Factory Butte, Utah, with OHV tracks (Mike Painter)
August 31, 2015
Dear CalUWild friends and supporters –
Summer vacation is drawing to a close and many students are back in school. Autumn is an excellent time to get away to visit and explore America’s public lands and wilderness areas if you’re able. Upcoming on September 26 is National Public Lands Day, when admission to all National Parks is free and many organizations sponsor outings or service projects. You can find more information by following the links here.
There was not much news requiring action this month, so there aren’t many substantive items below. However, there were quite a few interesting articles, some relating to issues we’ve reported on in the past, so look to Item 5 for those links.
Best wishes,
Mike
IN UTAH
1. General Updates
IN CALIFORNIA
2. CalUWild Slideshows & Tabling
a. Long Beach
Thursday, September 17
Wednesday, October 7
b. Wine Country Optics Festival
Downtown Sonoma
Sunday, September 20
3. Visions of the Wild: H2O
Downtown Vallejo
October 16 & 17
IN IDAHO
4. Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness Bill Signed
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
5. Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IN UTAH
1. General Updates
Moab BLM Master Leasing Plan
Mid-month, the BLM’s Moab Field Office released a draft Master Leasing Plan (MLP) to guide its future leasing decisions.
According to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Moab MLP would specifically:
– Protect wild places that are currently under threat from oil and gas leasing and development, including Fisher Towers, Porcupine Rim, Six-Shooter Peaks and Goldbar Canyon. These landscapes would either be closed to future leasing or subject to “no surface occupancy” stipulations that prohibit physical development on the lease.
– Provide strong protections for Arches and Canyonlands National Parks’ classic southern Utah vistas, dark night skies and clean water.
– Require that the majority of all future leases issued in the MLP area be subject to common sense ‘controlled surface use’ stipulations. These are essential to give both industry and the public certainty about the ground rules for future development.
The plan will not:
– Protect well known landscapes like Labyrinth Canyon and its side canyons. These places remain threatened by oil, gas and potash development.
– Prevent potash leasing development immediately adjacent to the Green River and in important side canyons (Red Wash and Ten Mile Wash). Potash leasing and development could also occur on Hatch Point and Indian Creek, a scenic area that can be seen from Canyonlands National Park and Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park.
– The BLM also announced additional Master Leasing Plan efforts today to better balance development and conservation in the San Rafael Desert and Cisco Desert, while highlighting other MLPs in progress in places like Western Colorado.
A 90-day comment period began August 21. At this point we don’t have any firm recommendations for comments, but we’ll pass any along as we learn more.
Public Lands Initiative
The Public Lands Initiative that Utah Reps. Rob Bishop (R) and Jason Chaffetz (R) have been sponsoring the last couple of years, meant to “solve” the public lands controversy in the state, so far has produced no firm proposal, though a draft may be released by the end of September.. The latest county to submit its recommendations is San Juan, in the southeast corner of the state. It contains some of the most significant archaeological resources anywhere, as well as spectacular scenery. It’s also one of the most anti-preservation counties in the state.
So it is remarkable that the county is proposing any designation of wilderness or the creation of two national conservation areas, around Cedar Mesa and along Indian Creek, near the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. But since of the wilderness acres are within the NCA boundaries, there’s not as much land actually receiving protection as it might at first appear.
There are significant substantive drawbacks in San Juan’s proposal as well. Among other problems: It doesn’t go far enough to protect important areas; it prohibits Wilderness Study Areas and other areas with wilderness character not included in the proposal from future consideration as wilderness; it calls for an exemption for the county from any future national monument designations under the Antiquities Act; and it pretty much ignores much of the Native American proposal for the Bears Ears and other areas deserving protection.
Recapture Canyon OHV Ride Case
Controversy continues to swirl following the conviction of San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman for trespass after leading an ATV ride up a closed route in Recapture Canyon, outside Blanding, last year. Late last week the federal judge who presided over the trial withdrew from the case before sentencing, after the defense objected to the judge’s friendship with one of SUWA’s lawyers and also to a letter that urged a strict sentence. SUWA is not a party to the case (since it’s a criminal matter) but had urged prosecution of Lyman and others immediately after the protest ride. The judge decided that it was best to recuse himself in order avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Lyman’s defense also filed a motion asking for a new trial, claiming that the BLM had withheld a map from evidence, which showed Recapture Canyon as a legitimate RS 2477 route.
We’ll keep you posted as things develop further.
See Item 5, below, for links to press items about Utah
IN CALIFORNIA
2. CalUWild Slideshows & Tabling
a. Long Beach
Thursday, September 17
Wednesday, October 7
As part of our efforts to educate people about America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, I’ll be making two presentations on behalf of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in Long Beach, California. Alan Lowenthal (D-47), the local congressional representative, is the chief sponsor of the bill in this Congress, so it’s important that his constituents know about his efforts and support them.
The first program is with the El Dorado Audubon Chapter:
Thursday, Sept. 17
Doors open 7 p.m., meeting starts 7:30 p.m.
El Dorado Nature Center
7550 E. Spring Street
Long Beach
The second is for the Sierra Club Long Beach Chapter:
Wednesday, Oct. 7
7:30 p.m.
