I'm reposting this for a friend from another board:

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We are not done yet!! This has been the "Local Meetings" for public input. The BLM is taking Public Input through the end of August, 2002.

I appreciate everybody that made it to the meeting and gave public input but . . . through 10 meetings we have had about 200 people give input, so far there are 3000 letters that have been submitted to the BLM.

Anybody that was unable to come to a meeting, please download this document:

Surprise.pdf (http://www.lttlbddy.com/albums/WC4WDC/Docs/)

fill it out and send it in to the BLM. This is your turn to be counted!! You may not get a second chance.

You have till the end of August, 2002.

Thanks

Steve G

PS If anyone need this document emailed to them let me know:

lttlbddy@aol.com

Question: On the form, what Environmental issues are "WE" concerned with?:confused:

The way I see it our only Concern is that we have access to Wheel/camp there.

Of course I don't want the place paved over... ... but that's not the issue. :usa:

just keeping it up.

Yeah i didnt really like the wording of that form, but it is what was given out at the meetings so what ever you have to say should be just fine on there.

Dallas

didn't like the wording either but I just said what I think.


DONE!!!

Originally posted by slorunner
Question: On the form, what Environmental issues are "WE" concerned with?:confused:
:usa:

My personal thanks; to everyone who attended any of the meetings!

The meetings are a real eye opener when you hear the anti-recreation position and reasoning during their statements. "We need a quiet place to go for solitude," and the 29,180 acres of adjacent Surprise Canyon Wilderness is not adequate?

The same views are heard at every public meeting, and they succeed at closing areas with no evidence regarding how it will change anything other than removing recreation from the area. Motorized Environmentalists (people like you and I) need to keep showing up and speaking at these meetings so the land managers realize they must work harder at cooperative recreation and reasonable habitat protections, rather than solve the conflicts with easy to manage closure and abandonment.

The Surprise Canyon public comments scoping includes a "written" comment period, more than the meetings, with comments accepted through August 31st. Written comments will be officially accepted for letters postmarked before August 31.

I found that the original three published scoping questions were mild leading questions (veiled accusations that OHVs were a problem for the canyon). The meeting "focus issues" however were less biased, more open-ended questions. The most recent six published question document available at the meetings however was even more biased (IMO) than the original formal three-question request (possibly biased to solicit environment problems rather than unbiased comments). We may not like it, but this is the way the questions are presented (for this issue and many others, until we can get our elected representatives to demand the staffing to be filled with more open-minded managers).

I can only speculate the wording of the leading questions is an attempt to gather a greater number of "environment concerns" opposing open vehicle access on Surprise Canyon Road, to sway the prefered management direction of the current 3000 comments received to date. This is why it is important to write pro-motorized "open access" comments even if the questions do not seem to support an answer that states you want maintaining motorized "open access" as the primary environmental concern.

Remember, open access motorized travel is legal and environmentally responsible for travel through critical habitat on an established road. Habitat impact on a road must be held to a different (less rigid) standard than impact in wilderness or previously untrammeled land. Surprise Canyon is the Surprise Canyon Road corridor; a legal established historic road.

Again, thanks for attending the meetings, and some sample written question, answers…

Happy Trails!

Q#1 sample answers:

The environment in question (Surprise Canyon) is a sixty foot wide historic road corridor located at the bottom of a canyon, and all environmental considerations must recognize the fact it is a road with historic legal public right-of-way provisions that must be respected.

Closed access is unacceptable because it violates the Mining Act of 1872 (RS2477) statute provisions, regarding a grandfathered the public right-of-way, with established motorized access on Surprise Canyon Road.

Limited access violates the intent of Congress to preserve the route as open to the entire public (motorized and non-motorized) when they designated the sixty foot motorized cherrystem road corridor through the Surprise Canyon Wilderness.


Q#2 sample answers:

My number (#1) environmental issue is to maintain public, motorized open access, on Surprise Canyon Road within the area of concern.

Preserving motorized public access in Surprise Canyon is the primary environmental issue because Congress has already ruled the need for exclusive area habitat protection is limited to the designated Wilderness outside the cherrystem Surprise Canyon Road corridor. While open access may not be the easiest to manage or integrate with all public concerns regarding the canyon the EIS must preserve motorized access in the canyon, as it's primary environmental objective, due to the grandfathered legal status of Surprise Canyon Road.


Q#3 sample answers:

Specific alternatives must incorporate both street legal motorized, and off-highway-vehicle (OHV) legal, access on Surprise Canyon Road.

Alternative access options must be included with a combined street legal and off-highway vehicle (OHV) motorized access alternative, and with separate individual (street legal only and OHV only) access alternatives. The EIS must include these three Alternatives for consideration.

Specific alternatives must be presented that mandate immediate motorized open access on Surprise Canyon Road, equal to that available before the temporary closure, even if more study is determined as a requirement in the final resolution.

