• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Reopening Surprise Canyon discussed at Congression Hearing -- Jon Crowley report

Ed A. Stevens

NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
Reopening Surprise Canyon discussed at Congression Hearing

I was at the Congressional hearing yesterday (see article below). Both Congressman Pombo and Radanovich are on our side and need our support. Lot's of discussion about reforming the ESA and the impact of Wilderness Designation. Very cool that these guys are making an effort to right some wrongs in the way public land is being administered.

Supervisor Michael Dorame from Inyo County was one of the 12 that testified. He specifically asked that action be taken to reopen Surprise Canyon. If you get a chance, give him a call (760-876-5900) and thank him for standing up for our right to off-road at Surprise Canyon and throughout Inyo County. Now would also be a good time to drop Congressman Pombo and ask for his help on Surprise Canyon. Here is a link to his website:

http://www.house.gov/pombo/pombo.htm

Looks like all house websites are down for the moment, but that is a good link.

I also attended an off-road fundraiser for Pombo (organized by Roy Denner of ORBA). Great turnout, over $30k raised from off-roaders. The political arena is where we need to take our fight and it takes $$$$. Groups like ORBA are really clued into this an realized that since Pombo is chair of the Resources Committee, he can make a lot happen for public land use. This next election is the time for all of us to get involved (time and/or $$$) to get behind candidates that will help us.

If you own an off-road business, please consider supporting ORBA.

Jon Crowley

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories...es19.a263c.html

Desert land battle discussed
HEARING: A shrinking area and growing demand for its use are topics of debate.

01:48 AM PDT on Tuesday, August 19, 2003

By JENNIFER BOWLES / The Press-Enterprise


Finding enough space in the California desert for endangered species, off-roaders and other activities is only going to get more difficult, the state's top leader for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management testified Monday.

With a handful of land-use plans in the works, "the desert is being allocated," Mike Pool said. "And the landscape is finite so the pressures will continue."

Pool was one of about a dozen officials, off-roaders and other desert users who were allowed to testify at a
congressional field hearing at Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in San Diego about the tug of war in the desert and the increasing population that's fighting over it.

The most contested patch has been a 40-mile stretch of sand dunes that rise up 300 feet in Imperial County. The land, coveted by off-roaders, is home to the Peirson's milk-vetch, a plant that the federal government has designated as threatened and environmentalists want protected.

Environmentalists and the congressman who represents those dunes -- the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area -- objected that they weren't invited to testify.

Those who were allowed to testify said they were being denied access to the desert in the name of
endangered-species protections and wilderness designations.

As a result of not being invited to testify, environmental groups boycotted the hearing, but Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, showed up about halfway through and complained that it wasn't a true hearing.

"It leads us to believe that you are afraid of debate," Filner told the two California congressmen, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, who were running the hearing. "You are not going to get good public policy as a result."

Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, said the Democrats on the committee were notified of the hearing and had the option of inviting people to testify.

Pombo said that despite the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, which provided more protections to the land and the imperiled species, the same battles continue over public lands.

"Pretending that mankind is not part of the environment does not work," he said. "Restricting access to humankind doesn't work either."

Pombo said the best chance of making progress is to "find common ground to promote a balanced solution we can all live with."

Many who testified said that lawsuits and regulations aimed at protecting the desert tortoise and other imperiled species have hampered traditional desert uses.

San Bernardino County Supervisor Bill Postmus said cattle-grazing is disappearing, and no new mining operations are coming into the county. The three largest contributors to the county's tax base, he said, are mining companies.

"Neither BLM nor the Fish and Wildlife Service have taken any positive actions to deal with the main causes of tortoise decline -- disease and predation," he said. "Instead they continue to promote further land closures."

Sheri Davis, director of the Inland Empire Film Commission, said regulations and fees are pushing film crews away from the desert. In one instance, she said, a Warner Bros. production had to pay $170,000 to conduct environmental studies and hire certified desert tortoise monitors.

"It's not surprising," she said, "that filming of several major features and television products have moved to Australia and dressed the sets to appear to be the California desert."

Steve Thompson, regional manager of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency is doing all it can to study the tortoise and abide by the federal Endangered Species Act. He also said the agency is reviewing a 1994 recovery plan for the reptile that many have complained is outdated.

Jennifer Bowles can reached by email at [email protected].


__________________
Crowley Offroad
 
Thanks, Ed.


Tim B.
 
I've done this trip three times. Definitely worth the trip. "IF" it ever gets opened again, I would suggest doing it as soon as you can. Never know what may happen again, so don't miss your window of opportunuty! I've never gone for Paniment Valley Days, but I can only imagine what a traffic jam would be like on the falls.

Dan
 
Back
Top