Urgent!Palm Springs trails / Skyline threatened by land swap

[Hikin_Jim]

...comment period had been extended until November 19th.

Good to know. Keep those emails and letters coming, folks.

HJ

[myotherboots]

All
Just and FYI, there is going to be a Kick-off Event at the National Monument Visitor Center on Hwy 74, Monday October 18th at 10a.m. celebrating the 10 year anniversary. Key attendees will be Mary Bono Mack, BLM Officials and Friends of the Desert Mountains.

Most of you have probably beat down Mary Bono Mack's email inbox by now, but this could be another opportunity to voice our concerns and be visisble.

[guest]

Today I spoke with a couple long time Desert Riders, (and long time friends of mine) who have been politically involved with many trails issues over the years.
They told me they have some people with good connections to this issue working with many of the powers-to-be, including Bono-Mack, a former PS planning mgr. and others who have a lot of experience dealing with our local tribe.
They mentioned not over-reacting at this point, (i.e. legal action talk), and they feel, with the month extension, and our continued pressure of letter writing, calling & hopefully attending any upcoming public meetings, that we can prevent this from going through.

I do not believe this exchange is a good idea, and that is the opinion of many of the people who have been dealing with this for some time now, including the Desert Trails Coalition, CV Hiking Club, Desert Riders and other.

Please keep up the effort, and realize, even if it appears this is close to a done deal, it is NOT, and the BLM has a legal obligation to do what's in the best interest of the general public.

If we let everyone know that this exchange is Not, we can prevail.

Thanks

[grand806]

Can somebody please post a map or link to a map of the proposed land swap?
Thanks

[Florian]

The full report including maps is here ► http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/ ... change.pdf

°Florian

[Perry]

...the BLM has a legal obligation to do what's in the best interest of the general public...

Does anybody know how this is enforced?

[Florian]

I put a copy of the exchange map on my flickr stream here ► http://www.flickr.com/photos/fboyd/5095410118/

Feel free to share and redistribute the link.

°Florian

[grand806]

Thanks for just the map without the 40 odd pages of text and charts.
I am sure that many supporters will appreciate the easy location reference as I do.
If there was a GIS guru who could trace the trail routes on the swap map it could be even more informative.

[guest]

Perry, That's a good question, if your referring to how the BLM is bound, (in this case land exchanges), to do what is in the best interest of the public.

I believe that with the kind of public pressure & awareness we are bringing out, this could be the pivotal issue to keep this land public. Just a quick look at the map shows how lopsided this exchange is in the favor of the tribe, and how many trails are in the areas they will obtain, and how few, if any are in the areas we the public will receive.

A new thread may be in order, to bring awareness to all the people who visit this board, and especially those that enjoy doing Skyline, (which I'll bet is a large percentage), just how important this issue is.

Realize that if the Agua Caliente inherit the lower potion of Skyline, (and a few other partials further up by the looks of the map), they can & most likely WILL regulate & possibly restrict, even close it!
Sure, people will still attempt to hike it, but the tribe has some good, fit, well trained rangers to manage this.

[Wildhorse]

In addition to what Guest wrote, if the BLM proceeds with the exchange the public can formally appeal the BLM's decision to higher levels within the Interior Department. If those appeals fail, the public can appeal in U.S. District Court. There is a short window of opportunity after the BLM announces its decision to initiate appeals and litigation.

Hopefully it won't be necessary. Hopefully public political pressure will succeed. If it does not, then hopefully the public will appeal and litigate.

Veterans of similar battles with the BLM say that both political pressure and litigation are often necessary.

Meanwhile, we all need to write to Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Senators Feinstein and Boxer by mail or through their websites, and write to John Kalish at the local BLM office to express our concerns about this exchange. Those letters empower our elected officials to apply political pressure on the BLM and they will be useful in court, if or when we go there. In addition, they let the BLM know that the public does not believe this exchange is in our best interests. The BLM is obligated to consider our reaction.

As word of this exchange spreads, the shock, frustration and anger of the public is growing.

Ultimately this exchange affects more than hikers. It appears to be a lopsided unfair exchange of public land that shrinks the size of a National Monument by seven square miles.

The BLM began working on this exchange more than ten years ago. It only recently caught the public's attention, mainly through the Op/Ed that Gary Leuders was able to get the Desert Sun to publish and through word spreading among hikers.

Under federal regulations the BLM's land exchange process is supposed to be transparent and to involve the public and the government's independent Appraisal Services Division from beginning to end. What is supposed to happen, has not happened in this exchange.

The BLM has an obligation, according to the federal regulations, to "ensure effective public participation" in the land exchange process. That means doing whatever it takes to get the public's attention and to get the public's input and includes things like holding public meetings. Clearly, they have fallen short of this obligation.

In addition, federal regulations require the BLM to involve the government's independent Appraisal Services Division throughout the exchange process to avoid unfair exchanges. In this case, that did not happen either.

The BLM has signed a management agreement with the Tribe that provides continued public access to the trails after the exchange. The problem is that the agreement provides no remedies for noncompliance and can be terminated in one year! The BLM simply has no control over the land after the exchange, with or without a management agreement.

Read the report to Congress on land exchanges by the Congressional Research Service (a Congressional staff organization.) Pay special attention to the issues section on page 5. Their findings are scandalous. They sound eerily familiar to what is happening with the exchange of our lands in the National Monument. The link is:

http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/102 ... s/3999.pdf

We cannot let this happen.