Below Bishop Pass, John Muir Wilderness, Inyo National Forest                                             (Mike Painter)
 

August 2016

Dear CalUWild friends & supporters-

NOTE: This month’s Update on our website combines the full contents of the two separate parts that were sent out by email to our members, now re-ordered and re-numbered.

School is starting for many students, taking some of the visitation pressure off our public lands and making September and October a good time for exploration of new or favorite places in the West.

Public lands have been in the news recently, since August 25th was the 100th Anniversary of the signing of the National Parks Organic Act, creating the National Park Service. However, Congress is on recess until after Labor Day, meaning that there is not much to discuss on the legislative front, so the Update this month will be short, with links to articles which will bring you up to date on various topics we’ve covered in the past, as well as ones of general interest.

Scheduling in September will likely delay publication of the next Update, and it’s likely to show up in your INBOX early in October. Until then, thanks for your continued efforts and interest!
 

Best wishes,
Mike

IN UTAH
1.   The Bears Ears Campaign Continues
          (ACTION ITEM)

IN CALIFORNIA
2.   Planning Begins for the Berryessa
          Snow Mountain National Monument
          Meetings Scheduled
3.   Visions of the Wild 3: Wild in the City
          September 15-18
          Downtown Vallejo
4.   Wine Country Optics & Nature Festival
          Sunday, September 11
          Downtown Sonoma
          10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

IN ARIZONA
5.   Grand Canyon Tramway Bill
          Introduced in the Navajo Tribal Council
          Comments Needed
          DEADLINE: September 3, 2016
          (ACTION ITEM)

IN GENERAL
6.   Two National Monuments-
          In Maine & Hawaii
          (ACTION ITEM)

IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
7.   Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

IN UTAH
1.   The Bears Ears Campaign Continues
          (ACTION ITEM)

The Bears Ears continues to garner good mentions in the press around the country

Douglas Brinkley, the author of books on the conservation legacies of Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times, Obama the Monument Maker. He specifically mentioned the Bears Ears as one of four monuments that he thinks Pres. Obama should still designate. (We linked to a review of Mr. Brinkley’s book of FDR in our March 2016 Update.) On the same day, the Times published an editorial specifically mentioning the need to protect the Bears Ears, as well as the areas around Utah’s Canyonlands and Arches national parks.

Utah State Sen. Jim Dabakis wrote an excellent and perceptive op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune examining the politics behind the Bears Ears proposal and Rep. Rob Bishop’s (R-UT) Public Lands Initiative process.

Please continue to let Pres. Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell know that they support the Administration’s efforts to protects landscapes and important sites around the country and that they should continue to proceed with designations for other important areas, particularly the Bears Ears in Utah.

NOTE: The White House announced this month that it would accept messages to the President via its Facebook page<https://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse>, so that is another way to get through. (It’s nice to see that the picture on the page shows the President standing in front of Yosemite Falls.)

 
IN CALIFORNIA
2.   Planning Begins for the Berryessa
          Snow Mountain National Monument
          Meetings Scheduled

Community Conversations on Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument

The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are in the early stages of developing a management plan for the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument (BSMNM) and invite the public to participate in Community Conversations about the monument. The conversations are an opportunity for the public to express what they value in the management of the BSMNM. Your interests and concerns are important. The conversations are designed in an open format with resource specialists at individual stations to talk one-on-one with interested individuals.

The BSMNM was established in July 2015 to preserve the objects of scientific and historic interest on the lands of the Berryessa Snow Mountain area. The 330,000-acre area is bounded on the north by the Snow Mountain Wilderness and on the south by Berryessa Mountain in north-central California. Approximately 197,000 acres are administered by US Forest Service and 133,000 acres by the BLM.

Community Conversations locations, all workshops will be from 5:30-7:00 pm:

For further information, contact Sharen Parker, Forest Planner, at 530-934-1141, Jonna Hildenbrand, BLM Planner, at 707-468-4024, or visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mendocino/home/?cid=FSEPRD506559.

 
3.   Visions of the Wild 3: Wild in the City
          September 15-18
          Downtown Vallejo

The third annual Visions of the Wild Festival will take place September 15-18 in Vallejo. First held in 2014 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act, the festival has continued as a collaborative effort among the US Forest Service (whose Region 5 headquarters are in Vallejo), the Vallejo arts community, the City of Vallejo, and various regional agencies, organizations, and non-profit groups, including CalUWild.

The theme this year is “Wild in the City,” emphasizing the connections between our urban environments and the wildlife that can be found there, either returning or that never totally left. Events include art exhibitions, films, Coastal Cleanup Day, and more. All events are free, except for two boat tours up the Napa River and up Carquinez Straits. (The latter sold out before we could announce it.)

The Festival will actually kick off on Friday, September 9, when the art exhibitions will open. Another special event will take place on Saturday, September 10: A bike ride around Skaggs Island, a former top-secret military communications area now being restored to wetlands as part of San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The area is currently closed to the public while the restoration work is underway.

Full scheduling details may be found on the Events Page, while general information may be found at the Festival Website.

 
4.   Wine Country Optics & Nature Festival
          Downtown Sonoma
          Sunday, September 11
          10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Our friends at Sonoma Birding are hosting the 5th Annual Wine Country Optics & Nature Festival, Sunday, September 11, at the Sonoma Plaza Barracks and Casa Grande Plaza in Downtown Sonoma. Ten optics companies (such as Nikon, Celestron, Zeiss, and others) and many nonprofit organizations will have information tables, and various artists will be exhibiting, too. California State Parks is co-hosting the festival.

There’s a lot of history in Sonoma, and it’s a nice day trip from many places in Northern California. A scheduling conflict will prevent CalUWild from setting up a table this year, but I hope you’ll attend!

