Jes said:
????
Shure has been quiet on the land use front...
Where's Ed been anyway? 
Jes
Very busy, fiscal year end, and tempremental customers.
The DAC meeting heard speakers from the property owners in Panamint City, requesting a resolution of their requests for a key to the locked gate (owners access right is specifically identified as allowable in the Closure Agreement, and S-21, and RS2477). The BLM is stonewalling all requests (ignoring the established property rights law).
One person's comments can be summarized in short: that the BLM should consider action may be taken even if a key is not issued, due to the condition of the road and gate after the recent rain in the mountain range (you could almost drive over the gate due to the excessive sediment deposits).
The result appears to much more complex than the immediate confusion and quiet conference the BLM Director (Lynda Hanson) held with the speaker after the public comment period ended. The BLM employed a bulldozer the very next day to uncover the sediment deposits on both sides of the gate, to assure the gate remains impassable without a key. This work altered the road, the creekbed, and the direction of the stream flow. It also appears that in their haste, the BLM failed to file the proper permits with the Army Corps of Engineers allowing them to operate heavy equipment and to alter a stream in a creekbed. CORVA filed a request for the COE to investigate this lack of concern for regulations and procedure.
This hasty action by the BLM raises many questions as operation of heavy equipment in the area may need to be regulated by other concerns: is it within an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), or an area that has undertermined designated Wilderness boundaries (possibly locating the equipment in Wilderness), or in an area under consideration for Wild and Scenic River eligibility? What consideration for the road and creek near the gate has the BLM established to justify their actions that resulted in rerouting the creekbed and maintenance of the road? Similar concerns are being raised with Inyo County (who has legal juristiction with the road).
Lots of questions ... in the long process to demand ethical treament of public (and private owner) access rights to travel Surprise Canyon Road.
I'll be out of regular touch until mid October.
