Bipartisan support for wilderness bill

By Ken Koerner, Staff
Inyo Register

U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon shares details of his wilderness legislation during a press conference in Bishop on May 23. Photo by Ken Koerner


Under bipartisan legislation recently introduced in both bodies of the U.S. Congress, more than 400,000 acres of wilderness in Inyo and Mono Counties and 45 miles of the Owens River Headwaters and Death Valley’s Amargosa River could have their wild heritage preserved.

In addition, there could also be another 40,000-plus acres of wilderness and several more miles of “wild and scenic river” protected in the northern San Gabriel Mountains in the Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valleys of Southern California.
During a press conference held Friday afternoon at the Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop, 25th District U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon announced the introduction of his House Resolution No. 6156 bill, written to provide this conservation protection.

“I am pleased that after years of working with local leaders, wilderness activists and recreational enthusiasts, we finally have a practical solution to preserving the wild heritage of the 25th Congressional District,” McKeon said. “I also want to thank Senator (Barbara) Boxer for playing such a critical role in crafting legislation that meets the needs of all the key stakeholders. With this legislation, we are increasing economic development by preserving land treasured by many and enhancing recreational opportunities in the area.”

Addressing the companion legislation that Boxer has introduced in the U.S. Senate, McKeon acknowledged that their sometimes “divergent” political perspectives did not impede their ability to forge a successful alliance to further this shared agenda.

“Working with Senator Boxer on this has really been encouraging. I feel that together we’ve achieved more than either of us may have initially anticipated would be possible,” McKeon said. “Barbara really wants to make sure that this bill will move forward and that we can accomplish this important goal for our constituents – and all those that visit this remarkable area.”

For her part, Senator Boxer’s office has released a statement mirroring her sense that a genuine consensus has guided this legislative effort.

“I am thrilled that Congressman Buck McKeon and I, together with countless local officials and residents, were able to forge a bipartisan compromise to protect these truly spectacular lands,” Boxer stated. “From the majestic High Sierra to the stunning White Mountains and their ancient Bristlecone Pine forests, to the beautiful northern San Gabriel Mountains, Californians will be able to enjoy this striking beauty forever. We will continue to work together to make sure that this natural legacy can be left to our grandchildren and their grandchildren.”

Boxer and McKeon’s Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act legislation will, if enacted, give wilderness designations – the highest level of protection and conservation for federal lands – to a total of 472,803 acres of public federal lands and 52 miles of wild and scenic rivers.

The tracts of public lands to be provided protection under the proposed legislation includes, according to an informational packet handed out by the California Wild Heritage Campaign:

• White Mountain Wilderness: America’s largest and highest desert mountain range, which contains the largest expanse of alpine tundra in western North America, the highest peak in the Great Basin, the second largest “unprotected roadless area” in the lower 48 states and is home to world’s oldest living trees, the ancient Bristlecone Pines.
  
• Hoover Wilderness Additions: The northern Hoover Additions (“west” and “east”) includes 12 miles of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and the headwaters of the West Walker River. The southern portion, mostly high plateaus rising above the west shore of Mono Lake, is home to a reintroduced population of the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep.
  
• Granite Mountain Wilderness: East of Mono Lake, Granite Mountain is a varied landscape that contains sage grouse, deer migration corridors, raptor nesting sites and wild horses.
  
• Owens River Headwaters Wilderness: More than 100 seeps and springs form the headwaters of the Owens River, just east of the San Joaquin ridge between Mammoth and June Lakes. Considered the most important Eastern Sierra river system, the area includes Glass Creek Meadow and the region’s largest old growth red fir forest.
  
• John Muir Wilderness Additions: The legislation would move the current wilderness boundary down from the crest to include more of the steep Eastern Sierra scarp.
  
• Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness: This area is located south of Palmdale/Lancaster on the north slope of the San Gabriel Mountains and includes 8,200-foot Mt. Williamson and the headwaters of Little Rock Creek.
  
• Magic Mountain Wilderness Noted as a “scenic backdrop to the Santa Clarita Valley, Magic Mountain’s chaparral-covered hillsides and live oak canyons drain into the Santa Clara River.”
  
• Amargosa Wild & Scenic River: The only river flowing into Death Valley, the Amargosa supports more than 280 bird species, including several which are identified as threatened or endangered.
  
• Owens Headwaters Wild & Scenic Rivers: The Owens River headwaters include Glass Creek, Deadman Creek and Big Springs, supporting one of America’s most noted and popular trout fisheries.
  
• Piru Creek Wild & Scenic River: Located northwest of Castaic, Piru Creek is one of the few year-round catch and release trout fishing streams in southern California.

According to information provided by both McKeon and Boxer, their bills, drafted to cover the above areas, have resulted from a unique collaborative effort based upon input from local community leaders, leading conservation groups, sportsmen, public lands access advocates and business owners.

Representative McKeon stated that he has been working to preserve and enhance recreational opportunities in the Eastern Sierra with these stakeholders since his election to office in 2001. With this bipartisan effort moving on parallel tracks in both bodies of Congress, he anticipates that such efforts will now be rewarded.

“I think she (Sen. Boxer) can definitely get this done (passage of her bill in the U.S. Senate) over there,” McKeon said, “and I think we can certainly get it done in the House.”