Q#4 sample answers:

The motorized open access alternative(s) must be addressed due to the proximity of the established Surprise Canyon Road access corridor to the Surprise Canyon Wilderness, and the prohibition on establishment of wilderness buffer areas adjacent to designated Wilderness, specifically prohibited in the Wilderness Act of 1964.

Open access is the only route designation that fully supports both the recreation and preservation communities, by providing equal access to the entire recreational opportunity spectrum; including use of the road and the upper canyon as a recreation corridor and to provide access to a potential designated Wilderness trailhead.

The economic health of local business will be severely disrupted if motorized open access is not addressed as an Alternative.

Q#5 sample answers:

How does the BLM plan to keep Surprise Canyon Road open to the public with motorized "open access?"

Q#6 sample answers:

How will the BLM prevent future legal conflict stipulations from directing land management decisions that risk similar temporary or permanent closures of legal motorized rights-of-way?

Thanks for hookin us up with the answers Ed, you da man:D

top! Don't let this prized trail slip away- get off your ass and at least write a letter.

You don't have to use the form, you can write a letter in plain English.

Here is a sample letter (from a member of my club) that was printed in the In Gear (California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Club's monthly mag):

http://ca4wdc.com/nrc/jerrri'sreport.html

Cut and paste the above address, I can't get it to display as a link properly. It doesn't like the apostrophe.

While your on that site, feel free to Join CA4WDC (http://ca4wdc.com/member/member.html) if you are not a member. At the very least join Blue Ribbon Coalition (http://www.sharetrails.org/memindex.htm) .

Here is my list of memberships where is yours?

California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs
Blue Ribbon Coalition
United Four Wheel Drive Club
CORVA
West Coast Four Wheel Drive Club
Desert Dawgs
Scouts West
Early Broncos
Toyota Land Cruiser Association

Join something, then work with the members. There is strength in numbers!

Steve G

The more we learn, the more detailed we can be in our comments and recommendations to the BLM. A second, fifth, or fifteenth letter is still accepted, and content to help the BLM shape the alternatives is weighed more than simple anti-recreation solitude dribble.

Make sure the OHV drivers and M/C & ATV riders have a voice in the Surprise Canyon Road travel classification process! Make comments that you want "open access" to include legal OHV access as an Alternative.

Recommending the "open access for OHV's" alternate is important if you ever want to take an OHV "green sticker" rock buggy, motorcycle, or ATV up Surprise Canyon (legally drive a non-street legal vehicle). Request that the BLM include an "open access" alternative that includes legal passage for OHV "green sticker" registration vehicles on Surprise Canyon Road.

The value of allowing a child to drive is also only supported by the "open access" alternative (a "limited" to street legal only classification applies to the vehicle and driver).

I personally would enjoy (and do value) the opportunity to have my children to be able to actively learn responsible wheeling, by driving and winching an ATV up Surprise Canyon Road for a legal Backcountry Recreation experience. An ATV experience will provide both cultural and natural resource education, and self-confidance skills. I believe the resource respect and education learned through participation in backcountry driving is unparalled as a beneficial experience for our youth.

This activity was legal before the temporary closure, and will only be legal with an "open access" travel classification (and we have to tell the BLM to include it as an Alternative in the current scoping phase of the process).

We need your help. Let other OHV, ATV, and Motorcycle BBS's know we need the help to keep the road legally open to your choice of recreation!

Happy Trails!

I urge anyone who can link a copy of the NEMO EIR, Appendix T to do so, and urge everyone you know read the consideration factors establishing eligibility of Surprise Canyon Creek (the same corridoor as Surprise Canyon Road) for Wild and Scenic River designation.

If you can find a reference to a history of motorized travel on or even adjacent to Surprise Canyon Creek (or even a reference to Surprise Canyon Road) in the consideration, please point it out? The road is the creekbed, and has been since 1874.

This motorized recreation closure effort is on three or more fronts: the CBD litigation, NEMO, the EIS for the Route P71 classification (comments due August 30), and future challenges to the W&SR designation, and the Boxer Bill (and more is expected).

Is this important to you, to follow or comment, when you may never visit Surprise Canyon?

It is, if you value the educational value of reviewing the process the anti-motorized extreme will employ to close your favorite routes and trails (and even legal recorded roads like in this case). This process in Surprise Canyon is a blueprint of what tactics they will try to close trails adjacent to any designated Wilderness, and within 0.25 miles of any Wild & Scenic River designation.

PS: Jeri at Cal4Wheel needs any publications of established motorized travel in Surprise Canyon (print, web, club newsletters, and personal travel history).

Happy Trails!

Compared to the BLM release on the NOI Ammendment to the CDCA, the NEMO report make it sound like two different places (no)?

BTW, the entire Appendix T text is now posted on the Land-Use forum.

The folks who value Fordyce Creek better read the sections on how "eligible" sections of Wild & Scenic Rivers are managed (interum and long term, just like a WSA).

Happy Trails!

