Just West of the San Rafael Swell, Utah                                                                                                     (Mike Painter)

America can do extraordinary things, but that requires effort by all of us. As CalUWild celebrates its 16th anniversary this month, it’s good to remind our members that CalUWild has two equally important goals: to protect wilderness and public lands and to give people the tools and information they need to effectively bring about change and influence decisions.

That brings us to a final point: Keeping on top of the issues facing our Western wildlands, both on the ground and in Washington, and getting the information out to our members and the public, takes a huge amount of time and effort. We can’t do it without the financial support of our members. It’s time again for CalUWild’s annual membership appeal. We will be sending out reminders in the coming weeks. If you’d like to save us the expense of printing and postage, please print out the online membership form and mail it in with your contribution. Many thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike

Since our last Update we’ve added another California cosponsor to America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (H.R. 1630, S.769). Rep. Susan Davis (D-53) signed on last month.

If you live in her district, please send her a message of thanks.

Additional cosponsors from California are:

House

Senate

If your representative is not on the list above, please contact them with the request that they cosponsor the bill. Contact information may be found at the House website.

Nationally, the number of cosponsors stands at 94 in the House and 21 in the Senate.

In our August Update we reported on a proposal by the Utah BLM to lease areas in the San Rafael Swell for oil and gas exploration. In September’s we reported that the proposal had generated quite a bit of protest. (The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance reports that more than 5,000 people contacted BLM opposing the lease plans.) This month we’re very happy to report that BLM has deferred its plans for nearly 100,000 acres of land in the Swell that was most sensitive.

While the parcels may be offered at some future date, the deferral will give the BLM an opportunity to inventory areas for archaeological and other resources, which it has not done.

Predictably, Utah politicians were unhappy with the decision. The Salt Lake Tribune quoted U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R) as saying it was a “bait and switch” and proved that the BLM is “a vehicle for policies created by radical environmentalists.” The Tribune supported the decision in an editorial.

Please send Utah State Director a note of thanks for this decision.

More good news came from Utah this month as a federal judge in Salt Lake City invalidated portions of the BLM Richfield Field Office’s controversial Resource Management Plan (RMP).

In the last year of the Bush Administration, the BLM in Utah pushed through six field office RMPs that gave priority to energy exploration and off-road vehicle (ORV) use, without making any attempt to balance those against wilderness, archaeological, or recreational values. Conservationists objected, but the plans were approved anyway, so they took BLM to federal court.

The judge ruled that the Richfield BLM’s ORV route designations (4,277 miles of them) were invalid because BLM did not acknowledge or take steps to minimize the impacts of ORV use on streams, plants, wildlife, and cultural artifacts. The judge ordered BLM to undertake surveys of archaeological resources before allowing ORV use. Furthermore, the judge rules that BLM’s failure to designate the Henry Mountains as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) was illegal. Finally, the judge ordered BLM to re-evaluate its failure to designate Happy Canyon and other streams under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act.

The ruling is important because important ecological and recreational areas such as Factory Butte, the Dirty Devil River, the Henry Mountains, and Muddy Creek are under the Richfield office’s jurisdiction. But it also has much wider significance because the other five RMPs issued at the same time suffer from the same defects. Their future is very much in doubt now, too.

The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial in support of the judge’s decision. And for balance, I guess, just yesterday the paper published a letter from a leader of the ATV community disparaging the ruling. If you’d like to read the decision, click here.

One of the few non-federal land issues CalUWild has followed over the years is the ongoing saga of California’s State Park system and the controversy over its management. The Parks Forward Initiative has been holding hearings and gathering information to bee used in preparing recommendations for the future of the parks. The Initiative has set up a comment form on its website, and citizens are encouraged to submit suggestions and thoughts for the long-term health and survival of the park system.

The following information and talking points come from a letter recently submitted by the California Sierra Club’s Parks Committee. Please use your own words and feel free to add any ideas of your own.
California State Parks are California’s most valuable asset. They contain the largest and most diverse natural and cultural heritage holdings of any state agency in the nation. They protect and preserve over more than 1.4 million acres of our state. Both the land and the facilities must be managed and maintained to prevent degradation of these irreplaceable state assets.

California State Parks are a powerful economic engine accounting for upwards of $6 billion annual economic activity. Money spent on operating and maintaining State Parks is a wise investment. Previous studies have shown that for every one dollar spent from the General Fund on State Parks the same General Fund sees $2.35 in returned tax revenues.

•   Keep the parks open. All of the 280 park units, parks, reserves, recreation areas, beaches, and historic parks must be kept open. They are all irreplaceable assets and used by Californians and visitors alike. The state population is growing, and we need all our parks.

•   Repair and maintain facilities. Public facilities wear out over time and require replacement or significant restoration. Faced with inadequate funds, State Parks staff have extended facility life with a “band-aid” approach. A funding mechanism must be found to pay for this deferred maintenance. One method could be a state bond measure with the funds dedicated to deferred maintenance.

•   Keep the parks accessible to all Californians. The State Parks must be kept financially affordable to all, including those with limited incomes. Further raising access and parking fees will only deter visitation and preclude their use by many residents.

•   Establish long-term, dedicated funding. The State Parks must be allocated an adequate stable source of funding that does not depend on legislative appropriations every year. Possible sources include an extraction tax on oil and gas production, a vehicle tax with free access to Californians, or an addition to the gas tax. Parks Forward should examine what funding sources are used in other states that can be adapted to California.

