crusty1007
06-05-2007, 10:50 AM
what I recently recieved:
"Act now to protest the BLM's decision to open Furnace Creek to off-road vehicle use!
Last fall, along with thousands of other conservationists, you wrote the Bureau of Land Management asking it to protect the White Mountains and the fragile riparian ecosystem of Furnace Creek from off-road vehicle damage and road construction. We need you to speak out once more to protect these special places.
Despite overwhelming public opposition to the plan to develop this unique oasis into a road, the Bureau of Land Management has approved a proposal to construct a new road through the heart of Furnace Creek. This new road would cut across the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area and invite motorized vehicles into other wilderness-quality lands of the White Mountains.
We can still fight this, but we need your help. Right now your voice is more important than ever if we are to protect Furnace Creek.
You can help protest the decision by telling the BLM to repeal the road-construction plan. It will take mere minutes and the cost of a stamp for you to have a voice in fighting for lasting protection of the creek and its wilderness.
Furnace Creek is a rare desert wetland in the White Mountains, America's largest desert mountain range. The creek's riparian ecosystem of cottonwoods and willows provides potential habitat to endangered southwestern willow flycatchers and other rare and imperiled species, including the Panamint alligator lizard and the Mono Basin sage grouse.
This endangered creek and the wildlife that depends on it need your help. So please take a moment to mail the sample letter to the address below. The deadline for all protest letters is June 8th, 2007.
Please note that the BLM will take your concerns more seriously if you include a few sentences expressing your personal opinion or experiences in the White Mountains, Furnace Creek, or with wilderness and desert ecosystems or off-road vehicles in general.
Contact the BLM to submit an official protest on the decision to open Furnace Creek to off-road vehicle use!*
Please mail a personalized letter or the attached sample letter below to the following address:
U.S. Department of the Interior
Director, Bureau of Land Management (210)
Attn: Brenda Williams
P.O. Box 66538
Washington, D.C. 20035
Telephone: (202) 452-5045
Deadline for all comments is Friday, June 8th, 2007
* Please note that you must have previously commented on this issue to the BLM in order to submit an official protest.
Questions? Contact Chris Kassar, Wildlife Biologist, Center for Biological Diversity, ckassar@biologicaldiversity.org.
More Furnace Creek information and photos: http://www.friendsoftheinyo.org" target=_blank>www.friendsoftheinyo.org (under News & Issues).
Read the Finding of No Significant Impact & see more pictures at: http://www.endangeredearth.org/orv/" target=_blank>www.endangeredearth.org/orv/.
Sample letter:
June 1, 2007
U.S. Department of the Interior
Director, Bureau of Land Management (210)
Attn: Brenda Williams
P.O. Box 66538
Washington, D.C. 20035
Re: Protect Furnace Creek and the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area
Dear Ms. Williams,
I want to once again express my support for protection of the rare desert riparian ecosystem of Furnace Creek and the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area (WSA). Please consider the following comments as a protest of the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Proposed Plan Amendment for the Furnace Creek Road released on May 10, 2007 by the Ridgecrest Field Office of the BLM.
I am writing to ask you to overturn the proposed adoption of Alternative 4 and reject the FONSI. Instead, I urge you to adopt a plan amendment that will keep the route closed to motorized vehicles and keep it protected from new construction. The decision, including the FONSI, is wrong for the following reasons:
1) The proposed new road and parking area would be built inside the Congressionally created White Mountains WSA, violating federal and state water quality laws and facilitating illegal route proliferation into the WSA. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) requires that WSAs be managed to preserve their wilderness characteristics and clearly prohibits motorized vehicles and new road construction in these areas. The Furnace Creek canyon is narrow, and the impact of the decision to construct a new road intrudes far into the WSA, thereby violating FLPMA.
2) The assessment failed to demonstrate the need for a road through Furnace Creek. There are no private lands or other motorized access needs through Furnace Creek. Nor is there any need for additional motorized vehicle routes in this area. More than a thousand miles of open roads already cross through the Inyo National Forest and Ridgecrest Field Office of the BLM.