 
IN ARIZONA
5.   Grand Canyon Tramway Bill
          Introduced in the Navajo Tribal Council
          Comments Needed
          DEADLINE: September 3, 2016
          (ACTION ITEM)

We wrote about the proposed Grand Canyon Tramway in our January 2015 Update (Item 6), and the issue has taken an extremely serious turn.

Please note the very short deadline for comments: September 3. If you receive the Update in print, please write a letter (even before thanking Pres. Obama for his monument designations of last week), regardless of whether you can comply with the formal deadline (which may be a postmark deadline, but I don’t know the intricacies of Navajo legislative procedure). In any event, there is no deadline for writing to Secty. Sally Jewell, especially if you send a separate letter.

If you’ve been to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, please say so and mention your experience and then state how a project like this would have impacted it.

 
Grand Canyon Tramway Legislation Introduced, Comments Needed

Late in the day on Monday, August 29, 2016, legislation was introduced in the Navajo Nation Tribal Council to build a tramway in the Grand Canyon. Under Navajo Nation Law, the public the world over now has just five days to comment on this legislation.

Sponsored by Fort Defiance Councilman Ben Bennett, the legislation gives the green light to a massive development on the rim of the Grand Canyon. The project would include a huge resort, airport, helicopter tours and tramway to the Canyon bottom at the confluence of the Little Colorado and main Colorado Rivers.

The project anticipates between 800,000 to over 2,000,000 annual visitors per year at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

A group of Phoenix developers, known as Confluence Partners LLC, would receive from 92% to 88% of revenues generated. The LLC has no prior company experience in any type of construction.

The Navajo Nation legislation spells out the duties of the partners, and requires the Navajo Nation to expend at a minimum of $65 million for a 20 mile all-weather road to the development location, as well as provide power, water, and telecommunications. A loan to the Navajo Nation to cover these costs would be repaid out of any royalties received.

Legislation passed in 1975 by Congress recognized that the entire Grand Canyon has many managers, including the National Park Service, the Navajo Nation and other tribes and agencies. The law requires the Secretary of Interior to work with all the Grand Canyon’s many managers in providing “protection and interpretation of the Grand Canyon in its entirety.” The legislation, known as the Grand Canyon Enlargement Act, required the Secretary of Interior to work with the Navajo Nation to protect the Grand Canyon, designated a World Heritage Site.

River Runners for Wilderness encourages its members to write to the Navajo Nation and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell. Tell the Nation and Secretary Jewell:

– You support a tramway-free Grand Canyon.

– Ask that Navajo tribal funds be spent on vital needs such as housing, sanitation, telecommunication and water supply projects across the entire Western Navajo lands.

– Remind the Navajo Nation and Secretary Jewell of her duty to work with the Navajo to protect and preserve the Grand Canyon as the 1975 Grand Canyon Enlargement Act required.

You can contact the Navajo Nation here:

Or in writing, mailed to:

Navajo Nation law requires that all comments, either in the form of letters and or e-mails must include your name, position title, address for written comments and a valid e-mail address. Anonymous comments will not be included in the Legislation packet.

Please cc Secretary Jewell here

The nine page short version of the over 200 page bill is available for review here:

http://www.navajonationcouncil.org/Legislations/2016/AUG/0293-16.pdf

For further information, please contact Tom Martin at River Runners For Wilderness, tommartin [at] rrfw [dot] org

Additional information is also available here:

 
IN GENERAL
6.   Two New National Monuments-
          In Maine & Hawaii
          (ACTION ITEM)

Pres. Obama designated two new monuments last week, one in Maine (the proposal for which we mentioned in Item 2 of our May Update) and one in Hawaii.

The federal government accepted the donation of more than 87,000 acres of Maine forestland to create the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The gift was made by Roxanne Quimby, one of the founders of the Burt’s Bees company, and was accompanied by a gift of $20 million plus another $20 million endowment for the future management of the monument.

The monument grew out of a campaign that has been going on for at least 12 years to create a Maine Woods National Park. Local opposition changed its focus, resulting in the private donation of the land. More details about the new monument and the politics surrounding it may be found in this New York Times article.

A columnist at the Salt Lake Tribune wrote about Utah Rep. Rob Bishop’s role in the designation.

Pres. Obama also made an enormous addition to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, the marine reserve established by Pres. George W. Bush in 2006. It protects a large zone surrounding the original designation and is now the largest protected marine area in the world. The Washington Post published a comprehensive article about the new monument.

Pres. Obama has made it clear when announcing his recent designations that he is not simply acting unilaterally. All the monuments have been the focus of campaigns, local and national, and most have had support from members of Congress. In fact, he has repeatedly stated that he much prefers signing legislation to designating them administratively, but he won’t hesitate to act when Congress doesn’t or won’t.

And I’m guessing that anyone reading this already knows that the federal government already manages these lands and that they’re already owned by all of us Americans (unless they’re donated, as in Maine). And when it comes to state trying to have lands “returned” to them, those lands can’t be returned, since the states never owned them. Most of the lands in the West were bought with U.S. Treasury funds-from France in the Louisiana Purchase and from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Thus they belong to all Americans. (If they are to be returned to anyone, the Native tribes would have first claim, anyway.) Please, whenever someone refers to these designations as “federal land grabs” or to the need to “return” federal land to the states, do not hesitate to point these facts out immediately.

As mentioned in Item 1, above, the New York Times published an editorial supporting the latest monument designations.

Please thank Pres. Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell (contact information above in Item 1) for making the designations, and encourage them to continue protecting our significant public lands, especially the Bears Ears in southeastern Utah.

 
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
7.   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.

In the New York Times

Public Lands in General

The Bundy Cases in Oregon and Nevada

Video Link

 
 
 
 
 
 

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