In Bears Ears National Monument, Utah (Mike Painter)
December 6, 2023
Dear CalUWild Friends & Supporters—
Thanksgiving is past, but I hope everyone had a restful holiday and maybe had a chance to “Get Outside” on Black Friday, instead of heading off shopping. It’s a good opportunity to enjoy our public lands and give thanks for them.
We didn’t send out an Update last month, because we were hoping that the Administration would announce a public meeting on the expansion, after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s visit to Molok Luyuk in September. Our hopes have been realized. See ITEM 2 for full details.
We were also hoping that the Administration would release its draft Bears Ears National Monument Plan, but it is still not out. However, it’s expected soon, and reportedly there will be a 90-day comment period. There are, however, other plans open for comment, including a major one for northwest California. See ITEM 3.
In other news, Sen. Alex Padilla (D) was appointed to the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. He has introduced several public lands bills for California, and is a strong supporter of conservation.
Last month, CalUWild celebrated its 26th Anniversary, and we are thankful for all your support for wilderness and other public lands in the West. And while we do not participate in the Giving Tuesday frenzy, it does happen around the same time that we generally send out our Annual Membership Appeal—by US Mail or electronically. So if you have found the information in CalUWild’s Update interesting and useful and you are financially able, please consider donating. We appreciate every gift, regardless of the amount. Information is also at the bottom of this Update.
Best wishes,
Mike Painter, Coordinator
IN UTAH
1. Red Rocks Bill Cosponsor Update
(ACTION ITEM)
IN CALIFORNIA
2. BLM Announces Public Meeting
On Berryessa Snow Mountain NM
Molok Luyuk Expansion
Wednesday, December 13
Woodland, CA
(ACTION ITEM)
3. BLM Releases Draft Resource Management Plan
For Northwestern California Field Offices
COMMENTS NEEDED
DEADLINE: December 28
(ACTION ITEM)
4. Two New National Monument Proposals
For California Unveiled
(ACTION ITEMS)
IN GENERAL
5. Park Service Announces Free Days for 2024
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
6. Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest
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IN UTAH
1. Red Rock Bill Cosponsor Update
(ACTION ITEM)
Rep. Mike Levin (D-49) has signed on as cosponsor to America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. If you live in his district, please call his office to say “Thank you.” His DC office phone is 202-225-3906.
That brings the number of California cosponsors to 17, and a total of 80 nationally. Please check CalUWild’s website, which contains a listing of California Senate and House cosponsorships and Washington, DC office phone numbers. If your representative is not listed as a cosponsor, please call their office and ask them to join the growing number of Californian in Congress who are.
A full list of cosponsors nationwide may be found on the website of our friends at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance here.
IN CALIFORNIA
2. BLM Announces Public Meeting
On Berryessa Snow Mountain NM
Molok Luyuk Expansion
Wednesday, December 13
Woodland, CA
(ACTION ITEM)
CalUWild has been a member of the coalition of conservation groups and Tribes supporting the Molok Luyuk expansion of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument on the eastern edge of the Inner Coast Range along the Sacramento Valley. The expansion has been the subject of legislation introduced by Reps. John Garamendi (D-8) and Mike Thompson (D-4), as well as an effort to have the Biden Administration expand the monument using the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The Department of the Interior and Forest Service have announced a public meeting to get public input on the proposed expansion, so we want to fill the room with supporters and are encouraging people who are able, to attend.
When: December 13 from 2–4 p.m. PT. Doors will open to the public at 1:45 p.m. PT
Where: Community Services Department, 2001 East Street Woodland, CA 95776
Who: Nada Wolff Culver, Principal Deputy Director, Bureau of Land Management
Karen Mouritsen, Bureau of Land Management – California
Wade McMaster, Mendocino National Forest Supervisor, representing Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien
Please fill out this form from the coalition to let us know that you’re interested in attending and if you need assistance with transportation to the meeting. We are asking supporters to arrive at 12:45 p.m., an hour before the doors open, so we can get coordinated and answer any questions people might have.
We hope to see you there!
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat published an editorial recently: Add Molok Luyuk to national monument
3. BLM Releases Draft Resource Management Plan
For Northwestern California Field Offices
COMMENTS NEEDED
DEADLINE: December 28
(ACTION ITEM)
The Arcata and Redding Field Offices of the Bureau of Land Management have released a draft Northwest California Integrated Resource Management Plan (NCIP) to guide the offices’ policies and activities for the next 15 years or so. The draft plan is quite good, reflecting a lot of time and effort over many years, though interrupted by having to deal with the aftermath of severe wildfires in much of the area.
Significantly, from a national policy standpoint, the draft plan proposes new administrative Wilderness Study Areas, under a policy that BLM has refused to implement since the days of Interior Secretary Gale Norton in the G.W. Bush Administration. The plan also proposes to establish several new Areas of Environmental Concern, another designation being given new priority by the BLM.
The draft plan is open for comment until December 28, and it is important for public lands advocates to submit comments, if for no other reason than to support the BLM’s renewed use of these two policy tools after so many years of disuse. If you want to get more specific, the areas proposed for each category are listed in the suggested talking points below, provided by our friends at Calwild (formerly California Wilderness Coalition). If you’ve been to any of these places, please make sure to mention that in your comments.
BLM has put together a fantastic story map to help understand what’s in the plan. You can view or download the draft management plan here and comment by clicking on the green “Participate Now” button. There’s also a direct link to the comment form below.
You can also attend a virtual public meeting, hosted by the BLM about the NCIP, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, from 1-3pm PST: Register via Zoom. (Please note: That’s at the same time as the BLM Molok Luyuk meeting discussed in ITEM 2. Please attend the Molok Luyuk meeting if you have to make a choice.)