3) The assessment failed to consider that building a road through Furnace Creek would lead to unauthorized off-road vehicle use in the Creek, the WSA and the Forest Service-recommended wilderness in the White Mountains. Thus, the FONSI is not based on a complete analysis of all the far-reaching impacts. Reopening this area to motorized vehicles would create an attractive nuisance, encouraging additional habitat damage from route proliferation as well as additional ORV conflicts with other visitors. The assessment also failed to demonstrate that the BLM or Forest Service would have sufficient funding or staff to effectively monitor and enforce limits on motorized vehicle use in this fragile creek and the wild lands that surround it.
4) The proposed road will significantly impact the creek, the riparian corridor, and the rare and sensitive wildlife and plants that depend on these public lands. The BLM is charged with protecting these sensitive resources, and its failure to do so will violate federal laws. The BLM knows that resuming ORV use in Furnace Creek would be devastating to the creek, the riparian woodlands, and the species that depend on this fragile habitat. The preferred alternative, therefore, was to designate the road as CLOSED and allow nature to continue to restore this unique riparian corridor. The release of a FONSI contradicts the evaluations presented in the environmental assessment as well as common sense.
5) The assessment failed to adequately consider impacts to wildlife, riparian values, water resources and water quality. The ill-conceived proposal to construct a road with 14 stream crossings along 4.5 miles of Furnace Creek is a major action on public lands that requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The BLM's failure to provide an EIS is a clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Management Policy Act.
I urge the BLM to properly steward the wilderness character, lands and riparian habitat of the White Mountains by maintaining closure of Furnace Creek to motorized vehicles and by adopting an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan that designates Furnace Creek as CLOSED to motorized vehicle use.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
__________
Full Name and Address
CALIFORNIA WILDERNESS COALITION | 1212 BROADWAY, SUITE 1700 | OAKLAND, CA 94612
EMAIL US AT: info@calwild.org | TEL: (510) 451-1450
(c)2001-2005 CALIFORNIA WILDERNESS COALITION "
"Act now to protest the BLM's decision to open Furnace Creek to off-road vehicle use!
Last fall, along with thousands of other conservationists, you wrote the Bureau of Land Management asking it to protect the White Mountains and the fragile riparian ecosystem of Furnace Creek from off-road vehicle damage and road construction. We need you to speak out once more to protect these special places.
Despite overwhelming public opposition to the plan to develop this unique oasis into a road, the Bureau of Land Management has approved a proposal to construct a new road through the heart of Furnace Creek. This new road would cut across the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area and invite motorized vehicles into other wilderness-quality lands of the White Mountains.
We can still fight this, but we need your help. Right now your voice is more important than ever if we are to protect Furnace Creek.
You can help protest the decision by telling the BLM to repeal the road-construction plan. It will take mere minutes and the cost of a stamp for you to have a voice in fighting for lasting protection of the creek and its wilderness.
Furnace Creek is a rare desert wetland in the White Mountains, America's largest desert mountain range. The creek's riparian ecosystem of cottonwoods and willows provides potential habitat to endangered southwestern willow flycatchers and other rare and imperiled species, including the Panamint alligator lizard and the Mono Basin sage grouse.
This endangered creek and the wildlife that depends on it need your help. So please take a moment to mail the sample letter to the address below. The deadline for all protest letters is June 8th, 2007.
Please note that the BLM will take your concerns more seriously if you include a few sentences expressing your personal opinion or experiences in the White Mountains, Furnace Creek, or with wilderness and desert ecosystems or off-road vehicles in general.
Contact the BLM to submit an official protest on the decision to open Furnace Creek to off-road vehicle use!*
Please mail a personalized letter or the attached sample letter below to the following address:
U.S. Department of the Interior
Director, Bureau of Land Management (210)
Attn: Brenda Williams
P.O. Box 66538
Washington, D.C. 20035
Telephone: (202) 452-5045
Deadline for all comments is Friday, June 8th, 2007
* Please note that you must have previously commented on this issue to the BLM in order to submit an official protest.
