What’s happening? In October 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-82-20 committing the state to conserve at least 30% of its land and coastal waters by 2030. To help achieve this goal, the order created the California Biodiversity Collaborative, comprised of state agencies, non-governmental organizations, businesses, sovereign Tribal nations, academics, recreational users, and others. By February 1st, 2022, the relevant state agencies, in consultation with the Collaborative, must develop and report strategies to the governor of how to achieve the 30×30 target. What can I do?
Action Alerts
ACTION ALERT: K2 Gold and Mojave Precious Metals Town Hall Happening Wednesday, March 24th at 6:00 PM An opportunity to share your support for protecting Conglomerate Mesa with K2 Gold Questions and Mojave Precious Metals. K2 Gold and their subsidiary, Mojave Precious Metals, are hosting a virtual town hall Wednesday, March 24th, at 6 PM. We must rise up and stand together to protect Conglomerate Mesa. Now is the time to let K2 Gold know that mining at Conglomerate Mesa is not welcome! K2 is proposing to open up a wild and remote part of the west Mojave desert on…
Action Alert: Whitebark Pine listing under Endangered Species Act Submit your comments to encourage USFWS to list the whitebark pine and include the proposed critical habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is considering listing the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and has opened a 60-day public comment period which closes on February 1, 2021. The whitebark pine is an iconic conifer species of the Eastern Sierra occurring at high-elevation sites, generally between 9,000 and 12,100 feet. It is a special status species for the Inyo National Forest and there…
Protect Wildlife and Stop the Use of Harmful Rodenticides Friends of the Inyo joined with many other environmental groups in sending letters encouraging Governor Newsom (CA) to protect mountain lions, raptors, and other animals from being poisoned. 2014 California banned the sale of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides to consumers. Poisoning of mountain lions, raptors, and other apex predators continues as documented by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. AB 1788 was introduced by California State Assembly member Richard Bloom to place a moratorium on the use of these poisons by licensed applicators until review is completed by state agencies. The…
Alabama Hills National Scenic Area Draft Plan Environmental Assessment Make your vision for the future of the Alabama Hills heard! On July 8th the Bishop BLM Field Office released the Alabama Hills Draft Plan Environmental Assessment (EA). We are now in an active 30-day comment period that ends August 8th, 2020. In the month of July, there will be two virtual meetings where those interested can ask questions about the EA and share their insights. The virtual meetings will be held on the following dates. Friends of the Inyo will attend these meetings and work the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group…
ACTION ALERT: E-Bikes Comment Period Times continue to be tough and the Trump Administration is advancing their most controversial ideas for our public lands. As we track their work, we took notice of their most recent move to propose allowing motorized mountain bikes, or e-bikes, on non-motorized trails–trails that human-powered recreationists such as mountain bikers, hikers, hunters, and equestrians have fought for years to keep non-motorized. This change threatens decades of hard work to designate quality non-motorized trail opportunities in communities across the West. Adding insult to injury, BLM proposes to enact these changes with no environmental analysis under NEPA–despite…
Action Alert: Inyo County Road Maintenance and Motorized Mixed Use Comments are needed on Inyo County Road Maintenance and Motorized Mixed Use on National Forest Roads. On Jan 13, 2020 the Inyo National Forest provided notice that it is considering granting easements and special use permits to Inyo County for eight roads on the White Mountain and Mount Whitney Ranger Districts of the national forest. The roads considered for easements are portions of Death Valley, Onion Valley, County, and Foothill Roads. Roads considered for special use permits include Division Creek, McMurray Meadows, Coyote and Mazourka Canyon. This proposed action, if…
Action Alert: Alabama Hills Management Plan Scoping On the heels of the designation of the Alabama Hill National Scenic Area, the BLM will begin building out an Implementation Plan that will guide the future of this beloved piece of public land outside of Lone Pine. As stated in the legislation that designated the National Scenic Area in March of 2019, the BLM must “develop a comprehensive plan for the long-term management of the Scenic Area”. Management plan development under the National Environmental Policy Act begins with a process called “scoping.” Scoping allows the public and all interested parties to provide…
Friends of the Inyo and conservation groups around the county are fighting back against a terrible rule change that would fundamentally undermine the Forest Service’s NEPA policies and practices. Specifically, the proposed changes would create loopholes to increase the speed and scale of resource extraction, including logging and mining, while eliminating public awareness and input on up to 93% of proposed projects. Additionally, the Forest Service has proposed several new “categorical exclusions” that would allow the agency to move project planning behind closed doors by excluding the public from the decision-making process and eliminating any science-based review of impacts to water, wildlife, and recreation. Read…
The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest is considering reopening historic sheep allotments near Bridgeport, CA to cattle grazing. The project area covers roughly 20,000 acres of public land in the Cameron Canyon, Jordon Basin, Dunderburg, and Summer Meadows areas, west of highway 395 and south of the community of Bridgeport. Due to the listing of the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep in 1999 and the significant threat of disease transmission to wild sheep, domestic sheep grazing permits were cancelled in 2010 and 2014, respectively. After nearly a decade of recovery from grazing these meadows, uplands and riparian systems have been allowed to rest…