John Muir Wilderness, California                                                                                                                       (Mike Painter)

 
September 20, 2024

Dear CalUWild Friends & Supporters—

This month we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, signed by Pres. Lyndon Johnson on September 3, 1964. It offers the strongest protections for public lands of any law on the books in this country. Currently there are close to 112 million acres in the national wilderness preservation system, ranging in size from 5.5 acres (Pelican Island in Florida) to 9,432,000 acres (Wrangell-Saint Elias in Alaska). In recent years, previously unrepresented communities have joined the ranks of wilderness advocates, broadening the thinking about wilderness by proposing different ways of understanding humans’ relationship to Nature. It’s an interesting and exciting time to be involved. Thank you for your interest and efforts!

President Biden has proclaimed September as National Wilderness Month; you may read his proclamation here. See ITEM 5 for a 60th Anniversary ACTION ITEM.

Pres. Biden has also designated a new national monument of historic significance: Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument in Illinois and established the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas as the newest unit of the National Park system. Please click on the links for information about each.

Saturday, September 28 is National Public Lands Day. Entrance fees at most sites will be waived (though some special fees might still be in effect). Get out and enjoy your public lands if you can!

There’s a lot to report on this month, and the IN THE PRESS section below contains links to quite a few articles about topics we’ve written about previously.

 
Best wishes,
Mike Painter, Coordinator

 
IN UTAH
1. State Sues To Gain Control of 18 Million
         Acres of Federal Public Land

IN UTAH
1. State Sues To Gain Control of 18 Million
         Acres of Federal Public Land

Last month, the State of Utah filed suit in the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that the federal government has controlled too much of the land within the state for too long. The suit particularly targets about 18.5 million acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. This acreage does not include national monuments, tribal lands, or wilderness areas.

Most lawyers and policy experts do not give the lawsuit much chance of success, since the Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress authority “to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that this authority is absolute. (That doesn’t guarantee that it will follow precedent, however, as we’ve seen recently.)

Furthermore, the Utah Constitution states: “The people inhabiting this State do affirm and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries hereof …” (Art. 3, Sec. 2). The Utah statehood Enabling Act of 1894 contains virtually identical language. The lands unclaimed by the state were considered unproductive wasteland, so the state decided at the time that it did not want to be responsible for them. Ironically, those lands contain much of the landscape for which Utah has become world renowned.

The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial opposing the lawsuit: Utah’s latest land-grab lawsuit has no legal leg to stand on (may be behind paywall).

IN CALIFORNIA
2. Yosemite National Park Visitor Access Management Planning
         Comments Needed
         DEADLINE: September 30
         (ACTION ITEM)

Yosemite National Park, like many of our parks, has suffered from over-use in recent years and has experimented with different reservation schemes. The Park has released a draft plan with several alternatives and is seeking public comment.

Here is the general outline of the alternatives: The Park Service’s “preferred alternative” (Alt. B) looks like the scheme that was in place this last summer, with peak hour reservations good for three days. Alt. C would have timed entry reservations (with a possible two-hour entry window) good for only one day. Alt. D would have timed entry for Yosemite Valley only, and one day validity.

More details are on pages 2-15 – 2-122 of the draft plan (follow the links below).

Our friends at Restore Hetch Hetchy have pointed out that under both Alts. B and C, the Hetch Hetchy area is treated the same as the rest of the Park. However, they don’t think this makes sense, as access to Hetch Hetchy is completely separate from other access to the Park, nor is there any public transportation to Hetch Hetchy. Furthermore, visitor use at Hetch Hetchy is heaviest on springtime weekends, when the waterfalls along the reservoir are at full flow, while visitation is not heavy enough during the summer heat to warrant a summertime reservation system. The rest of the park, on the other hand has its heaviest use during the summer months. They recommend that it be treated separately.

If you have opinions on the draft plan, please submit comments, especially if you have used the various reservation systems that Park Service has tried out in the last several years.

 
The following announcement came from Yosemite National Park:

Yosemite National Park is pleased to share that the Visitor Access Management Draft Plan and Environmental Assessment (EA) is available for public comment at the project website parkplanning.nps.gov/YosemiteVisitorAccess.

A virtual public meeting was held on August 22, 2024 and the recording from that meeting is available. This recording will give you an overview of the planning process and walk you through the high-level components of the draft plan and environmental assessment. The recording is approximately one-hour and 15 minutes.

You can learn more about the plan and its contents by viewing a story map and downloading a copy of the plan on the project website at parkplanning.nps.gov/YosemiteVisitorAccess.

Public comments are being accepted via the project website at the “Open for Comment” link. The comment period will be open through September 30, 2024.

3. Conglomerate Mesa Storymap

We’ve written a few times over the years about proposed gold mining exploration on Conglomerate Mesa on the east side of the Owens Valley. We are awaiting a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to be released by the Bureau of Land Management sometime soon. We will be asking for your help in submitting comments when the time comes.

In preparation for that, our coalition partners at Friends of the Inyo have prepared an excellent “storymap” that provides a very good introduction to the area, the threats to it, and a guide to commenting. Please take a look!

4. Job Opportunity: Tuleyome Seeks a Policy Director

Our friends at Tuleyome are looking for a Policy Director. In addition to being leaders in the campaign to originally establish, protect, and now recently enlarge the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, Tuleyome is involved in other efforts to preserve the ecosystem of the Inner Coast Range in the southern Sacramento Valley.

For a full job description and more information, click here.

IN GENERAL
5. Rep. Grijalva Introduces 60th Anniversary
         Resolution in the House
         Cosponsors Needed
         (ACTION ITEM)

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced H.Res.1422: Recognizing the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act on September 3, the anniversary itself. The resolution lists the many values and benefits of wilderness and recognizes the agencies and wilderness advocates who have worked to protect it over the years, It also recognizes the opportunity “to right the wrongs of the past and meaningfully include Tribal governments in the designation and management of wilderness areas.” You may read the text online here.

The resolution currently has 20 cosponsors, including seven from California:

If your representative is on the list (* denotes an original cosponsor), please call them to say thank you. If not, please call them with a request to become a cosponsor. A listing of all California congressional offices may be found on CalUWild’s website here.

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.

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