•   Partnerships must serve the parks first. Partnerships with local non-profit public and private entities may benefit State Parks. The agreements must be carefully controlled to provide that the Park values and amenities are maintained for all visitors. However, partnerships with private for profit entities to manage parks are not appropriate. For-profit entities have limited experience and knowledge about park management, and their goals will be profits, not proper park management or stewardship. If there is a profit to be made from park management, it should inure to its owner the State, not to private entities.

•   Limit ORV Parks. No new ORV parks should be created and existing ORV parks should not be expanded. Opening parkland to ORVs creates severe unavoidable and unacceptable environmental damage to the resource, including large-scale destruction of vegetation and habitat, air pollution, CO2 discharge, and other detrimental environmental effects. ORV use makes the land unusable by any other user and by most wildlife and is contrary to basic purposes of state parks to serve the public and protect the resource.
To submit comments online, click here.

You may also contact the Initiative at:

Thank you for helping preserve California’s legacy of state parks.

The California State Bar, Environmental Law Section (though definitely not an attorneys-only event) is putting on a free screening of the acclaimed documentary A Fierce Green Fire about the history of the environmental movement. It will show in the auditorium at the

Near 12th Street BART and public transit.

Doors open at 5:30 and the film begins at 6:00. It will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Mark Kitchell, who also made “Berkeley in the 60s,” and Ruth Sakheim. You can learn more about the film here.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell made headlines last month when she gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. It was the first time she had spelled out the conservation priorities for Pres. Obama’s second term.

The most noteworthy part of the speech was her criticism of Congress for not having designated a single acre of wilderness or as national park in the last three years. She vowed that the administration would designate monuments if Congress fails to do so on its own: “If Congress doesn’t step up to act to protect some of these important places that have been identified by communities and people throughout the country, then the president will take action. There’s no question that if Congress doesn’t act, we will.”

While Secty. Jewell said the Administration wouldn’t be designating monuments in controversial areas, she said that she would be holding meetings with people in communities that have public lands that might be considered for monument designation.

Shortly after her speech House Republicans issued a letter requesting that she make public the names of places the Administration is considering for monument status. You can read the letter here.

Secty. Jewell held one such meeting the very next week in Pt. Arena, along the coast of Northern California. As we reported in our June and July Updates, the House of Representatives has passed legislation reintroduced by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-2) adding the Stornetta Public Lands to the California Coastal Monument. Secty. Jewell was impressed by what she saw of the landscape and the broad support the proposed monument has in the community. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported on her visit. (The BLM’s website for the Stornetta Public Lands is here.)

In her Press Club speech, Secty. Jewell also called for increased funding for the Park Service and other agencies, as well as full funding of the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which comes from offshore oil & gas royalties, not taxpayers, and is used to buy land for parks and conservation purposes. She also criticized a report issued by Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) that called for a moratorium on new National Park Service land acquisitions until its maintenance backlog has been addressed. Ms. Jewell bluntly pointed out that the lawmakers making these recommendations are the very same people who vote to reduce the Park Service budget, causing the backlog in the first place.

Her entire speech was posted to YouTube.

While in California, Secty. Jewell also announced a major proposal to increase opportunities for younger people to become involved with and learn about public lands. Her goals include: developing outdoor recreation partnerships in 50 cities for outdoor play for more than 10 million young people; providing educational opportunities for at least 10 million of the nation’s students, kindergarten through high school; engaging 1 million volunteers annually on public lands, tripling the present number; and developing the next generation of lifelong conservation stewards by providing 100,000 work & training opportunities to young people within the agency. The Secretary hopes to raise an additional $20 million to support these youth work and training opportunities.

Outside Magazine contributing editor Bruce Barcott wrote an interesting and in-depth article based on an interview with Secty. Jewell.

“Thank you” is something that public officials don’t hear often enough. Besides simply showing appreciation, it encourages them to say and do more things in the future that we support. Please send Secty. Jewell a thank you for her comments and proposals.

You may comment via the Interior Department’s online comment page or call the Department at:

          202-208-3100

The email address is:

          feedback [at] ios [dot] doi [dot] gov

Her mailing address is:

SUWA is now accepting applications for its Utah Grassroots Organizer position. The Utah Grassroots Organizer works to advance the goal of building and maintaining cohesive statewide support for SUWA’s congressional and administrative efforts to protect Utah’s wilderness lands.

A competitive benefits package includes health care coverage, a retirement plan, and paid vacation and sick days. Opportunities for additional training are available. This position will work out of SUWA’s Salt Lake City office.

Applications are due by Friday, December 6, 2013. For a complete job description and how to apply, click here.

Great Old Broads for Wilderness seeks a full-time Communications Director to strategically guide communications, marketing, and public relations; manage and edit print and electronic communications; and develop creative membership outreach. Must be a team player with a sense of humor.

For job description, visit greatoldbroads.org/employment.

To apply, send cover letter, resume, and writing sample to admin [at] greatoldbroads [dot] org with “Communications Director Applicant” in the subject line.

If you know of someone who would bring creativity, brainpower, and boundless energy to this unique and scrappy organization, while being surrounded by fun and determined staff and members, please tell them of this opportunity.

Position is open until filled, so please submit applications soon!

Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law organization dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.

The organization has several offices around the country and is looking for a managing attorney for the San Francisco office. Click here for the job description and details.

Articles about a Hearing Last Week in the Senate on Various Wilderness Bills:

An article about an excursion during the recent government shutdown. (N.B.: Mention of this article here does not imply CalUWild support for trespassing.)

As always, if you ever have questions, suggestions, critiques, or wish to unsubscribe, all you have to do is send an email. For information on making a contribution to CalUWild, click here.