Clouds above Sevier Dry Lakebed, Utah Mike Painter
October 29, 2010
Dear CalUWild friends-
Here’s the second half of the October Update, after last week’s California-only edition. One additional California item is included below, ITEM 3.
A couple of points regarding last week’s item on Pt. Reyes National Seashore and the Drakes Bay Oyster Company: Not everyone was able to go directly to the comment form using the link provided. Here’s a new link for the comment form. I also mentioned some of the other issues that have been drawn into the debate by various parties. Those were mentioned solely to provide more context, and none of them changes CalUWild’s position that the lease should not be extended beyond 2012. Drakes Estero is the only West Coast estuary with any kind of wilderness status. Congress spoke clearly in 1976 when it designated it as potential wilderness, expecting it to automatically become part of the Phillip Burton Wilderness when the lease expired. The Park Service and Secretary of the Interior should use their authority to put that intent into effect in 2012. Again, the comment deadline is November 22.
As always, thanks for your interest and efforts!
Mike
IN UTAH
1. BLM Proposes Massive Potash Leasing
On Sevier Dry Lake
COMMENTS NEEDED
(ACTION ITEM)
2. Two New Dinosaurs Discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante NM
IN CALIFORNIA
3. San Diego Wilderness Hikes
IN GENERAL
4. Forest Service Loses Fee Payment Case in Federal Court
5. Great Old Broads Annual Online Auction
Through Sunday, November 14
(AUCTION ITEM)
IN THE PRESS
6. Links to Online Articles of Interest
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IN UTAH
1. BLM Proposes Massive Potash Leasing
On Sevier Dry Lake
COMMENTS NEEDED
(ACTION ITEM)
Everyone who has driven from Nevada to Delta, Utah on US Highway 50/6 has driven past Sevier Dry Lake, at the base of the House Range and Notch Peak. It is a playa, onto which the Sevier River empties (when it contains enough water to get there-most of the water in the river is diverted for irrigation). The river has its headwaters in Southern Utah, west of Bryce Canyon National Park. It flows northward past Richfield and Salina, continues a bit further, and then bends west and finally flows southwest into the lake. Playas are the dry lakebeds that accumulate salts as water flows in and then evaporates.
The Bureau of Land Management in Utah recently released an Environmental Assessment that looks at leasing Sevier Lake for potash (potassium salts) mining. “The purpose of this project is to provide the public an opportunity to competitively lease the potash resources in the Sevier Lake playa, with the outcome of providing local income and jobs, and adding to the global supply of potash.”
That’s a very strange use of the term “public.” The public hikes, the public votes, but the public does not generally lease lands for minerals (an exception being Tim DeChristopher, who bid in December 2008 for oil & gas parcels to protest the lease sale in wild areas and call attention to climate change). Additionally, the U.S. provides only a small percentage of the world’s potash supply (maybe 3.3%, according to the USGS), so this project will do nothing to significantly increase the world’s production.
BLM says that under its proposed alternative, the entire dry lakebed would be open for leasing, using the entire lake surface for the production of brine. It estimates that the life of the mine would be six and a half years, in addition to two – three years for construction and three – five years for reclamation. It lists the following as likely facilities:
• 47,000 acres of solar ponds on lease
• 300 miles of collection ditches
• 250 miles of pond berms and dikes; pond walls and berms would be constructed on lease from onsite and offsite borrow materials.
• Pipelines as needed to transport water from site to site; pipelines would extend off lease
• 120,000 acre-feet of brine (39 billion gallons) with some of the water supplied from on-lease deep brine wells
• 900 acre-feet of fresh water-estimated 200 acres for rights of way for 7 off-lease wells
• 500 acres for a crushing, drying and bagging facility-may or may not be sited on lease
BLM claims that the project would not be very visible from Highway 50/6. However, if the entire lakebed were leased, it’s not clear how that could be true, as the playa is very visible to the east and south for some miles after coming over Skull Rock Pass. The EA says that “visual impacts from development of facilities on lease would be minor to moderate, and long term. … Whether the impacts are negative, positive or neutral is the perception of the viewer.” You can decide!
In any event, these impacts are large for such a short-term operation.
You may download a copy of the full proposal here.
In response to the EA, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance sent out the following alert:
Despite its harsh surroundings and intermittent nature, the Sevier Lake is a key component of the Great Salt Lake-which is one of the more important shorebird sites in the Western Hemisphere-migratory pathway for shorebirds. Undeveloped and remote, it sits bookended by proposed wilderness on both the west and east. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management is now considering leasing this entire area for potash development, an industrial process requiring large dike networks and holding ponds. Such development would ruin the natural beauty of this area and potentially compromise its important ecological function.
