Media Resources: In The News

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-Local activists head to D.C. to push for Fort Ord National Monument

January 26, 2012 - Excerpts: With more than 60 public agencies and a dozen-plus citizens’ groups claiming a stake in the former Fort Ord, consensus on how to manage it is as rare as the black legless lizard. So the solidarity in a push to designate up to 14,650 acres as a national monument is something of a shocker; stakeholders from Fort Ord Reuse Authority to the Sierra Club are asking the feds to protect the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Ford Ord acreage in perpetuity.
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We need to stop the Great Outdoor Giveaway

January 25, 2012 - Excerpts: more

Soapbox: A veteran's perspective: Make Fort Ord a national monument

January 24, 2012 - Excerpts: The men and women who serve in our Armed Forces travel around the globe, often to the most challenging conditions that can be imagined. Wherever we go, images and memories from back home sustain us during these times away from our families. For many men and women in uniform, our country's national monuments — from the Statue of Liberty in New York to Muir Woods in California — are the images that come to mind of the America we serve to protect. more

New Mexico benefits from emerging conservation legacy

January 22, 2012 - Excerpts: The great outdoors we love is under attack. Conservation laws that protect clean air and water, wildlife and natural areas face assaults from leaders in the House of Representatives. While virtually every Congress in recent memory has taken steps to protect our public lands and our ability to hunt, hike, fish and get outside, some politicians are focused on undoing our country's rich outdoor heritage.   more

Release Act a bad bill

January 20, 2012 - Excerpts: There is a draft bill in Congress called the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act (H.R. 1581), cosponsored by Rep. Denny Rehberg. This bad bill falsely promises to increase sportmen’s access to public lands, but what it really does is open Montana’s 6.4 million acres of national forest roadless areas to industrial interests. The legislation does nothing to increase sportsmen’s access. more

Obama encourages tourism to national parks

January 19, 2012 - Excerpts: Some of Utah’s most famous travel destinations might be a bit more crowded this summer if a new White House effort is successful. President Barack Obama issued an executive order Thursday, aiming to boost international tourism to the United States in an effort to spur job creation. Part of the initiative seeks to promote visits to national parks, including Utah’s scenic redrock country. more

Bringing bucks home

December 25, 2011 - Excerpts: This has been a big year for our county: Secretary Salazar visited Joshua Tree National Park in June and the Western Governors' Association recently visited our cities and public lands to discuss their economic benefits. Back in 1994, the first California Desert Protection Act raised Joshua Tree National Monument's designation to national park status. That action continues to create jobs and now Joshua Tree National Park brings more than $50 million of annual economic benefit to San Bernardino County and to our region as a whole. more

Palm Desert meeting to review federal guidelines for solar development

December 9, 2011 - ... Riverside East could be cut down to 147,000 acres under revisions to proposed federal guidelines on solar development on public lands, to be discussed at an open meeting at 7 p.m. today at the Best Western Hotel, 74-695 Highway 111, Palm Desert. more

Gold Butte wilderness areas would be added value

November 28, 2011 - Excerpts: As the Desert Valley Times reported on Nov. 15, the BLM has included Gold Butte in its list of 18 “crown jewels” in the west deserving of special protection. There is an ever-growing consensus, inside and outside of the halls of government, that Gold Butte is a special place, richly deserving of the special recognition and protection that National Conservation Area status would bring to it.   more

Federal bills compete over national forest roads

November 22, 2011 - Excerpts: Nearly 60 million acres of national forests were put off-limits to motor vehicles, road building and logging during the Clinton administration. Last week, a bill was introduced that would turn that rule into law. According to U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a sponsor of the bill along with U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee D-Wash., the Roadless Area Conservation Act would protect “hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.”   more