Long Beach Environmental Resources Building
2929 E Willow St
Long Beach
The program will consist of a video, narrated by Robert Redford, followed by a short slideshow, with ample time for questions and answers. If you’re in the area please join us, and pass the information along to anyone who might be interested.
There’s a chance other presentations may be added to the schedule, in which case we’ll post them on our Facebook page.
b. Wine Country Optics Festival
Sunday, September 20
Downtown Sonoma
Our friends at Sonoma Birding are hosting the 4th Annual Wine Country Optics & Nature Festival, Sunday, September 20, at the Sonoma Plaza Barracks and Casa Grande Plaza in Downtown Sonoma. 13 optics companies (such as Nikon, Celestron, Zeiss, and others) and 57 nonprofit organizations will have information tables, and various artists will be exhibiting, too. For the first time, California State Parks is co-hosting the festival. CalUWild will be setting up an information table.
There’s a lot of history in Sonoma, and it’s a nice day trip from many places in Northern California. Hope to see you there!
3. Visions of the Wild: H2O
Downtown Vallejo
October 16 & 17
Last year’s Visions of the Wild Festival: Connecting Nature, Culture & Community, held in Vallejo, was such a success, that all the groups involved in organizing it, including CalUWild, decided to have a second festival this year. In 2014 we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act; this year we’re focusing on water and watersheds.
The Festival will take place, as last year, in Downtown Vallejo and will include films, art exhibitions, guest speakers, field trips and outdoor recreation activities, a hands-on watershed restoration project, and water conservation demonstrations and information.
The schedule is still being developed, but the website is up and running, and will be updated as information becomes available.
So mark your calendars and join us for Visions of the Wild: H2O!
IN IDAHO
4. Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness Bill Signed
Pres. Obama signed a bill this month designating 275,000 acres as wilderness in Idaho, east of the existing Sawtooth Wilderness. The campaign for protection of the Boulder-White Cloud area has been going on for some 15 years, but the final congressional passage seems to have been propelled by fears that Pres. Obama might designate a national monument in the area. That monument, at least as discussed, would have protected a much larger area, approximately 571,000 acres.
The wilderness that was designated was split into three separate areas, separated by road corridors, diluting considerably their wilderness character. Finally, the bill released 155,000 acres of wilderness study areas and land recommended for wilderness by the Forest Service.
So while it was nice to see Congress actually do something productive, the results are somewhat of a disappointment, too.
The New York Times had a blog post on the editorial page about the Idaho bill, Pres. Obama, and the Bears Ears proposal in Utah.
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
5. Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest
If a link is broken or otherwise inaccessible, please send me an email, and I’ll fix it or send you a PDF copy. As always, inclusion of an item in this section does not imply agreement with the viewpoint expressed.
New York Times, general interest
A column by Nicholas Kristof on wilderness: This Land Is Our Land
An article A Culture Clash Over Guns Infiltrates the Backcountry on guns in the backcountry
with a follow-up editorial: Target Shooters Bring Mayhem to National Forests
Utah
A Salt Lake Tribune editorial: If Utahns don’t act, Obama should protect Utah’s amazing places
A Desert News article in which Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says the Administration has no intention of designating a monument I Utah without public involvement
An article in The Nation on Utah legislator Ken Ivory: Meet the ‘Snake-Oil Salesman’ From Utah Who Wants to Transform the American West
A Salt Lake Tribune article: As record-breaking Outdoor Retailer show opens this week, organizers again talk about moving
An article about Escalante in the Salt Lake Tribune: Is southern Utah town being stifled by the feds – or by residents’ refusal to roll with new industries?
An article in Science about a well-known pictograph and new identification techniques: ‘Winged monster’ on ancient rock art debunked by scientists
California
A Los Angeles Times article: Feinstein asks Obama to bypass Congress to create three desert monuments
California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife press release regarding the discovery of a wolf pack living in Northern California
And a followup editorial in the Los Angeles Times: Welcome back, gray wolf
Nevada
An article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal: Conservationists, company rally to protect Gold Butte
An essay in High Country News: The desert doesn’t need this “City” regarding the earth-art included in the Basin & Range National Monument, which we wrote about last month
Idaho
An essay by CalUWild friend Kevin Proescholdt in High Country News: Idaho and BLM flout conservation laws for fallen officers (link for subscribers only). Reprinted in the Logan, Utah Herald Journal News here.
Wyoming
An article in the Jackson Hole News & Guide: Tribes seek to change name of Devils Tower, which takes on new significance, given Pres. Obama’s changing the name of Mt. McKinley back to Denali
Video links
Episode 15 in the US Forest Service’s Restore series: Penny Pines and Restoration
Another in the National Park Service series, America’s Wilderness. This time: Wilderness Hike: Death Valley
And finally, a young Grizzly Bear having fun at Denali National Park
As always, if you ever have questions, suggestions, critiques, or wish to change your e-mail address or unsubscribe, all you have to do is send an email. For information on making a contribution to CalUWild, click here. “Like” and “Follow” CalUWild on Facebook.