More Desert Wilderness ( Campaign to protect )

Desert Protective Council. ^ | February 23rd, 2009 | Larry Hogue

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Earlier this month, we asked you to call your U.S. Representatives to show support for the national Omnibus Public Lands Bill, containing wilderness desig- nations for over 700,000 acres in California. (If you haven’t called your representative yet, please do so now.)

Now we have an opportunity to get even more of California’s wild desert places formally designated as wilderness — the highest protection our public lands can receive from the federal government.

All you need to do is write a quick, heart-felt note to Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentioning why you love wild desert places in general, and mentioning a few places in particular. Full details and instructions from the California Wilderness Coalition’s Laurel Williams are below. Deadline: tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, Feb. 24. (Please note that your letters should be sent to Laurel at lwilliams@calwild.org, not directly to Sen. Feinstein. Laurel will hand deliver them to the Senator.)

We have an incredible opportunity this week to hand deliver letters to Senator Dianne Feinstein, asking her to protect some of the really special areas that were left out of the California Desert Protection Act. In order to convey the importance and urgency of this effort, I need your help. Please take 2 minutes and write a personal, unique letter that I can bring with me. Letters from people who know and love the desert will make a big difference on what she decides to do.

Here are some talking points, but these letters should come from the heart - if you have visited any of these places, would like to someday, or just like the idea that they exist - this is the time to wax poetic about why you love the desert and want to keep it wild.

• Address your letters to Senator Feinstein, US Senate, Washington, DC

• Mention that there is a land grab happening in the desert right now.
• Between military expansion, OHV use, and renewable energy development, the desert is about to be completely carved up.
• Now is the time to set aside our remaining wild places for protection, or they could be lost forever.
• Name the specific places being proposed for wilderness: Malpais Mesa additions, Slate Range, Great Falls Basin, Surprise Canyon, Golden Valley additions, Big Morongo, Cady Mountains, Avawatz Mountains, Kingston Range Additions, Castle Mountains, Soda Mountains, Deep Creek, Trilobite and Clipper additions, Milpitas Wash, Vinagre Wash, Palo Verde additions, Indian Pass additions
• Many of these areas include lands purchased specifically for conservation
• Many of these pristine places are immediately threatened by development that could easily be done in a more appropriate place
• Tell Senator Feinstein that you would like her to craft legislation to protect these places
• Make sure to include your name and address so that she knows you are a real live person

Please email me your letter ASAP so that I can deliver it (don’t send it in directly, or it may not get read in time): lwilliams@calwild.org

Thank you in advance for all your help!

–Laurel

Photo of Picacho Wilderness by Nick Ervin

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[SoConPubbie]

Sorry, but the government already controls too much land in the US.

No more taking of land by any government as far as I am concerned.

[CottonBall]

Between military expansion, OHV use, and renewable energy development, the desert is about to be completely carved up.

Sounds like more of liberal exaggerations in order to get an emotional knee-jerk reaction. I lived in the desert both in Texas and California for years - and drove through the Arizona and New Mexico deserts to get back and forth countless times. None of them seemed even very inhabited, but less 'used up'. And I didn't realize Obama was going to expand our military. /s

[calcowgirl]

Dang commies!

Government should not own/control land!

[maggief]

One of the projects is a 500-megawatt solar array that would be erected on 5,130 acres northwest of Ludlow. The site is between the Kelso Dunes Wilderness area and the Cady Mountains, identified by the federal government as a potential wilderness area.

“This one would be devastating,” Myers said, because it would divide the two protected areas.

The applicant is BrightSource Energy, which has offices in Oakland. Company spokesman Keely Wachs said Feinstein’s letter hasn’t changed BrightSource’s intentions.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/environment/stories/PE_News_Local_S_solar21.3cf231d.html

[Mike Darancette]

So now we have determined that alternative energy generating sites are harmful to the environment?

