For those of you who have not seen the facebook post – we need your involvement this week.
If you enjoy off-roading with your family, camping, hiking, hunting, etc and you love your freedom than YOU need to make a phone call. We are calling it 7 days to Save the Hammers, (Johnson Valley OHV Area) It doesn’t matter where you live, work or play, these phone calls MUST be made. Please get involved.
Whether you live in Canada or Columbus, your voice matters. Let the representatives know how important JV is to you and your family. Stress the economic impact on not only the high desert communities but the small business owner as well. We need every Off Roader starting August 6th to participate in a targeted outreach. One phone call or fax a day is all we ask. Talking points can be found below the phone list. Congress is on recess this week, they should be in the District Office. Every Off Roader must participate!
For more information please visit facebook.com/SaveTheHammers
Monday August 6th, 2012 Please call:
Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) or
District Director Tevor Daley
Los Angeles 310-914-7300 fax 310-914-7318
Tuesday August 7th, 2012 Please call:
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA 22) or
District Director Vince Fong Bakersfield 661-327-3611 fax 661-637-0867
Wednesday August 8th, 2012 Please call:
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA 25) or
Deputy COS Bob Haueter
Santa Clarita 661-254-2111 fax 661-254-2380
Thursday August 9th, 2012 Please call:
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA 41) or
DistrictDirector Rachel Khalili
Redlands 909-862-6030 fax 909-335-9155
Friday August 10th, 2012 Please Call:
Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA 45) or
District Director Marc Troast
Palm Desert 760-320-1076 fax 760-320-0596
Monday August 13th, 2012 Please call:
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA 44) or
District Director Jolyn Murphy
Corona 951-784-4300 fax 951-784-5255
Tuesday August 14th, 2012 Please Call:
Rep. David Drier (R-CA 26) or
District Director Mark Harmsen
San Dimas 909-575-6226 fax 909-575-6266
Johnson Valley OHV Area Talking Points
ISSUE: Marine Corps plans to acquire 160,000 acres of BLM land next to Marine Corps Ground Air Combat Center (MCGACC) Twenty Nine Palms eliminates most of the land available under the California Desert Conservation Plan (1980) available for to off highway (OHV) recreation impacting OHV activity and the local and national economy.
Johnson Valley OHV recreation area is 189,700 acres that develops at least 300,000 visitor days per year and is world renowned as an OHV recreation area..
Economic impact: BLM estimates $71.5 million annually into the local economy and $191.2 Million into the national economy.
USMC has a new requirement for MEB level maneuver training and intends to acquire 160,000 acres of this the land from BLM and conduct live fire on all but 40,000 acres – permanently closing access to 120,000 acres.
Local authorities and State authorities and thousands of citizens are opposed to the transfer of this land.
USMC is well into the EIS process and could issue a Record of decision as early as this summer.
Options other than those in the Draft EIS need to be considered:
Permitted use of land from BLM (like at other BLM sites used for training)
Other BLM land in the region (not necessarily adjacent).
More time needed for deliberation and seeking options on both sides and with the State.
Not urgent since Marines have been deploying to combat for 10 years without this extra range – should have more time to seek a broader solution set.
Once live fire starts the land is permanently lost. We need to find accommodation for OHV needs and that will require BLM and State officials.
The US House of Representatives passed an Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that requires, prior to transfer, the Secretary of the Navy to provide a report on the new Marine requirement for this land and on the economic impact and on other potential solutions to the elimination of recreational land.
In spite of this Congressional interest, the Secretary of the Navy just entered the final Environmental Impact Statement into the Federal Register and can now within a short time announce his “Record of Decision” to acquire this land.
The intent of the House of Representatives was to slow this down to have a better look at it. The Navy has run roughshod over the House and ignored their intent. The House should be angry. We are.
Please call the Secretary of the Navy and tell him to stop this process until all the stakeholders – including federal legislators – have had their voices heard.
If the Marines went through 10 years of war without this extra land, it surely could wait a few months until all interests could be accommodated.
Instead they should trash the more pristine desert to the east. Great alternative.
Please… last chance!
Before 8/27/12 please be sure to email a protest letter like the attached. Email the Marines at http://www.marines.mil/unit/29palms/las, Greg Imus at http://www.imusforcongress.com, and on Google email: Assemblyman Paul Cook, Senator Diane Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, Conressman Jerry Lewis, and Assemblyman Tim Donnelly. Please also forward this to any of your contacts willing to help us.
Thanks,
Bill Lembright
Lucerne valley
IF the 29 Palms Marine base must expand, go east. Going west is HIGHLY DISRUPTIVE to several desert towns and communities.
The Johnson Valley Open Area is the largest and premier OHV area in America.. The public has successfully used it for years under the stewardship of the BLM and is unwilling to give it up.
The Marines’ response that smaller businesses might fail because of the expansion’s adverse impact is true and likely; but, that is unacceptable. To survive, our local economies need outside income from OHV traffic and events, such as King of the Hammers, motorcycle and auto racing, camping, exploring, and the commercial filming industry. The area is also rich in minerals, amazing geological features, and history that attract MANY tourists, miners, and scientists. In the final EIS (Economic Impact Study) the economic impact was very poorly dealt with and unacceptable.
Noise pollution and ground shock from bombing and live fire will drive residents away and devalue our properties.
If 20,000 letters of protest weren’t enough, what will it take to get this BAD decision reversed?
Bill Lembright
Note: Bill owns the grocery Lucerne.
“…more pristine desert to the east.”
Please Terry, that is simply not the case.
The desert immediately east of the base is already being actively exploited and has been for many decades.
There are large borax, salt and gold mining operations.
Some small, very specialized agri-business.
There are large ARCO storage tanks and an oil and gas pump station.
There are buried, cross country, high pressure oil and gas pipe lines with permanent 50 foot wide excavation scars and a plethora of large signage with location numbers that aid aerial patrols and maintenance needs, they also warn against digging. One line belongs to ARCO, another to PG&E and they traverse the land in different areas and in different directions.
There is an LADWP electrical sub-station at Ward Valley with a transmission line running to Iron Mountain where a small community of workers man large pumps that send Colorado River water down an open canal across the desert – eventually to Los Angeles.
There are abandoned, half scavenged, trans-continental communications pole lines built in the 30s or 40s with broken cross arms and sagging conductors. There are outdated micro-wave horns, deteriorating phone co. buildings no longer in use and there are recently installed cell-phone towers that are soon to be obsolete.
Edison distribution lines interrupt the natural landscape. Dirt roads and other infrastructure associated with the use of the area do too.
A very busy rail-road runs through it.
General Patton scared much of the land during tank and artillery training for the 2nd World War. Google Earth and see!
There are at least 20 or 30 rotting wood bridges that will never be replaced in that little used portion of route-66 that was circumnavigated decades ago when I-40 was built.
There are miles and miles of man made diversion dikes out through the desert. They direct food waters to those now dilapidated bridges, all part of a once grand design to save a road built across a flood plane, a road whose only viable use today is the ongoing exploitation of the area. None of it is needed by the traveling public any more and it is seldom used for that.
Furthermore, to the WEST is “NOT JUST AN OFF-ROAD AREA” it is used by many interests and it is estimated that an expansion into the Johnson Valley’s “OPEN” Recreation Area will cost our local economy more than $70,000,000.00 annually.
So I wish you had saved the ignorant comment Terry. This is an important matter and you are not helping!
Please everybody… do it right now. There is still a chance but it’s the last one.
Thanks!