DOI and BLM will oversee more land grabs by energy companies.
Among the many applications to aquire public land for solar and wind power projects are thousands of acres near Giant Rock and all the land between spy mt. and goat mt. many off roader and camper use Giant Rock and are able to access Johnson Valley OHV area easily. Public Comments are currently being accepted in regards to the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement persuant to the NEPA act for evaluating the indepth study in Southern California. You can get more information and fill out a online comment sheet at HTTP://solareis.anl.gov I encourage everyone to take a look at these maps and turn in a comment sheet. Deadline for public comments is July 30, 2009 You can also mail them to: SOLAR ENERGY PEIS - ARGONNE NATIONAL LABRATORY - 9700 S. CASS AVENUE - EVS/900 - ARGONNE, IL 60439 If you check out the history of Giant Rock you can agree there is also some cultural value to this historical site.

Ray,

Thanks for the heads up. I looked at the link quickly but it's getting late and I'm in the middle of moving into my new house this weekend. I'll get into it more and be sure to send a comment before the deadline.

I cross posted your post onto the FOJV and Rock Brawler boards. I'll do what I can to get as many FOJV contacts the info so we can work together on this.

Donald

I'll spread the word also. Steve

On it!


That place does have lots of history...as far back as the local Indians used GR as an annual meeting place. GR had petrogliphs on it at one time, till it got vandalized with paint :mad3:
And the history of the alleged German spy that lived under the rock. Not to forget about the runway and restaurant as well as all those wacky UFO conventions.
I also have a bunch of established/documented bolted climbing routes in the area ranging from 5.9 through 5.11
I used to camp out there when I lived in OC in the 70's...w/ our dirt-bikes.
The place is cool and well worth saving.

Sent: SOLARM60015.

For some history:

http://www.lucernevalley.net/giantrock/

That is the best in-depth article I have ever read on Giant Rock, and I've read quite a few. Nice find Rich!

I've eaten in that restaurant many times back in the early 70's.
We'd come up w/ our bikes and only bring beer and gas, and eat all our meals there. The restaurant had a bunch of framed UFO photos on all the walls, but it wasn't hard to tell that they were just blurred tossed lamp-shades and hub-caps :laughing: Them were the days!

SOLARM60021

How else can I help Ray?

Dave Cole

Giant rock is a great place to play and ride. I grew up there and even saw the inside of the rock before it was filled in a number of years ago. We had parties there, rode there, camped and had all kinds of fun. My family now ride bikes, buggies and jeeps out there all the time as my inlaws live just right up the road. It would be a travesty if it were closed to the public and taken over by industry.

SOLARM60022

Solarm60023

Please let me know if I can help in anyway other than submitting my owmn comment.

SOLARM60027

I hate seeing local trails and public land (especially an area with such history) go the way of the dodo.

SOLARM60028


I don't mind alternate power, but it should never take away anyone's right to enjoy public lands as they are.

SOLARM60029
done

Solarm60030

Solarm60031

Sent comments down range....thanks for the heads up Dave and Kurt.

Solarm60036

Done

Solarm60052

SOLARM60059

Although i'm afraid it won't do any good it's worth a shot I guess.

Solarm60072

Solarm60081

solarm60083

SOLARM60082

I have lived up in the high desert area for a year now, and there are PLENTY of areas where they could conduct projects like this. Areas so far away from anything and anywhere anyone ever goes, they would never even be seen. Why do they have to keep on imposing on Public land?

Solarm60085

Solarm60086

Solarm60093

I dont know exactly how effective my comment will be but I tried. I would also like to point out, that I happened upon this, I will xpost this on the other boards I post on, but we need to make it easier to learn about and act against. If one didn't happen upon this board, how would one find out about such things? Most of the dudes i wheel with, aren't involved enough in the sport to learn about land grabbing/ closures to be able to do anything about it. I know its our responsibility to educate ourselves and I believe we are getting there, but i think we need to take smaller steps such as maybe writing a template for the common passerby to simply write his name, customize a portion of a template and submit. Drawing massive attention to these types of issues by whatever means necessary would also help greatly. Maybe someone could design a flyer that I could post in a couple of our local fab shops to promote a website, or this website, dealing with trail closure, land grabbing and the like. I appreciate that there are people out there who care enough to make threads like this, thanks a lot OP..

Solarm60100

Solarm60101

Anyone have any more details? Please post 'em up in this thread, I wouldn't mind sending in subsequent comments.

Received an email today. There is an option somewhere on the site to sign up for email alerts.

Anyway, this is what it said. Basicly they are extending the comment period and revised some maps. I have not looked at the new maps vs the old maps to see if anything really changed.

Update on Solar Energy Study Area Scoping Period and Revisions to Maps/Website Data

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (the Agencies) will soon announce in the Federal Register the extension of the public scoping period regarding solar energy study areas to be analyzed in their joint Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to Develop and Implement Agency-Specific Programs for Solar Energy Development (Solar Energy Development PEIS). E-mail notification will be provided when the Federal Register notice is available.

The solar energy study areas are identified in maps showing 24 tracts of BLM-administered land selected for in-depth study for solar development. The maps are available on the Solar Energy Development PEIS Web Site at http://solareis.anl.gov.

Please note that several changes have been made to the information that was made available on the Web site on June 30, 2009. These changes include the following:

* The existing designated corridors on the Solar Energy Study Area maps for California have been updated; several corridors previously shown in error have been removed.

* The acreages for three study areas (Mason Draw and Red Sand in New Mexico, and Escalante Valley in Utah) have been decreased to reflect small additional areas that were excluded.

* A Google Maps application and a Google Earth KMZ file to aid in viewing the study areas have been provided under the Solar Energy Study Area Maps page at http://solareis.anl.gov/eis/maps/.


For More Information
********************
To learn more about how you can participate in the PEIS process, visit the "Getting Involved" page of the Solar Energy Development PEIS Web Site
(http://solareis.anl.gov/involve/index.cfm)

If you have questions or need more information, contact the Solar Energy Development PEIS Webmaster at solareiswebmaster@anl.gov

Please forward this message to any party you feel may be interested in the Solar Energy Development PEIS.


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Solarm60121