has a long history of cosponsorship for the bill over the years. We’d like to see the following representatives show their support by signing on:

The following representatives have already signed on:

Please send them a note of thanks. Contact information may be found for all members at their websites at house.gov.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) has also said that she will sign onto the bill in the Senate. Please send her thanks, via her website or by phone at one of her offices. Complete info here.

Efforts to protect the spectacular lands around Canyonlands National Park received a significant boost last month from Utah State Senator Jim Dabakis (D). He introduced a resolution, which you can read here calling for a public process to be set up that would allow for citizen input leading to a protective scheme.

The resolution is significant because it’s the first time anyone in the Utah state government has introduced anything in the legislature supporting protections for the wild lands of southern Utah.

You can sign an online petition in support of the resolution here, and you do not have to be a Utah resident to do so.

The campaign has attracted attention in the New York Times and in High Country News.

We’ve written before about Utah’s state government’s efforts to wrest control of the federal lands within the state from the federal government. A backlash is developing among the citizens of the state. An organization named For Kids and Lands has posted an online petition against the land grab, to be presented to the governor, Gary Herbert. While signatures from Utahns are most helpful, people everywhere are invited to sign on.

Earlier this month, Senator Barbara Boxer and Representatives Mike Thompson, John Garamendi, Jared Huffman, Ami Bera, and Anna Eshoo introduced the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Act of 2013 to protect 350,000 acres of public lands in northern California. A similar bill was introduced in the last Congress, and we wrote about it at the time.

You also can find more information here, and more information is available on Senator Boxer’s and Mike Thompson‘s webpages. Please take a moment and thank them for their support of public lands and the Berryessa Snow Mountain NCA. Contact information is on their websites.

Yosemite National Park is in the middle of redoing its management plan for the Merced River corridor in the park. This is the third time the Park is attempting to put together a comprehensive plan as required by the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. The two previous attempts have been the subject of litigation. It’s not an issue that CalUWild is taking on formally, so we’re not making any recommendations for comments right now.

However, if you are interested, you can read the voluminous planning documents and get information on submitting comments here.

National Parks Traveler published an interesting and thorough op-ed commentary and critique of the proposed plan, which you can read here.

The deadline for comments is April 18.

In other Merced River news, author, photographer and CalUWild friend Tim Palmer wrote an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle last month calling attention to legislation introduced in the House (HR 934, by Rep. Tom McClintock) that would remove a portion of the river outside the park from the Wild & Scenic Rivers system. If passed and signed into law, it would be the first time a river had been de-designated. A similar bill passed the House of Representatives last year, so it’s likely that the Senate will be needed to block the reintroduced bill in this Congress.

For more information, visit Friends of the River’s Merced River page.

Again, this is not an issue in which CalUWild will be heavily involved, but since many people visit the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias near Wawona at the south entrance to Yosemite, they might have ideas about its management.

According to the Park Service,

For full information, including a schedule of public meetings and links to relevant documents and comments information, click here.

The deadline for comments is May 7.

Last week, Pres. Obama designated five national monuments across the country, using the Antiquities Act of 1906. Two of the monuments-Rio Grande del Norte in New Mexico and San Juan Islands in Washington state-will become parts of the National Landscape Lands system, under the jurisdiction of the BLM. They join Fort Ord NM in California as this Administration’s additions to the system.
The presidential proclamations spell out the reasons for the designations, and you can read them by clicking on the following links:

The proclamations come at a time of increasing pressure on the White House from conservationists to become more engaged in public lands protection efforts. In particular, Bruce Babbitt, Interior Secretary in the Clinton Administration, has continued to be outspoken in his criticism of Pres. Obama’s overall record. In a speech at the National Press Club, given before the designations, he decried the president’s promotion of energy exploration at the expense of wildlands protection. He also strongly defended the Antiquities Act, the 1906 law giving the president the authority to designate national monuments. More details about his recent speech at the can be found in the Salt Lake Tribune. The New York Times also ran several pieces looking at the speech and related issues:

Reaction from some Republican House members was predictably negative. Rep. Rob Bishop (R) of Utah complained in a press release that the president’s use of the Antiquities Act bypassed Congress and deprived local citizens affected by the designations of any say in the process. “Executive fiat is unquestionably the wrong way and is an abuse of executive privilege,” Mr. Bishop said. Of course, since the Antiquities Act specifically gives the president the authority to designate monuments, its use to do exactly that can hardly be characterized as an “abuse.” Secondly, both the Rio Grande and San Juan Islands had been the subject of bills-themselves the products of concerted citizens campaign-introduced in the last Congress, and Mr. Bishop never scheduled hearings on either. That fact alone pretty much negates any complaint he has.

Please send the White House a message of thanks by phone and while you’re at it, express support for a Greater Canyonlands National Monument:

202-456-1111

or online.

Please also write a letter to the editor of your local paper so the administration sees support expressed publicly for its designations.

Last month, Pres. Obama nominated Sally Jewell, the head of Recreational Equipment, Inc., to replace Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who is retiring after serving for the first term.

Ms. Jewell has a varied background, having worked at Mobil Oil and Washington Mutual Bank before heading REI. She’s known as an avid outdoorsperson, having climbed Mt. Rainier in Washington several times and frequent skier and kayaker. Ms. Jewell also serves on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association.

At her hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Ms. Jewell also supported expanding energy exploration on public lands, which is overseen by the BLM, while saying that balance was necessary among all the interests.

Ms. Jewell also said she would obey the funding restrictions imposed by Congress on the implementation of Sec. Salazar’s ill-fated Wildlands Policy. There is no way to know at this point what her statement might mean for the future policy direction of the Interior Department, since she could simply be saying that she would uphold the law, without giving an opinion on whether she supports the policy or not. Generally, nominees don’t try to rock the boat during confirmation hearings

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) of Alaska threatened to hold up the nomination because of her objections to the BLM’s recent refusal to support a land exchange in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness area that would have allowed a road to be built to an isolated town in Alaska. In the meantime, Sec. Salazar said that BLM will review the decision. The committee then voted 14-3 to send the nomination to the full Senate. The dissenting votes came from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Tim Scott (R-SC). The Senate is expected to vote on her confirmation in April after returning from the Easter recess. The New York Times published opinion pieces on the nomination by Timothy Egan and Robert Semple.

Water: Lake Powell may dry up within a few decades

Pinnacles National Park — a good start

Soledad re-brands itself as the ‘Gateway to the Pinnacles’

The LA Times looks at the Pt. Reyes oyster farm controversy

The Effects of Sequestration on California’s national parks

The Canyon Country Zephyr of Moab looks at the controversies surrounding energy development on public lands and an interview with Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council

California’s wolf heads back to Oregon: Lonely lobo is a California wolf no more

Two links to items about children and nature: In Great Britain, How children lost the right to roam in four generations and an interview with 13-year-old filmmaker, Miranda Andersen, about Nature Deficit Disorder (with a link to her film, The Child in Nature, on the page).

Bad news for hikers: Mosquitoes ignore repellent Deet after first exposure