Posted on 09/24/2004 4:12:27 PM PDT by SierraWasp
Bear River Canyon, Placer County -- Framed by a crystalline stream and steep slopes carpeted with ponderosa pine and black oak, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday authorizing the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a new state agency dedicated to preserving the 25 million acres of forest, meadow and craggy granite peaks that comprise John Muir's "Range of Light."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Call me crazy, but setting aside the last wild places hardly strikes me as an uber-socialist plot.
Afterall, I think a Walmart at Lake Yellowstone might turn a buck or two, but I'm glad they aren't allowed to find out.
I lived in the sierras as a kid, it is a wonderful place but needs protection from destruction, specifically from the threat of these people:
SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - On the brink of the summer tourist season, officials here are confronting an ominous reality - multimillion-dollar stands of marijuana tended by armed growers who have menaced visitors, killed wildlife, polluted streams and trashed pristine countryside.
Marijuana cultivation in the park has increased steadily over the last 10 years. Since 2001, however, the number of plants seized in the state's oldest national park has jumped eightfold.
The pot fields are financed by the Mexican drug cartels that dominate the methamphetamine trade in the adjacent Central Valley, drug enforcement officials say. The officials say there is evidence that the cartels, in turn, have financial ties to Middle Eastern smugglers linked to Hezbollah and other groups accused of terrorism.
"This is the most serious and largest assault on this park since we took control of the land in the 19th century," said Bill Tweed, Sequoia's chief naturalist. The park was established in 1890, one week before Yosemite was designated a national park.
"To have people out there showing up with AK-47s to greet visitors - that's not how it's supposed to be in a national park. The premise of the park as a special place is now in trouble. So is the idea that you can put a 'fence of law' around a national park." He added that the park is "not immune from the ills of society."
The dimensions of the problem began to unfold last fall when park officials destroyed a marijuana crop valued at nearly $150 million scattered over remote mountainsides.
"Our belief is that the Mexican drug organizations have gone heavily into marijuana operations," said Ron Gravitt, special agent in charge at the Sacramento headquarters of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
"The overhead is much lower than running a methamphetamine lab. They are taking the money from meth and putting it into expanding marijuana growing."
Most of Sequoia's marijuana stands are hidden in the steep Sierra Nevada foothills in the lightly traveled southwestern reaches of the park. However, large plots have been discovered a dozen miles from park headquarters. Sequoia and adjacent Kings Canyon National Park are managed as one park encompassing 1,350 square miles.
Dennis Burnett, Park Service law enforcement administrator in Washington, said crime has been on a "constant march" into national parks. Almost 60% of the marijuana plants eradicated in California last year were found on state or federal land.
Drug operators target these places, Burnett said, because they know there are too few rangers to patrol vast parks.
"We cannot keep up with the drug smuggling and smuggling of undocumented [illegal] aliens that comes across the border through parks on a daily basis. We are aware of the connection with drug cartels. We had a ranger shot and killed last year - that was a drug thing. It's pretty outrageous," he said, referring to an incident in Arizona.
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pot14may14.story
May 14, 2003
That isn't what this is about, or I'd agree with you!
This is about setting aside the last private properties if at all possible as most of it is already "protected" in public ownership. However, I'd like to ask you... Do you prefer using public sector restrooms, or privately owned/maintained restrooms?
And the alternative is what, exactly?
Most of the Sierra Nevada is National Forest under the management of the U.S. Government. The parcels of land that are state control are the few game preserves, ie; above Sonora along the Stanislaus, and private property, ie. ranches or mines. This excludes the Indian rancherias.
So, what is it they are going to protect? Is this just another land grab?
Poor question--there are privately maintained gas station
rest rooms (say in AZ or NM) which you would have to
pay me to use a second time...but some of the
publicly-maintained rest rooms at State Parks in Northern MN
(ah, Minnesota!) are a dream (except for all of the MN
state birds buzzing around).
Sometimes I'm blind but I can't find the story at the link you provided -- just the wonderful item about SchwarzenKennedy's signing the strictest auto emissions regulations in the world.
The people behind this whole deal are NOT Republicans of ANY stipe, or flavor!!! They're certainly not "Conservatives," and certainly not "fiscal conservatives!"
The people behind this are the left-most of CA leftists and are to the left of a large percentage of Democrats in this state!!! The rest of us are getting madder than Zell!!!
Hey, I agree with all of that.
This state is in deep, deep trouble. And, worse, California often leads the nation. In this case, off of a cliff.
FYI:
http://www.theunion.com/article/20050408/NEWS/104080107
Sierra license plate up for vote
Dave Moller, davem@theunion.com
April 8, 2005
A California license plate devoted to the Sierra Nevada could soon get legislative approval to help finance the new Sierra Conservancy.
State Assemblyman Tim Leslie's bill, AB 84, would establish the special license plate. It would initially cost $50, added on to normal fees and costs, and then $40 per year to renew.
The bill was passed 12-1 in the Assembly Transportation Committee earlier in the week and awaits an April 25 hearing in the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources.
Leslie, R-Tahoe City, was responsible for establishing the conservancy with Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, last year. It was signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger on the banks of the Bear River near Colfax last fall.
The conservancy will vie for state, federal and private funds for conservation projects in the Sierra and watershed-saving efforts. The full conservancy board has yet to be picked, and Nevada City is actively seeking to be the organization's headquarters.
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