2 New National Monuments Proposed

[Dan]

I say again...

Feinstein’s bill will stop all renewable energy development and the proposed 29 Palms Marine Base expansion into a “not that remarkable” and mostly vacant desert from the eastern boundary of the Marine Base, all the way to the Colorado River, 70 miles away.

And it will block any new mining in a mineral rich portion of the desert that has been actively exploited by sizable Borax and Salt mine operations for decades, gold too. And, there is even a limited amount of agri-business in the Cadiz valley east of Amboy, south of a busy railroad.

If Feinstein gets this through, all of the green energy projects, the Marine Base expansion needed to prepare our forces for fighting in the Middle East and every other concern in need of desert land will, by necessity, look to the other side of the Base for accommodation… at huge public expense.

It will devastate the communities of Johnson Valley, Landers and Yucca Mesa (collectively known as Homestead Valley). The near by Town of Lucerne will be similarly impacted.

The diverse recreational opportunities we now enjoy in Homestead Valley will be lost.

Supporting businesses, Gas Stations, Restraints and Grocery Stores will be adversely affected as will the more specialized suppliers of all that recreational equipment, a huge industry.

Despite Sandman's opinion, rural Homestead Valley offers LEGAL OHV access to businesses and residences via privately maintained (dirt) roads from a grand assortment of exciting “LEGAL” BLM trails surrounding these communities. Those trails would undoubtedly be sacrificed to the aforementioned energy conglomerates and related infrastructure if Feinstein denies them the less encumbered land east of the base.

That would be bad enough but there’s more… …namely the proposed, and problematic, Marine Base expansion. Virtually every off-roader in the Nation and all the Global Rock Crawling organizations are aware and concerned about the Military’s expansion needs and the interest they have shown in our open recreation area as one of their proposals.


Passage of Feinstein’s bill would totally eliminate any possibility of the Pentagon expanding the 29 Palms Marine Base into the Afghanistan like badlands that are the Sheep Hole Mountains east of the Base. That would virtually guarantee the loss of the Johnson Valley Open Recreation area.

The Johnson Valley Open Recreation Area, west of the Base, managed by the BLM, is used extensively by the public and offers a broad range of recreational opportunity but of particular note is that it purports to be the largest OPEN OHV area in the nation!

A lot of good Folks, from concerned citizens and various organizations, to the Marines and their liaisons, have worked very hard, for a very long time, to find a workable solution. One possibility the Marines were considering was expanding the base eastward in order to avoid conflict in the Homestead Valley. Feinstein’s Bill completely removes that possibility from the table!

Additionally, her Bill identifies other places in Southern California for designations that will make them, basically impossible to use as well. And she wants all that included in this massive and discriminatory (MAD) regulation plan.

We need more land locked away from intelligent productive use like we need this economic crisis to continue. That’s exactly what would happen too. Has anyone noticed, we can’t even afford to manage the vast tracts of land we’ve already set aside?

Surveying, mapping, signage, general maintenance, enforcement of the restrictions, associated administrative bureaucracies and so on, ain’t free!

We are broke (in case you haven’t noticed) so should we borrow, just a little more, from Folks that will never share our vision, China for instance, or the Middle East? Or, should we put these resources to work.

What happens when we can no longer repay our enemies? Does that prospect worry anyone?

It’s a catch 22 that makes no sense. We indebt ourselves in order to lock away the very land our children will need to have in use (producing renewable energy for instance) in order to repay the debt we incurred by locking the land away in the first place. I think it looks and quacks like stupidity. Don’t you?

What’s it going to take to get our National organizations, those in favor of America’s Independence, to join us? We need to convince Congressional representation in every State that Feinstein’s bill will hurt a whale of a lot more than the good people of California.

Well said, Mike.

[MMM]

sandman here we go once again. OHVs are in my opinion NOT STREET LEGAL AND WOULD BE FORBIDEN IN ALL NATIONAL MONUMENTS. END OF STORY. There is nothing added in this bill only restrictions. The four areas proposed are not listed or show where they might be or how big they are. Interesting, she is saying "trust me". BULL. This bill must be defeated and Fienstine kicked from office.

Mike