Please take a moment to let the BLM know that you oppose its current plan to lease the Sevier Lake bed for potash development
• BLM should adopt the No Action Alternative (Alternative B) in the Sevier Lake Competitive Potash Leasing Proposal
• The EA does not fully account for the impacts to shorebirds that depend on this area.
• Furthermore, the proposal does not consider the impacts to the air quality and snowpack of the Wasatch Front from ground disturbance.
Please send comments, in your own words, incorporating your own experiences and impressions of Sevier Lake (if any) with some or all of the points above to:
Mr. George Cruz
Natural Resource Specialist
US Bureau of Land Management
Fillmore Field Office
35 East 500 North
Fillmore, UT 84631
FAX: 435-743-3135
Email: George_Cruz@blm.gov
Please send a copy of your comments to:
Mr. Juan Palma
State Director
US Bureau of Land Management
Utah State Office
440 West 200 South, Suite 500
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
FAX: 801-539-4013
Email: Juan_Palma@blm.gov
2. Two New Dinosaurs Discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante NM
A scientist at the Utah Museum of Natural History last month announced the discovery of fossils from two new dinosaur species in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of Southern Utah.
Utahceratops, a plant-eater nearly 20 feet long, had a seven-foot long skull. A somewhat smaller species, Kosmoceratops, had 15 horns on its skull, the most ever found on a horned-skull dinosaur. The Monument is turning up important paleontological and other scientific finds with great frequency, showing the good thinking behind its designation in 1996.
An interesting four-minute video by the discoverer of the fossils, describing the fossils and some of their scientific implications, can be found here on YouTube.
IN CALIFORNIA
3. San Diego Wilderness Hikes
Geoffrey Smith continues his series of hikes to proposed wilderness areas:
DAY HIKE TO AGUA TIBIA ON PALOMAR MOUNTAIN
Saturday, November 6, 2010
9:00 am
5 miles, moderate difficulty
RSVP (required) to Leader: Geoffrey Smith, yourpartners@partners4nature.com
Meeting location: The general store in Aguanga on SR79 at the intersection with SR371
The Agua Tibia proposed wilderness on Palomar Mountain is characterized by deep canyons cloaked primarily in coastal sage scrub habitat. Here and there in deep pockets, north-facing slopes and other sheltered places small groves of old-growth forest endure the hot, dry summers. Willow, cottonwood and other hardwoods grow along the larger streams and provide a cool refuge for wildlife. The rugged Cutca Trail traverses the area from east to west. The 7,834-acre proposed additions are recommended by the Forest Service for wilderness designation. This outing is sponsored by Friends of the River and The North San Diego Wild Heritage Campaign.
DAY HIKE TO BEAUTY MOUNTAIN
Saturday, November 13, 2010
9:00 am
5 miles, moderate difficulty
RSVP (required) to Leader: Geoffrey Smith, yourpartners@partners4nature.com
Meeting location: The general store in Aguanga on SR79 at the intersection with SR371
At 14,249 acres, the Beauty Mountain Proposed Wilderness Addition is a scenic jewel draped in chaparral, fascinating rock formations and oak woodlands, in the shadow of Palomar Mountain. The area is a transition zone between Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to the east and the endangered coastal sage scrub of the Coast Range to the west. The California Riding and Hiking Trail crosses the area. On warm spring days, visitors are greeted with the heady scents of sage, manzanita, and California lilac while hill after misty hill rises in the distance, presenting an unbroken view of wild country. Our hike will approach the summit from the north side. This outing is sponsored by Friends of the River and The North San Diego Wild Heritage Campaign.
IN GENERAL
4. Forest Service Loses Fee Payment Case in Federal Court
The issue of user fees on public lands does not want to go away. In 2005 Congress passed the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which spelled out the conditions for which public lands agencies are allowed to charge citizens for access to public lands. Overall, with a few exceptions clearly spelled out, parking and general access to public lands was to be free.
The agencies (Forest Service and BLM mostly) have not been eager to comply with the new requirements and continue to collect fees under circumstances not allowed by the law. Some citizens are fighting back and winning, as the following item from the Western Slope No Fee Coalition in Colorado describes:
An important decision has been handed down by Federal Magistrate Judge Mark Aspey in Flagstaff, Arizona. He granted a motion by Sedona resident Jim Smith to have his ticket for failure to pay a Forest Service recreation fee (i.e. have a Red Rock Pass) dismissed.
Jim parked overnight at the Vultee Arch Trailhead, a dirt parking lot with no amenities accessed by a rough dirt road. He backpacked into the Coconino National Forest, camped in an area with no amenities, and returned to find a ticket on his car because it did not display a Red Rock Pass.
