Info On Land Swap and How to Protest It

[Hikin_Jim]

406, I and perhaps my fellow moderators owe you an apology. We're supposed to receive an alert on our moderator's "console" that let's us know when a first time poster puts up a post so we can approve/disapprove it. This keeps down SPAM. For whatever reason, your post didn't come to my console. Your post appears not to be SPAM and appears to have a lot of good information. I assure you the oversight was unintentional! Good thing they made me moderator, right? Sorry about that.

HJ

[Wildhorse]

406 is right.

Few people have complained about transferring the land at the south end of the Potrero to the Tribe. This is related not to the relative importance of the land, but to the demographics of the groups that have been most vocal in protesting the land exchange. It is important to preserve that land in public hands for the reasons 406 has given and also to protect the water that flows through there. Those who hike there, and who bring their bikes through that area have not spoken out as often as those who hike the Garstin, Thielman and Skyline Trails, but that land has vital importance now and in the future to many trail users and to wildlife.

The BLM should be ashamed, but it is not. It proudly seeks to turn these precious lands into the hands of a real estate developer falsely claiming a public benefit even while the public has loudly protest and claimed a great public and environment detriment.

Our congressman and our senators have the power to stop it, and they are doing nothing.

The land exchange is a sickening scandal.

[cynthia23]

Absolutely right, Wildhorse and 406. But there is still time, if you haven't already, to bombard the BLM, Congressman Ruiz, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein with emails and letters protesting this giveaway. See the various links on the first few pages of this post for the relevant emails and addresses.

[Ulysses]

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the member of this board. Just wrote Congressman Ruiz and Senator Feinstein. Hope it's not too late. What a shame.

[Perry]

If BLM officials have made up their minds and politicians don't want to be involved, can our letters and emails still make a difference in some way? For example, do they play a role in an appeal process or lawsuit, or is it just a waste of time writing to deaf ears?

[Wildhorse]

Perry -
It is hard to tell. But we should keep up the pressure on the BLM and on Ruiz, at least.

I think the chance is good that public pressure, and the pressure from the Palm Springs City Council, decrease the chance that the Garstin 36 and the Skyline 16 sections will be traded away. Now a group of people who ride their mountain bikes up Palm Canyon (a epic ride, I imagine, like Skyline is epic) represented here by 406, is pointing out how important it is to keep the Potrero section 36 in public hands too. That section is also important for conservation reasons - it has water. Until that group became involved, I only knew of two people (including me) who felt it was vital to keep that section in public hands.

Unfortunately, the conservation organizations have given the BLM the green light on the exchange because they believe it is necessary to protect the two square miles the U.S. would receive in the exchange. They are absolutely right that preserving those lands is important to everyone, but it is unfortunate that they and the trail user organizations did not unite in opposition. They would certainly not complain about keeping the other lands in public hands. What all of these organizations have in common is a legitimate distrust of the Tribe because the Tribe is a real estate developer and one that has demonstrated repeatedly that it is willing to do whatever it wants to do with land, regardless of public concerns.

All of that said, the BLM appears to have made up its mind. The BLM appears to have disdain for the public. And the Tribe has paid for political support in Washington.

The letters do potentially help if we appeal or start litigation. I have taken care in my letters to dig trenches for that battle. Others have done the same. Ultimately, however, it is better to stop this through public and political pressure and to not count on a court to save us. The first appeal actually is reviewed by a person who is higher up in the BLM. The Tribe considers that person to be their friend. Indeed, from what I have heard, he is putting pressure on the BLM to approve the deal. I think we would be facing litigation after a failed BLM appeal. But who knows. Public pressure matters. The BLM and the Tribe are aggressive, but they are not deaf.

So, let's keep the letters flowing.

[Hikin_Jim]

If BLM officials have made up their minds and politicians don't want to be involved, can our letters and emails still make a difference in some way? For example, do they play a role in an appeal process or lawsuit, or is it just a waste of time writing to deaf ears?

If enough letters come in, the politicians will change their position in a hurry. It's spelled R E - E L E C T I O N.

HJ

[cynthia23]

Yes, I think that's true. It's ultimately a question of volume--if forty thousand letters came in to the BLM opposing the deal, it wouldn't happen. We're not going to get that many, obviously, but even four thousand would make a huge difference. Remember, you still have a few days (until March 29th) to email the BLM. (email address in this thread at beginning). Even a simple one-line note is perfectly fine. Don't procrastinate, because there is a very real chance we could lose many of our trails.

[Perry]

Okay, sounds like it's important to read more about it and say something...

Wildhorse, you had mentioned in another thread that the land swap could be a way to enable construction on land that the tribe already owns. Can you explain how that works? I think it would be less controversial if they only developed on their existing property, without a swap happening. Do you think there is an alternative that would reasonably satisfy almost everybody? I'm not wild about more development, but I wouldn't put the tribe in the same category as some white dude that just rips up everything and builds, builds, builds. There is also something to be said about the rights of a property owner, although one could argue that it makes no difference to the plants and animals.

[Wildhorse]

Perry-

Here is the background information:

A real estate developer alerted me that the land exchange would enable the Tribe to legally develop more land outside of the reservation because the land the Tribe would receive is conservation land. A developer can use conservation land it owns to legally justify development of more land other than the conservation land. No developer other than the Tribe can ever acquire land in the monument and would never have this ability. I confirmed this ability with authorities in three government entities involved in approving development in the valley. I hoped that the BLM would address this in the environmental impact statement. It did not. The BLM is required by law to evaluate the foreseeable effects of development. A well-respected environmental lawyer who has tried and won important cases involving this matter has advised me that the BLM has not done what the law requires. In addition, this factor would make the land the Tribe receives in the exchange worth much more than the Tribe will pay for it. All of this is part of the legal record. If litigation occurs, it will be evaluated in court. As I have written before, that is possible, but less desirable than a permanent resolution through public and political pressure.

Several years ago the Tribe posted information at their website that it used to sell the benefits of the land exchange to its members. What the tribal leaders discussed was information about how much land the exchange enabled them to develop.

I believe that the proposed land exchange would satisfy the public if the land in three sections is excluded. Those lands are in the Section 36 that contains the Garstin Trail, in the other Section 36 that contains the water at the south end of the Potrero and the Section 16 that is crossed by the Skyline Trail. I don't know whether the Tribe would be satisfied. The BLM has said that the Tribe wanted even more land than was contained in the proposed land exchange, but did not want to spend the money to acquire it.

Publicly the BLM asserts that it does not matter what the public thinks about the land exchange. It is a ludicrous statement. The adverse public reaction indicates that proposed land exchange has no public benefit. The BLM is not legally allowed to approve any land exchange without showing that it has a net public benefit. Anything anyone writes in opposition to the exchange matters. As you wrote, it is important to say something. The more people who speak out, the better. We are fighting a wealthy tribe that pays politicians to support its interests. We can only offset that with a large number of people speaking out.