McKeon also noted his confidence that the joint effort will culminate in gaining support from the White House.

“I think that President Bush will clearly see the value in this shared bill for our District,” said McKeon, “and I absolutely believe I will gain his support in signing this well-designed legislation.”

McKeon, noting his recent successful interaction with the President, said, “I’ve been in the Oval Office on a couple of recent occasions, to witness President Bush signing bills into law that I’ve worked on just as hard – and for which I felt equally committed to their value.”

BLM offers divergent view of controversial mountain road

Descriptions and comments from environmental groups ‘misleading,’ say agency and advocacy group

Inyo Register
By Jon Klusmire

A dry creekbed that occasionally carries water from higher up on Furnace Creek and Furnace Creek Road at one of six locations where the road and creek cross on BLM land. Photo courtesy BLM

Repairing and opening a short section of Furnace Creek Road won’t be expensive, will maintain a historic vehicular access route in the White Mountains and will fulfill the multiple use mandate on Bureau of Land Management lands, according to the BLM.

The Bishop-based Advocates for Access to Public Lands applauded the BLM’s decision. The group also said its volunteers were more than ready to help complete any necessary work to get the road open.

And in the ongoing war of words about roads and access, the AAPL members said overheated rhetoric and factual errors about Furnace Creek and the decision to re-open the road distorted what was really happening on the ground and distorted what was a simple, common-sense decision by the BLM.

The recent decision to open about 3.75 miles of the road drew a vociferous and vehement response from environmental groups which had sued to close the road and force an environmental study of the impacts created by the use of the road.

If the decision stands, Furnace Creek Road would be re-opened from where it is currently gated to the border between BLM and Forest Service land. The road originates in Nevada and then crosses into California and Mono County.

Some of the comments were incorrect, said Dave Sjaastad, the BLM Ridgecrest Office team leader for Furnace Creek.

First off, Furnace Creek is not a “perennial” creek, he said, it is an “ephemeral” stream. That means water does not run down the full length of the streambed all year-round.

The Friends of the Inyo, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics all made statements in press releases or in interviews that said Furnace Creek was “a rare perennial desert stream,” to quote the Center for Biological Diversity.

While Furnace Creek does have water in it year-round at its higher reaches, such as where it moves through Forest Service Land, Sjaastad said only seasonal flows reach the BLM-managed portion of land. And, he noted, those flows only come during wet winter years.

Even after the record winter of 2005-06, five of the six stream and road intersections on BLM land were completely dry, Sjaastad said. Plus, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board classifies Furnace Creek as “an ephemeral stream,” he noted, meaning it does not run year-round for its full length.

“It’s a seasonal stream, at best,” said Dick Noles of AAPL, and for the environmental groups to say otherwise is “misleading.”

Another bit of mis-information corrected by Noles and AAPL member Dave Mattovich was that Furnace Creek is not in a Wilderness Study Area. Instead, the section of creek in the Forest Service land is “cherry stemmed,” meaning the WSA boundary goes around the creek and road, but does not include it.

The 2002 lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity temporarily closed the road until the BLM could conduct an Environmental Assessment. That assessment showed “really there was no significant impact to reopen the road,” said Sjaastad. “It was a pretty straightforward decision.”

The road has been in use for about 100 years, said Mattovich, and that “historic use” played into the BLM’s decision, noted Sjaastad. Not only had the road been used for a long time, keeping the road open provided access to BLM and Forest Service lands, and “promotes the multiple use mission of the BLM,” he added.

As for the places where the road crosses the streambed, Sjaastad noted that virtually all of the six stream crossings rarely have water in the road and stream at the same time.

The work to “harden” those crossings will involve putting rocks in the streambed/road, noted Greg Weirick, of AAPL, and some other well-known techniques to protect the stream and keep the road from washing out.

There are “thousands” of instances where roads cross dry streambeds in the region governed by the BLM Ridgecrest Office, noted Sjaastad, so the Furnace Creek situation is not unusual or unique.

The BLM will consider the work on the crossings as “routine maintenance,” he noted. “There will be no major construction.”

And the BLM is counting on the volunteers from AAPL to help do the work. “It won’t cost BLM a thing,” promised Noles, who said the group was ready and able to work with BLM on the job.

Sjaastad said the decision to open up the drier portions of the road on BLM land makes sense for several reasons. First, the length of road provides access through the somewhat barren, arid section of the canyon to the higher, greener areas of Furnace Creek.

“It just seems like a natural border” between the BLM lands and the Forest Service lands, he said.

Noles concurred that “the Forest Service part is wet.” The debate over that part of the road is completely different, he noted, with one plan being to construct a trail alongside the stream, but not allow a road.

The Forest Service has not presented a timelime for its final decision about the future of the road or possibly a trail on its portion of Furnace Creek. The BLM’s decision should not be construed as an endorsement of opening the road on Forest Service land, Sjaastad noted.

Noles stressed the BLM decision had nothing to do with the remaining stretch of road on the Forest Service land, even though the environmental groups made it sound like the whole road was now being prepared to be opened.

There is a reason, according to Noles, the environmental groups are trying to make the BLM decision spill over onto the Forest Service section of Furnace Creek: “They have an agenda to close the road so they can say this should be a Wilderness Area.”