Keep The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan Intact! Comments Due March 22nd The Department of Interior issued a federal register notice opening a 45 day comment period “on increasing opportunities for increased renewable energy development, recreational and off-highway vehicle (OHV) access, mining access, and grazing” This amending of the DRECP is a slap in the face to eight years of collaborative work, research and public outreach to balance renewable energy and conservation in the California Desert and identify areas most suitable for development. The Department of Interior said in a press statement it is exploring changes to the plan at…
Updates
***New Development*** The Inyo County Board of Supervisors will be discussing their draft letter to the BLM regarding the re-opening of the DRECP. The Board is currently scheduled to discuss the topic on March 20, 2018 at their Board of Supervisors meeting. Here are some talking points to help you prepare for the meeting: 1. Thank the Board for its stance taken at the February 27 meeting to oppose re-opening the DRECP. 2. Remind them that they wanted to insure that their letter sent a clear signal and not mixed messages, and the current letter does not clearly oppose re-opening. The draft’s…
HR 1349: The “Wheels Over Wilderness” bill, introduced by Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA), carves a gaping loophole in the 1964 Wilderness Act. The bill would open America’s 110 million acres of wilderness areas to mountain bikes, an unprecedented assault on wilderness areas across the country. For five decades Congress has resisted efforts to undermine the Wilderness Act by opening wilderness areas to uses that are currently prohibited. These efforts have failed due to strong public support for wilderness. With less than 3% of the land in the continental United States designated as wilderness, there are plenty of lands— including public lands—that…
Conglomerate Mesa On November 14th, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors discussed a letter to the Bureau of Land Managment regarding the Perdito exploratory drilling project at Conglomerate Mesa located in the southern Inyo Mountains north of Highway 190. Over 50 concerned citizens attended the meeting with 20 residents giving oral comments to the Board in opposition to the project. After discussion, the Board modified an existing letter to exclude any support of the project’s four alternatives and simply offered corrections to the BLM regarding omissions from the Environmental Assessment. The comment period for the project closed on Monday, November…
National Monuments update President Trump traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah on December 4th to announce and sign two proclamations shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments. Grand Staircase was shrunk by 48 percent, with just 1 million acres remaining. Bears Ears was decimated, its 1.35 million acres reduced by 83 percent to just 228,700 acres. Lawsuits followed immediately in the Federal District Court of DC. The following day Secretary Ryan Zinke’s report on the National Monument Review was finally released. The report recommended the reduction of Cascade Siskiyou National Monument however there are no specifics on the boundary…
HR 3990 This bill, sponsored by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) to gut the Antiquities Act, advanced out of the Natural Resources panel on a party-line vote in October. The bill will likely not go to the House floor for a vote until early 2018. Please continue reaching out to members of Congress to educate them about this bill and what it could mean for new and existing monuments. Read more about the bill on govtrack
HR 2936 The deceptively named Resilient Federal Forests Act passed the House on Nov 1st (232-188). The bill will now move to the Senate for a vote where it is expected to receive increased scrutiny. Please contact your Senators to express your opposition to this bill. November update: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
ACTION ALERT: CONGLOMERATE MESA THREATENED BY GOLD MINING Conglomerate Mesa is, once again, under attack from mining interests. This is the first roadless area in California targeted for development under the Trump administration. We are not being alarmist when we say these exploratory drill sites are only the beginning. The ultimate land management goals of the current administration are explicitly extractive: mine the land until it stops making money, and then abandon it with as little regulation as possible. Conglomerate in a natural, wild state is precious and irreplaceable for the following reasons: • Conglomerate Mesa is a spectacular wilderness…
National Monument Update: The Washington Post has published a leaked copy of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s National Monument report. Read it here. It has the following suggestions: Bears Ears National Monument, Utah: Shrink (separate reports suggest by as much as 1 million acres) the National Monument and allow ‘traditional’ uses like mining, logging and drilling in protected areas. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah: Shrink the National Monument and allow ‘traditional’ uses like mining, logging and drilling in protected areas. Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, Oregon and California: Shrink the National Monument and allow ‘traditional’ uses like mining, logging and drilling in protected…
The White House stalls on releasing Zinke’s report on National Monuments All summer long we have been working with our state and national colleagues to pressure Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to listen to the 2.8 million comments received (99% in support) of saving national monuments and the defense of public lands. Thursday, August 24 was Zinke’s deadline for his final report on National Monuments and the White House is still keeping everyone in the dark about their plans. We did learn that Zinke is recommending to drastically reduce at least four national monuments. You can read Department…