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Recreational: Surprise Canyon provides for an exceptional semi-primitive recreation
opportunity. The canyon bottom forms a corridor thru the rugged 29,180 acre Surprise
Canyon Wilderness. The eligible segments of Surprise Canyon offer outstanding hiking,
birdwatching, botanizing, photography and backpacking opportunities. The hike from
Chris Wicht Camp along this perennial stream and thru the narrow slot canyon to the
abandoned ghost town of Panamint City, is one of the most outstanding treks in the
California Desert.

Scenic: Using the Bureau's Visual Resource Management System, Surprise Canyon
received the highest Scenic Quality Rating available (Class A). This was a reflection of
the continued stream flow and riparian vegetation and the narrow slot canyon and
waterfalls. At the far eastern edge of this eligible segment, along the north wall of the
canyon, is a remarkable seep formation known as Limekiln Spring. This spring has a
shaded grotto that is covered with thick growths of maidenhair fern and moss and is fed
by a steady dripping curtain of water - a spectacular verdant feature set against the rough
and parched canyon wall.

Interim Protection: The WSR Act and Federal guidelines require Federal agencies,
upon determination of WSR eligibility, to provide interim protection and management for
a river's free-flowing character and any identified outstandingly remarkable values,
subject to valid existing rights, until such time as a suitability study is completed. Upon
study completion, the Federal agency (BLM in this instance) then makes a
recommendation to Congress, and Congress then acts on that recommendation.


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[CA-650-01-1220-JG-064B]


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Amendment to the
California Desert Conservation Area Plan and Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Surprise Canyon in Panamint Mountains, Inyo County, CA.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to 43 CFR 1610.2(c), notice is hereby given that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposes to amend the CDCA Plan (1980 as amended). The proposed amendment will establish or revise trail designations for off-road vehicles within the Surprise Canyon Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The authority to designate is in accordance with 43 CFR 8342. The proposals will pertain to public lands addressed by the California Desert Conservation Area Plan in Inyo County that lie east of Highway 178 and approximately 23 miles north of the community of Trona. The proposed plan amendment will include an EIS in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and CFR
1610.5-5.

The EIS will evaluate a full range of alternative means of access into the Surprise Canyon ACEC. During the 30 days scoping period, the public can assist the BLM in developing the range of alternatives that will be addressed.

DATES: The public is invited to submit comments on the scope of the plan amendment and EIS. Written comments will be accepted for 30 days from the publication date of this notice in the Federal Register. The specific date, time, and location of public scoping meetings will be announced by the Ridgecrest Field Office.

ADDRESSES: Scoping comments in response to this notice should be sent to Hector Villalobos, Field Manager, Bureau of Land Management, 300 South Richmond Road, Ridgecrest CA 93555, (760) 384-5405. Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be available for public review at the Ridgecrest Field Office during normal working hours (7:45 AM to 4:30 PM, except holidays), and may be published as part of the EIS or other related documents.

Individuals may request confidentiality. If you wish to withhold your name or address from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, you must state this promptly at the beginning of you comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent allowed by law. All submissions from organizations or businesses will be made available for public inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeffery Aardahl,
Bureau of Land Management, Ridgecrest Field Office, 300 South Richmond Road, Ridgecrest CA 93555, (760) 384-5420.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On May 29, 2001, BLM implemented an interim closure to all motorized vehicles on Route P71 in the Surprise Canyon Area of Critical Environmental Concern. The closure will remain in effect until the plan amendment is approved and implemented.

The following are preliminary issues identified:

(1)

The canyon area currently does not meet the BLM's minimum standards for a properly functioning riparian system due to soil erosion and streambed alternations caused by motorized vehicle use;

(2)

several federal and state sensitive plant and animal species that inhabit the area are being affected; and

(3)

value of the canyon area for recreation, including use of motorized vehicles.

The preliminary planning criteria include: (1) The CDCA amendment will be consistent with officially approved resource related plans, policies and programs of other Federal agencies, State and local governments, and Indian Tribes; (2) the amendment process and ORV trail designations shall be conducted in compliance with the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), planning regulations (43 CFR 1600), ORV trail designation regulations (43 CFR 8340), BLM manual guidance, and all applicable Federal laws affecting BLM land use decisions and ORV designations; (3) the planning process shall include an EIS with a biological evaluation prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of1969 (NEPA), the President's Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR 1500), and BLM guidance.

The public is invited to submit written information to the BLM that will be used to identify issues, concerns and opportunities related to various alternative means of access in the Surprise Canyon ACEC. Those members of the public who simply want to be placed on the mailing list for this project can make such a request in writing.

All such information and requests should be submitted in writing to:

Field Manager, Bureau of Land Management, Ridgecrest Field Office, 300 S. Richmond Rd., Ridgecrest, CA 93555, Attn: Resources Management Branch Chief.

Digital electronic photos and maps of the Surprise
Canyon area can be found at:

http://www.ca.blm.gov/ridgecrest.

Dated: April 12, 2002.
Alan Stein,
Acting California Desert District Manager.
[FR Doc. 02-13571 Filed 5-29-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-40-P