California officials push bill designating northern state wilderness

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 7/22/04 | Erica Werner - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A sweeping wilderness bill affecting 300,000 acres of Northern California forests, mountains and coastline is needed to shield some of the region's most spectacular areas from development, California lawmakers said.

"The area is absolutely beautiful, it's breathtaking, it needs to be protected," Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said Wednesday at a Senate Energy Committee subcommittee hearing on the legislation.

Thompson's Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, sponsored in the Senate by California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, would designate 300,000 acres in California's northern coastal counties as wilderness lands. The areas include portions of the Mendocino National Forest and the Six Rivers National Forest as well as a long stretch of undeveloped beach and coastal bluffs in Humboldt and Mendocino counties.

It would also preserve 21 miles of the Black Butte River.

All of the affected areas are in Thompon's 1st Congressional District that includes all or pieces of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties.

Feinstein and Boxer also testified in support of the bill.

"This bill is a small but important step in protecting some of these areas," Boxer said.

A Humboldt County official testified in support of the bill, but opposition came from Don Amador, Western Representative of the BlueRibbon Coalition, a national recreation group that opposes the bill fearing it could close off roads to mountain bikers. The bill's authors say that wouldn't happen.

Mark Rey, the Agriculture undersecretary who directs U.S. forest policy, also said his department has concerns about some areas in the bill, including a portion of Six Rivers National Forest that has been designated as at high risk for fire. He said the department would work to amend the bill to ensure it allows for needed fire management activities and response during fires.

Under the wilderness designation, the areas covered in the bill would be off-limits to industrial or mechanized uses, including off-road vehicles and mountain bikes, but hunting, fishing, hiking and horseback riding would still be permitted.

[NormsRevenge]

This is separate from the Sierra Conservancy legislation now working its way thru Sacramento, if Im not mistaken.

[hedgetrimmer]

This land MUST BE PROTECTED! We politicians will never let another human have access to this land unless they are politicians like us, or they run the conservancy that we hand select to profit from this theft. America is not for Americans! The citizen harms the environment and must be stopped at any cost!!

[ridesthemiles]

Yes, It is separate.
This bill would cause a severe drop in the tax intake for these counties, and they are poorly funded NOW because of vast holdings of public land. If this passes and WILDERNESS status is pronounced for these mountains, then NO COMPETATIVE event can be held. This would include equine events, mountain bike events, running events, etc. The people who attend, crew, compete and promote such events on PUBLIC land ( for a hefty fee, BTW) spend lots of money in the local areas. This boost to the economy would vanish with the stroke of a pen.
This is an old fashioned LAND GRAB.
Stop it in it's tracks NOW.
Thompson is working AGAINST his constituents. He should be recalled.
Boxer and Feinstein have proven once again they are traitors to the citizens of California. They live in the high rises of the big cities. What difference does it make to them? Logging has vanished in these counties with short sighted legislation based on phoney science. This is a death knell for residents and has all the stink of the Nature Conservancy behind it. They then come in and buy up large tracts of land and sell the land in large parcels to their high roller supporters.

[sergeantdave]

but hunting, fishing, hiking and horseback riding would still be permitted.


And disabled people, pregnant women, small children and aging veterans will get there how?

Oh, I forgot. If you're not a 25 year old Sierra Club member you don't count.

The American With Disability Act needs to go to court and stop this crap. Equal access for all on all federal land.

[tahiti]

"Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, sponsored in the Senate by California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, would designate 300,000 acres in California's northern coastal counties as wilderness lands."

U.S. Constitution

Article I, Section 8 (Powers of Congress), Cl 17:

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever,...over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings:

Has the state of California sold this area in question to the our federal government?

If not, this legislation would have no jurisdiction with the boundaries of a sovereign state.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[SierraWasp]

Hey Grampa! DING! DING!! DING!!! DONG!!!! GONG!!!!!

[SierraWasp]

Just like the Phillipeans knuckling under to terrorists... We do NOTHING when the Governor sucks up to GANG-GREEN with the Sierra-Nevada Conservacancy and here they come... riding on his coat tails doing more of it over on YOUR side of CA where you like to fly fish, my FRiend!!!

Now will you and other staunch Republicans join me in stopping both of these land-grabbing attrocities??? I would welcome your chiming in to my rather tiresome lonely vigil against this abject folly!!!

[Grampa Dave]

You act like this is new.

