The Bodie Hills John Dittli, used by permission
September 16, 2010
Dear CalUWild friends & supporters:
We try not to send out emergency alerts, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
So the September Update is coming out a bit earlier than usual this month, as we just got word that legislation was introduced yesterday in Congress to release the Bodie Wilderness Study Area (WSA), north of Mono Lake in California. The Mono County Board of Supervisors will consider a resolution in support of this legislation next TUESDAY, September 21, 2 p.m., in Bridgeport, the county seat. Details are in ITEM 1, below.
The hearing creates the perfect excuse for an unplanned, early-Fall visit to the Eastern Sierra!
Thanks for your support and help on this and all the other issues we work on,
Mike
IN CALIFORNIA
1. Bodie WSA Release Legislation Introduced
Mono County Supervisors Hearing
September 21 in Bridgeport
Letters Needed (& Attendees)
DEADLINE: Monday, September 20
(URGENT ACTION ITEM)
IN THE PRESS
2. More reaction to the New York Times
“Wilderness” Op-ed Piece
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IN CALIFORNIA
1. Bodie WSA Release Legislation Introduced
Mono County Supervisors Hearing
September 21 in Bridgeport
Letters Needed (& Attendees)
DEADLINE: Monday, September 20
(URGENT ACTION ITEM)
Over the course of the year we’ve written about the leaked Interior Department memo that mentioned 14 areas in the West as possibilities for national monument designation. One of those is California’s Bodie Hills, north of Mono Lake and east of Yosemite National Park.
A threat to permanent protection for the area (whether via monument designation or other means) arose yesterday when California Rep. Buck McKeon (R-25) introduced H.R. 6129, the Mono County Economic Development Act of 2010. The main provision of the bill releases the Bodie WSA from its protected status as a WSA in order to allow a gold mining company to conduct exploration in the area.
The Mono County Board of Supervisors will consider a resolution supporting the bill at a meeting next Tuesday, September 21, 2 p.m. at the Mono County Courthouse in Bridgeport. Letters opposing the resolution are needed by the close of business on Monday, 9/20.
Because of the very short time frame, emailing or faxing letters is best.
Email your letter to:
Mono County Board of Supervisors
lroberts@mono.ca.gov
P.O. Box 715
Bridgeport, CA 93517
Fax: 760-932-5531
Please send a copy your letter to your Congressional representative and to Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, and Rep. McKeon. Their addresses can be found on their websites. Because of irradiation requirements, please send letters to their offices in California rather than Washington, DC.
Attached is a PDF containing the resolution, Rep. McKeon’s bill, and 2 letters already sent to the supervisors—one “pro” and one “con.” The background information and talking points below come from Sally Miller, Eastern Sierra Representative of The Wilderness Society:
BACKGROUND
The remote and spectacular Bodie Hills are tucked between the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin in our backyard, and comprise some 200,000-plus acres of mostly public land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service. Bodie State Historic Park, the state’s official ghost town and one of our most popular state parks, lies in the center of the Bodie Hills. The area contains an amazingly high level of biological diversity (think pika, sage grouse, antelope, pinyon pine, juniper, lodgepole pine, and a million wildflowers) and one of the highest concentrations of archaeological resources in the Great Basin. There are three BLM Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in the Bodie Hills totaling approximately 50,000 acres, attesting to the area’s wild and largely pristine character.
The newly-formed Bodie Hills Conservation Partnership is a coalition of groups organized to advocate for the permanent preservation of wildlands in the Bodie Hills. Founding groups include Friends of the Inyo, National Trust for Historic Preservation , Conservation Lands Foundation, Trout Unlimited and The Wilderness Society. Our organizations share a commitment to seeing this amazing landscape permanently preserved in a manner that protects the region’s natural, cultural and recreational resources. The Bodie Hills were included on an internal Department of Interior list of possible National Monument candidates which was released earlier this year. While our coalition does not have a NM proposal, we strongly support the area being preserved via some special Congressional designation which recognizes & protects the area’s exemplary values. What form a designation takes should be up to a broad dialogue among all stakeholders in the public lands of the Bodie Hills (local, regional, national). We are developing a website www.bodiehills.org, which we hope will be live within a day or so.
Meantime, the world’s largest mineral exploration company, Electrum, and the company that owns Electrum, Tigris Financial, want the Bodie WSA, the ecological and cultural heart of the Bodie Hills, “released” from protection as a WSA, so that they can explore for (and market?) gold unfettered by agency regulations. The WSA contains extensive cultural resources, antelope and sage grouse habitat, candidate Wild & Scenic Rivers and unparalleled Great Basin scenic beauty. The existing regulations would ensure these resources are protected while still allowing mineral exploration.
The WSA status is the ONLY handle BLM has to try to protect the area’s outstanding values. Absent WSA protection, Electrum can build roads and do what it wishes to do in the name of mineral exploration and/or development without encumbrances. Yet, under WSA protection, Electrum can still explore, but must do so in a more careful, environmentally sensitive manner. We don’t even know if there is any “there” there as far as gold. No one has seen any plans from the mining company. Why give Electrum carte blanche to muck up some of the most sensitive public lands and resources within the Bodie Hills?
TALKING POINTS
· The Bodie Hills, and the Bodie WSA in particular, contain outstanding natural and cultural values that deserve special protection. The Bodie Hills also provide important recreational opportunities including hiking, birdwatching, hunting and roadside exploration of the area’s extensive cultural and natural history.
· Extensive mineral exploration or development activity, particularly in the Bodie WSA, would irreversibly harm the Bodie Hills and directly threaten antelope, sage grouse and other fish and wildlife habitat as well as the area’s many cultural resources and extensive recreational values.
· “Release” of the Bodie WSA by Congress is not necessary for mineral exploration. The mining company can and should conduct lawful mineral exploration under agency regulations governing the WSA to ensure its values are protected from damage. If sufficient gold is found to warrant further development, then there needs to be a dialogue involving the broad community of local, regional and national stakeholders to determine appropriate future land uses for the public lands in the Bodie Hills.
· A “partial” release of a portion of the WSA, which may be proposed, is unacceptable. The area the mining company is interested in seeing “released” to allow unfettered mineral exploration is that part of the WSA that holds some of its most important natural and cultural resources. (What’s more, it’s not necessary.)
· Explain your connection to the Bodie Hills. Mention any experiences you have had exploring the wildlands around Bodie, be it hiking, mountain biking, hunting, auto-touring, photography, birdwatching or enjoying the area’s spectacular summer wildflowers.
· Ask the Mono County Board of Supervisors to support permanently preserving the natural and cultural values of the Bodie Hills, and to oppose any proposals such as WSA release that would facilitate new mineral exploration and development, absent a broad discussion among the varied stakeholders of the public lands about the future of the Bodie Hills.
IN THE PRESS
2. More reaction to the New York Times
“Wilderness” Op-ed Piece
Letters to the Editor of the NY Times
From Oklahoma!
(Original op-ed piece here.)