Talking Points
In your written comments please:
Thank the agency for a conservation forward draft plan and the wonderful work it has done caring for our local public lands, despite scarce resources, over the last 25 years, and urge them to continue this proud tradition of conservation-based management in the years ahead!
Describe why you value local BLM lands. Consider mentioning clean water, wildlife and native plant habitat, recreation and trails (what do you enjoy doing?), wilderness, scenery, restoration the BLM has conducted, or other important values and issues.
Also, please ask the BLM to:
• Manage the following “lands with wilderness characteristics” (LWC) in order to protect those characteristics, as a priority: Cahto Peak, Camp St. Michel, Chappie-Shasta, Grass Valley South, Sacramento River Bend. (LWC is the BLM term for the wildest and least developed tracts of land that it manages.)• Manage 12,110 acres of English Ridge, Gilham Butte, Trinity Alps, Red Mountain and Yolla Bolly as Wilderness Study Areas.
• Designate the following Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs): Eden Valley, North Fork Eel, Beegum Creek Gorge, Deer Creek, Gilham Butte, Grass Valley Creek, Sacramento River Bend, Shasta and Klamath River Canyon, Upper and Lower Clear Creek and Willis Ridge.
• Recommend 117 eligible river segments for National Wild and Scenic River protection. This would include several salmon and steelhead streams in the Sacramento River watershed, including the Sacramento River and several tributaries (Battle Creek, Paynes Creek, Beegum Creek, Butte Creek, Clear Creek, and Cottonwood Creek), three tributaries to the Trinity River (Canyon Creek, Indian Creek, West Weaver Creek), several Eel River tributaries (Cedar Creek, Elder Creek, Elk Creek, Hulls Creek), Lacks Creek in the Redwood Creek drainage, and the Shasta River (an important coho salmon spawning tributary to the Klamath River).
• Prioritize acquisition of new lands from willing sellers along key riparian corridors, in critical deer winter range, wetland habitat, wildlife migration corridors, coastal areas, habitat for sensitive species, proposed and designated Wild and Scenic River corridors, lands that would provide recreation access, lands within or nearby Wilderness, WAs, and LWCs, and lands that improve water quantity and water quality.
• Protect remaining old-growth forest by retaining the Late-Successional Reserves established in 1994, and incorporate provisions to promote and restore fire resilience in these ancient forests.
Comments may be submitted via:
BLM’s ePlanning form
Email to: BLM_CA_Redding_Arcata_NCIP [at] blm [dot] gov
U.S. Mail: ATTN: NCIP Project Manager
Bureau of Land Management
1695 Heindon Road
Arcata, CA 95521-4573
4. Two New National Monument Proposals
(For California Unveiled
(ACTION ITEMS)
This fall has seen two new proposals for national monuments in California, at opposite ends of the state.
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-25) has introduced legislation to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument in the Coachella Valley and expand Joshua Tree National Park. The area stretches from the Salton Sea to the Colorado River, covering about 600,000 acres, and is an area rich in biodiversity, is a Tribal culturally significant landscape, and contains more recent historically significant sites. For more information, visit the coalition’s website, where there is a link on the homepage to a petition for signatures.
Mark Butler, former superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park, wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times: California’s majestic desert must be preserved. This proposal can help (may be behind a paywall). It was also published here on the website of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
In the northeast corner of the state lies Sáttítla, known in English as the Medicine Lake Highlands. It’s an area of great cultural significance to the Pit River Tribe, who is spearheading a new campaign for protection, but it is also important to other Tribes as well, including the Karuk, Modoc, Shasta, and the Wintu.
The Highlands are in the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath, and Modoc National Forests and have long been the subject of proposals for geothermal development. Establishment of a monument would protect it from these threats as well as allowing the various Tribes to continue their traditional cultural practices.
For more information and, again, to sign a petition to Pres. Biden, visit the Protect Sáttítla website.
IN GENERAL
5. Park Service Announces Free Days for 2024
The National Park Service announced that entrance fees would be waived on the following six dates in 2024 (at those sites that charge them):
January?15 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day
April 20 — First Day of National Park Week
June 19 — Juneteenth
August 4 — Great American Outdoors Day
September 28 — National Public Lands Day
November 11 — Veterans Day
Mark your calendars!
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
6. 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. Gift links are temporary links from some websites, allowing non-subscribers to view articles for free for a limited time. As always, inclusion of an item in this section does not imply agreement with the viewpoint expressed.
In California
The controversy over ranching at Point Reyes National Seashore continues, as reported in this article from the Marin independent Journal: New Point Reyes water pollution data add pressure on ranches
An article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat about removing dams on the Eel River: PG&E formalizes plan to eliminate Lake Pillsbury in Mendocino National Forest in landmark move
In Arizona
An op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star: Permanently protect the Great Bend of the Gila (You can read more about the proposal here.)
In Montana
An article in the New York Times: Saving Yellowstone for the Grizzlies (gift link for non-subscribers)
In Wyoming
An article in the Washington Post: As the nation’s largest landlord shifts its priorities, outrage ensues in Wyoming (gift link for non-subscribers) and another column in Landline, from High Country News: A Sagebrush Rebellion flares up in Wyoming?. BLM is accepting comments on the Rock Springs RMP until January 17, 2024. and we’ll include an item in our next Update.
In General
A story map: Wilderness and Fire: Barriers and Opportunities for Wilderness Fire in a Time of Change
Legislation by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-2) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA): Representatives Smith and Huffman Introduce Voluntary Grazing Permit Retirement Act to Promote Conservation of Public Lands
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