Excerpt from an LA Times article reprinted here:
Fed up with Forest Service cuts, some California towns are plotting a recreation takeover
“Something has to change,” Mammoth Lakes Councilman John Wentworth said. “The Forest Service is overwhelmed,” he said, by 21st-century challenges its founders could never have imagined: climate change, budget cuts, electric mountain bikes.
Called the Eastern Sierra Sustainable Recreation Partnership, the project would establish a new economic alliance among the Forest Service and the communities of Mammoth Lakes and Bishop and three counties — Inyo, Mono and Alpine. Local government agencies would take the lead in developing water systems and sewers, roads, campground services, restrooms, trails and signage in some of the Sierra’s most heavily visited corners.
The idea is popular in mountain towns that have struggled with economic development, but it worries some conservationists and local officials who want the region to retain its wild spaces and rustic personality.
“This big idea seems to be driven by commerce rather than science,” said Sam Roberts, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Inyo and a lifelong wildlife photographer and rock climber in the Sierra. “At stake is the character of the wilderness experience.”
Chris Lizza, a Mono County planning commissioner and owner of a grocery store in the Mono Basin community of Lee Vining, contends the proposal “would empower the Forest Service to continue neglecting its responsibility to maintain our national forests.”
The two federal U.S. House Reps for these 3 counties have a lifetime environmental/public lands voting record of 2% and 4%, according to the League of Conservation Voters.
One has to wonder how many times Rep Cook and Rep McClintock have voted to slash and cut the budget of the U.S. Forest Service and other public land management agencies.
Worth noting that Mono is the one county in those districts that is pretty blue.
I grew up in Inyo and Mono counties, so I feel I have a bit of a grasp where some of this gumption is coming from. After more than a century of oppression from the City of Los Angeles, folks there are strong willed but pragmatic as well. They’ve been on the recieving end of a lot of overbearing regulation. Now they see a way to drive the bus a while, or at least take a dominate role similar to the partnership Friends of the Inyo enjoys with land managers.
The basic concept of the proposed recreation study is pretty much the same as a recently completed study by Headwaters Economics in Montana. The Montana study was designed to find out the economic value of outdoor recreation. Most Montanans have assumed this study pointed out that a lucrative economy can exist in the face of declining logging and mining, by ensuring the outdoors is both revered and cared for. Part of that level of stewardship is actionable projects. Wentworth is not just embracing a study but wants to see beneficial projects come out of it.
I don’t quite get the statement “This big idea seems to be driven by commerce rather than science,” said Sam Roberts, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Inyo and a lifelong wildlife photographer and rock climber in the Sierra. “At stake is the character of the wilderness experience.”
What would “science” driving things look like? Keeping people out? Having a restroom at a trailhead instead of people directly fertilizing the landscape? Having trails that are not maintained possibly unraveling into creeks? Is Roberts saying that this would happen in Wilderness, or is he using the term wilderness to mean all NFS land?
Lizza’s quote “would empower the Forest Service to continue neglecting its responsibility to maintain our national forests.” IMHO we all could imagine different ideas for using rec funding better, and that would be a great discussion to have with a Recreation FACA committee, but at the end of the day most of the regions/forests/districts are just trying to do their best with what they have. And certainly Congress plays the major role in funding.
It’s sad that Friends of the Inyo stoops to this level of distortion. In that respect they’re no better than other wild land advocates that seek to upend the playing field in their favor. Strike early and often seems to be the tactic. Avoid the main topic and rile up the troops instead.