The Green Jihadist Eco Terrorists have been trying force all people out the area just north of Arcata to the Rogue River for decades.

Thompson is a pro Islamoterrorist/Green Jihadist. He was one of the three congressits who visited and suckled at the $oddomite's knees just before we regime changed him.

However, he is untouchable with the money from the elite left wing limo driven wineos and the green trash voters from Arcata to Davis.

Our current congress will not approve this. It is just a show and tell show for the green voters for Thompson, Boxer and Finestein.

[Southack]

"Thompson is working AGAINST his constituents. He should be recalled. Boxer and Feinstein have proven once again they are traitors to the citizens of California. They live in the high rises of the big cities. What difference does it make to them?"

It makes all the difference in the world.

Unbeknownst to most, California's Democratic Party is at war with itself.

Local and county Democrats, you see, provide most of your services and are under most of the scrutiny by your local (read: small papers and TV) news media...but the statewide Democrats in Sacramento want to raid all of the property taxes that are due to those local and county governments.

That fight for Dollars (which equals power) has broken out almost into the open now. The Dems at the Capitol are battling for more and more of those local funds, and all sorts of power-plays are going on now because of that fight.

This land grab, for instance, will further prevent local governments from obtaining property taxes in the future. No development and no commercial operations equals no revenue, after all.

So by the terms of the internecine battle among California Dems, a "win" for this bill means a loss for local Democrats.

Oh sure, you lose out too, as does the whole state...except for the Dems at your state Capitol. They get more power and leverage because they just beat the local Dems again. The more that they beat your local Dems, the more money that they get in future fights.

6 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[Grampa Dave]

The reality is that President Bush is about to reopen logging in many of the areas closed by the Green Rats during the Clinton years and the roads to get to the timber and bring it out.

The Green rats are whining and moaning and our walk on the water conservatives are trashing GW again for doing nothing.

The reality is far different:

Bush plan drops logging ban for national forests (Declares all-out war on trees everywhere)
Associated Press ^ | Tuesday, July 13, 2004


Posted on 07/22/2004 12:19:56 PM PDT by presidio9


Environmentalists are blasting a Bush administration proposal to lift a ban on logging in remote areas of national forests, saying the move ignores popular support for protecting forests.

The plan announced Monday would allow logging by permitting roads to be constructed in national forests. Governors would have to petition the federal government to block road building.

"When the Forest Service originally proposed protecting these special places to hunt, fish and camp, the millions of public comments received were overwhelmingly supportive," Idaho Conservation League spokesman John Robinson said. "There's no reason to drag out this fight."

The rule would replace one adopted by the Clinton administration and still under challenge in federal court. It covers about 58 million of the 191 million acres of national forest nationwide.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, visiting the state Capitol in Boise on Monday, argued that the administration's new approach will end the legal uncertainty surrounding the Clinton administration's attempt to protect forests as it was leaving office in January 2001.

Veneman said the new plan gives governors a chance to weigh in on how the roadless land in their states should be managed -- something Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said was long overdue.

[SierraWasp]

"You act like this is new."

Well... It was the first time I heard about this Thompson/Fiendswine/Bicher turd in the punch bowl over your way. This one may be "show and tell" for them, but the SNC (Schwarzenagger-NegativeRevenue Conservacancy) is fast becoming a REALITY!!! So don't brush it off so cavalierly without a second thought, please...

[marsh2]

Boxer has a similar bill that spills into my district. I believe this takes land that is already federaly owned and managed mostly for multiple use and changes the designation to wilderness. It would not change the tax status (currently next to nothing) but it would prohibit any mechanized equipment, new mineral development/grazing or logging.

In my area, there were local plans for mountain bike trails and some slabs for summer tent cabins for hunters in areas Boxer wanted Wilderness. A designation would have made them off limits to these uses.

Also, there would be no ability to build roads or take mechanized equipment in to fight fires.

Our local paper (Pioneer Press) did a series on the influence of the Mexican marijuana cabal on the envirionmental movement, with its resultant push to place forest areas off limits. We have a significant cabal presence in my District, which neighbors areas in this bill. Things that make ya go hmmmmm......

[o_zarkman44]

designates ripe new areas for wildfires. loss of local control and tax revenue. shoot those residents in the foot so they leave. then the land grabbers can have it all for the benefit of WHO?? land is no good if it isnt used.