[caseinpoint]

Dear Senator Di-Fi,

This is a quick heartfelt note to you to urge your actions to protect our desert wildlands. As one of your constituents, my life is constantly stressed as I sit in the Bay Area traffic jams, breathing carcinogenic fumes and watching the fuel gauge go down without getting anywhere. An hour and a half later I arrive home to my suburban home where PG&E is trying to regulate the thermostat and the grass is drying up for lack of water. I am not on particularly good terms with my neighbors, mainly because our homes are so close together we can almost hear each other’s low-flow toilets flush again and again.

So it is such a relief to know I can esape once a year to the wilderness and readjust my attitude towards God’s (oops, I mean Gaia’s) good earth. After a half day of hiking into the desert I can truly begin to understand the wisdom of not building more dams or roads, of not drilling for oil, of not offing my obnoxious neighbors. Of course, I am grateful that I can afford the hiking clothes and camping equipment and that I’m not differently-abled as far as mobility is concerned. I might feel different were I not young and healthy but I know science is working on that.

So keep up the good work, Di. We are counting on you to keep our greedy natures from getting the best of Gaia.

Caseinpoint

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From that link:

Plenty of other land that has been damaged by farming and other uses can be used for renewable energy projects, include swaths of property along Interstate 15 between Victorville and Barstow, Myers said.

The only farming I know about is along the Mojave river...lots of folks clustered there...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Between military expansion

That is likely the Fort Irwin expansion...Desert tortoise territory.

[Free State Four]

Make sure to include your name and address so that she knows you are a real live person

Hey, all the dead, voting Democrats have a name and address. How is this any proof?

[NormsRevenge]

Will DiFi and her econut purists prevail?

Will RFK Jr. have to just ‘Moveon’ from this and many other projects he is pushing for BrightSource?

Stay tuned. Same bat channel same moonbat station next time. (if the solar array is working, that is. ;-)

We got us some Land Wars on top of Water Wars in the West..

[NormsRevenge]

aRnold was already frustrated last year that he could not get the solar and wind farms built quickly down there and now DiFi .. who he could have run against and maybe beat next year .. I would prefer Devore personally (pro nuke, pro offshore drilling) but we know how things go for decent folk in the GoP these days at the polls in many California districts and state offices..

arnie was even willing to push waivers on enviro groups and litigation that makes getting anything done anywhere in the state is a certainty.

[CottonBall]

Are there plans to expand Fort Irwin?

But I think the point is, the desert in the SW is HUGE. We’d have to not only expand every single military installation in the desert, but add many more plus throw in some big cities in order for the desert to be ‘completely carved up’, as this knee-jerk article suggests is happening as we type ;)

[count-your-change]

I've designated my back yard a wilderness area. No construction of sheds, fences or pools will be allowed nor will any motorized machinery be allowed. The plant life will be allowed to return to its natural state and all wildlife welcomed.

If anyone would like to contribute to this non-profit project please send cash, respectable denominations and amounts only.

[calcowgirl]

LOL. I like that you can keep your sense of humor, Norm.

Maggief... thanks for digging up the facts.

[NormsRevenge]

I like that you can keep your sense of humor, Norm.

FoR
Now
:)

[CottonBall]

maggief: One of the projects is a 500-megawatt solar array that would be erected on 5,130 acres northwest of Ludlow

Mike: So now we have determined that alternative energy generating sites are harmful to the environment?

Norm:aRnold was already frustrated last year that he could not get the solar and wind farms built quickly down there and now DiFi ..

Is Ludlow in CA?

CA (don't know about other states) has a law that says if a company builds a solar plant on a property, they have to purchase and hold pristine 4 times the amount of similar land that they've disturbed. So Mike is right. It makes building one of these alternative energy sites very, very difficult and not financially sound at all. They (libs) supposedly want these plants built, but put their ridiculous environmental-wacko regs on them that end up preventing it. What idiots!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Is Ludlow in CA?

Yes...some god earthquakes out in that area....

1999 Hector Mine earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember it well....felt it real good in Victorville.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Typo:

some good earthquakes...