The Red Rock Pass fee program is one of the most notorious in the nation, requiring an access fee for 160,000 acres of federal public land, much of it dispersed undeveloped backcountry.
Jim challenged the Forest Service’s authority to levy a fee at Vultee Arch Trailhead because the law governing recreation fees specifically prohibits fees for parking, general access, walking through federal land without using facilities and services, camping in dispersed undeveloped areas, or in any location that does not offer reasonable access to six specific amenities: permanent toilet, permanent trash container, picnic table, developed parking, interpretive signage, and security services. The Vultee Arch Trailhead offers none of these amenities – it only serves as a place to park and enter undeveloped backcountry, both of which are activities the law says must be free of charge. The nearest toilet is 7 miles away and the nearest trash can is 10 miles away.
Jim represented himself, and he was up against the full might of the federal government, but he won because he proved to the judge that the way the Forest Service is implementing fees in the Red Rock Pass area is not a reasonable interpretation of the law. In fact the decision describes the Forest Service’s interpretation as “absurd”:
In addition to the plain language of the statute prohibiting the Forest Service from charging for parking or access or undeveloped camping, and the plain language of the statute prohibiting the Forest Service from charging an amenity fee at a site where specific amenities were not provided, Congressional intent and legislative history indicate that the Forest Service’s construction of the relevant statutory section would thwart Congressional intent and result in an absurd construction of the relevant statutory scheme. [decision p. 29]
This is a very important decision, with national implications. There are almost 100 places around the country where the Forest Service has created “High Impact Recreation Areas” or HIRAs. Within a HIRA they have been claiming the authority to charge a fee for any activity at all as long as the six amenities exist somewhere in the HIRA, no matter how scattered or how far away. This interpretation has resulted in visitors being charged fees to access millions of acres of dispersed undeveloped backcountry.
Judge Aspey says nix to all that.
Among other things, this decision renders moot the signs in the Red Rock Pass area that say you have to buy a pass to park anywhere on the National Forest, and makes it unlikely that the Coconino – or any other National Forest – can ever again successfully prosecute someone for not having a pass at trailheads or dispersed camping areas.
You can read more about the case, including all the legal briefs and the judge’s decision, at our website. For a direct link to the decision CLICK HERE.
Follow-up from the Western Slope NFC (slightly edited):
RED ROCK PASS DECISION STANDS FIRM
The Forest Service allowed the deadline for filing an appeal in the case of U.S. v Smith to expire without acting.
This confirms the decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Aspey that the Red Rock Pass fee area surrounding Sedona, Arizona is significantly out of compliance with federal law.
The Coconino National Forest responded with a press release that’s downright breathtaking in its audacity: “Red Rock Country Continues To Be A Fee Area”
The press release disregards the Judge’s description of the Forest Service’s interpretation of the law as “absurd” and simply lists all the – supposedly wonderful – ways they spend the money.
That’s a little like a thief claiming it’s all right to steal if you also donate to the United Way.
The Coconino “is reviewing the area to determine appropriate changes in light of the court’s decision” so perhaps – in time – they will get the message and bring the Sedona area into compliance with federal law.
Meanwhile, anyone – in Sedona or anywhere else – who receives a Violation Notice, and who was not using a developed facility, would be well advised to read the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, review Judge Aspey’s Decision, and consider whether their circumstances warrant asking for their Violation Notice to be dismissed, citing U.S. v Smith as precedent.
Much more about NRFs in Bill Schneider’s latest piece for NewWest.net: Forest Service Moves To Intimidation To Collect More Entrance Fees.
5. Great Old Broads Annual Online Auction
Through Sunday, November 14
(AUCTION ITEM)
Broads 2010
Wild for Wilderness
On-Line Auction is LIVE!
Browse & Bid Now
This is our 6th Annual On-Line Auction and there are more than 300 wild items perfect for holiday gifts, next year’s vacation, a good read, a meal, or a hike in the park.
There are adventure trips, outdoor gear, clothing, jewelry, artwork, restaurant certificates, books, and lots of vacation stays from DC to Moab and from Normandy to San Francisco.
This auction has it all! Auction runs through the evening of Sunday, November 14.
Please, share the link! Post it on your website and Facebook pages, Twitter it, e-mail it to your friends!
http://auction.greatoldbroads.org
The more you share, the more work we can do to protect and restore wilderness and wild lands!
Check in often! New items added daily.
IN THE PRESS
6. Links to Online Articles of Interest
NY Times columnist Timothy Egan’s reflections on the recent killing of a hiker by a mountain goat.