Questions? Contact Chris Kassar, Wildlife Biologist, Center for Biological Diversity, ckassar@biologicaldiversity.org.
More Furnace Creek information and photos: http://www.friendsoftheinyo.org" target=_blank>www.friendsoftheinyo.org (under News & Issues).
Read the Finding of No Significant Impact & see more pictures at: http://www.endangeredearth.org/orv/" target=_blank>www.endangeredearth.org/orv/.
Sample letter:
June 1, 2007
U.S. Department of the Interior
Director, Bureau of Land Management (210)
Attn: Brenda Williams
P.O. Box 66538
Washington, D.C. 20035
Re: Protect Furnace Creek and the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area
Dear Ms. Williams,
I want to once again express my support for protection of the rare desert riparian ecosystem of Furnace Creek and the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area (WSA). Please consider the following comments as a protest of the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Proposed Plan Amendment for the Furnace Creek Road released on May 10, 2007 by the Ridgecrest Field Office of the BLM.
I am writing to ask you to overturn the proposed adoption of Alternative 4 and reject the FONSI. Instead, I urge you to adopt a plan amendment that will keep the route closed to motorized vehicles and keep it protected from new construction. The decision, including the FONSI, is wrong for the following reasons:
1) The proposed new road and parking area would be built inside the Congressionally created White Mountains WSA, violating federal and state water quality laws and facilitating illegal route proliferation into the WSA. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) requires that WSAs be managed to preserve their wilderness characteristics and clearly prohibits motorized vehicles and new road construction in these areas. The Furnace Creek canyon is narrow, and the impact of the decision to construct a new road intrudes far into the WSA, thereby violating FLPMA.
2) The assessment failed to demonstrate the need for a road through Furnace Creek. There are no private lands or other motorized access needs through Furnace Creek. Nor is there any need for additional motorized vehicle routes in this area. More than a thousand miles of open roads already cross through the Inyo National Forest and Ridgecrest Field Office of the BLM.
3) The assessment failed to consider that building a road through Furnace Creek would lead to unauthorized off-road vehicle use in the Creek, the WSA and the Forest Service-recommended wilderness in the White Mountains. Thus, the FONSI is not based on a complete analysis of all the far-reaching impacts. Reopening this area to motorized vehicles would create an attractive nuisance, encouraging additional habitat damage from route proliferation as well as additional ORV conflicts with other visitors. The assessment also failed to demonstrate that the BLM or Forest Service would have sufficient funding or staff to effectively monitor and enforce limits on motorized vehicle use in this fragile creek and the wild lands that surround it.
4) The proposed road will significantly impact the creek, the riparian corridor, and the rare and sensitive wildlife and plants that depend on these public lands. The BLM is charged with protecting these sensitive resources, and its failure to do so will violate federal laws. The BLM knows that resuming ORV use in Furnace Creek would be devastating to the creek, the riparian woodlands, and the species that depend on this fragile habitat. The preferred alternative, therefore, was to designate the road as CLOSED and allow nature to continue to restore this unique riparian corridor. The release of a FONSI contradicts the evaluations presented in the environmental assessment as well as common sense.
5) The assessment failed to adequately consider impacts to wildlife, riparian values, water resources and water quality. The ill-conceived proposal to construct a road with 14 stream crossings along 4.5 miles of Furnace Creek is a major action on public lands that requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The BLM's failure to provide an EIS is a clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Management Policy Act.
I urge the BLM to properly steward the wilderness character, lands and riparian habitat of the White Mountains by maintaining closure of Furnace Creek to motorized vehicles and by adopting an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan that designates Furnace Creek as CLOSED to motorized vehicle use.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
__________
Full Name and Address
CALIFORNIA WILDERNESS COALITION | 1212 BROADWAY, SUITE 1700 | OAKLAND, CA 94612
EMAIL US AT: info@calwild.org | TEL: (510) 451-1450
(c)2001-2005 CALIFORNIA WILDERNESS COALITION "