It has come to my attention that the Federal Government is up to their old tricks once again. This time they are going to try to close most of the desert areas of Southern California, a portion of Southwestern Nevada, and eventually Western Arizona.
First a Bit Of History. The original Desert Environmental Plan proposed protecting much of the desert from wanton destruction but still leaving virtually all of the old roads and trails open for use. This did not go far enough for the radical environmental movement and they found their champion with Allen Cranston, the then senator from California.
Cranston pushed hard for the plan until he became embroiled in the savings and loan fiasco and was forced out of office. Enter Diane Feinstein. She jumped on to the bandwagon and with a senator from California now championing the proposal it passed and became law. Environmental groups were ecstatic and supported Feinstein any way they could. It is always about power and money.
The feds learned several lessons from the process. One was that opening the process for public input guaranteed that the majority opinion would show that the most were against the closures. Enter President Clinton. Under his watch, the BLM decided to bypass the laws and arbitrarily close many of the old roads and trails across the desert. No public input was asked and no one was allowed to challenge the closings.
Now it is time to try it again. Much of the desert has already been closed to the public and the only access that is allowed is by "people with keys" meaning approved groups such as environmentalists. The rest of us are barred from access. Power and money.
The rational for the closures is difficult to accept. First, the case of the desert tortoise. This desert dweller is far more common than the endangered label would convey. There are over million of these critters scattered over a huge portion of the southwest. I personally see dozens of them in my wanderings. Their main predators are ravens and disease kills many more. People do not do nearly the damage that many would like you to believe.
How about the Mojave Squirrel. These critters are everywhere. The BLM tried unsuccessfully to declare them endangered several years ago in California's central valley. The premise was challenged because it was admitted that the squirrel was not really endangered itself but some of its habitat was being taken away for development. This is where the real danger lies.
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Using the Mojave Squirrel logic would eventually allow the government to close ALL land to the public. Think about it, every square inch of land has some type of critter living on it. From the lowest single-cell amoeba to mountain lions, deer, spiders, you name it. Any land could be described as endangered habitat. If you think that is far fetched think of all of the lawsuits in California and other places over the habitats of fly's. The only outcome if this is allowed to follow its natural course is that people will be excluded from nature. Taken to the extreme, no one would be allowed outside of the cities without the proper permit. You may think that this couldn't happen in our country but that is the natural progression of this type of radical environmentalism.
What can you do? Take a stand. Go to meetings in your area and speak up. I wrote a letter questioning a comment made about the military's role in civil policing several years ago and got both a personal letter from the then base commander explaining the report and a call from my state representative, Pete Knight. We talked for awhile about the issue and several more and it was a pleasant experience. Some of your representatives will listen and some will not but you need to make your opinion heard or we all lose.
Links to People and Places of Interest:
Contact Senator Feinstein and let her know what you think.
Contact Senator Boxer and let her know what you think.
News articles on the subject: