Senate Committee Tries To Bypass Rim of the Valley Hearing

Urgent Action Required

The Massive Rim Of The Valley Fire Hazard Moving In The Senate

It is called Rim Of The Valley National Park (S 1053).

A hearing may be bypassed by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

Committee members have not even seen a map.

Rim of the Valley will place a Park Service noose around the necks of 169,000 threatened landowners. 

The regulatory cost is staggering.   Landowners have no idea what is coming at them. 

$2 Billion is our projected land acquisition cost but it could easily cost much more.  That will make it the most expensive national park in history.  It will jeopardize funding for other parks nationwide needing money for maintenance for years to come.

The Park Service is approximately $10 billion behind in basic health and safety-deferred maintenance.  At some point we need to take care of what we’ve got rather than keep adding and adding.   

It is amazing that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is doing so little research when over $2 billion plus of your money is at stake.

The Park Service is a bad neighbor when it comes to fire.  They will not allow you to clean your land of fire hazard brush and will not clean their own ground.  Giving the Park Service control imposes a huge fire hazard on any landowners near the Rim of the Valley. 

Rim of the Valley is adjacent to and attached to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.  That area’s real claim to fame is that it burns every five years.

-----Call Now.    Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee appears to be planning to skip a hearing on the Rim Of The Valley Land Grab.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee may try to bypass a hearing because the Committee has passed Rim of the Valley before.  You need to request a new hearing.  They did not even have maps before.  ALRA has now has made large color maps available.   

It is urgent that you call both your Senators plus the Members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee listed below.  Send them e-mail or fax also. 

It is critical that you call both your Senators today to oppose S 1053.     Any Senator may be called at (202) 224-3121.  Ask that they request the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to hold a new hearing on        S 1053, the Rim of the Valley bill.

-----The only way for local groups to fight local issues when threatened by Federal national proposals is to band together nationwide and support each other.

You, by calling, e-mailing or faxing today, will save people who will then be there tomorrow to help you when you are personally threatened if you are not now.

Rim of the Valley is a giant new National Park being slipped by Congress as a supposed addition to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

-----It will include and threaten 158,000 private parcels in Los Angeles County and 11,000 in Ventura County.   These are in addition to those landowners trapped in the existing Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. 

There are many National Forest Permittees in the proposed area.  Large portions of the Angeles National Forest will be converted into National Park.  The San Bernardino and Las Padres National Forests are also threatened with at least partial national park status.  Call any cabin owners you know to urge that they oppose S 1053.  The Park Service does not allow permit cabins. 

----- Action Items listed below:  (Energy and Natural Resources Fax and e-mail addresses listed below).  It is especially important to call or write if your Senator is on the list.  A fax is the best way to send your letter. 

Background:

S 1053 (Rim of the Valley) would surround the:

parts of the Santa Monica Mountains;

the Santa Susanna Mountains;

the San Gabriel Mountains;

the Verdugo Mountains;

the San Rafael Hills;

and adjacent connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests.

In California with a huge New National Park area.

S 1053 and the Rim of the Valley will cost over $2 billion making it the most expensive park in American history.  That is the way Santa Monica Mountains NRA started out.  It was only supposed to cost $155 million in 1978.  Today it is over $1 billion and continuing skyward.

S 1053 is called the Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act and would study expanding the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area by adding a corridor of all the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley, La Crescenta Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Simi Valley and Conejo Valley.

Don’t be confused when they call it a study.  If this bill passes, Congress will ask the giant Park Service bureaucracy if they want more land, more money, more power and more people.  What do you think any self-respecting bureaucracy is going to say? Of course they want it.  They always want more. 

The Rim of the Valley consists of parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susanna Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Verdugo Mountains, the San Rafael Hills, and adjacent connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests according to Congressman Adam Schiff.

The study area will encompass 491,518 acres.  That is nearly three and a half times the size of the existing Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area that is 153,750 acres and over two thirds the size of Yosemite.  All that in an urban area.

You can see a map by going to www.landrights.org   Just click on the link on the website homepage. 

This map was originally produced by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.  They have deliberately tried to hide the full impact of S 1053 by how they have shaded the areas in the map.  They call it a corridor but it actually surrounds and includes huge areas of land.  The Park Service does not like private land within their boundaries.  They will try to buy it all over time.

**Be sure to call your local newspapers to get them to print a map of the giant new Rim of the Valley National Park Service area.

This is part of the giant plan promoted by the Park Service, the Nature

Conservancy and the Wildlands Project for a nationwide series of corridors linking all the parks and forests in the United States.  This has the potential for a massive takeover of National Forest and other Federal lands by the Park Service.

Don’t dismiss this because it is in California.  If they pass this proposal, some Members of Congress will be emboldened to add new and expanded areas where you live. 

S 1053 will put a circle of Park Service control around tens of thousands of landowners.  Anyone familiar with how the Park Service works knows that is the beginning of ratcheting down the regulatory controls and land acquisition.  They want it all eventually.  This writer was told by the Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the Carter Administration in 1978: “If Congress puts a circle around it, we’re going to own it all.” 

The Rim of the Valley will become a huge fire hazard.  The Park Service will prevent landowners from removing vegetation and brush for fire protection and will not clean their land  The result will be fires even more massive than you are suffering now.  This is not speculation.  This is how the Park Service presently manages the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Action Items:

-----A.  You need to call, fax and e-mail both your Senators in opposition to S 1053 immediately.    Every Senator can be reached at (202) 224-3121.  Ask for their fax and e-mail when you call. 

-----B.    Just write a short letter to the Chairman and Ranking Minority member of the Subcommittee with your opposition.   Mark it testimony.     Send a copy to all the Committee Members.  The e-mails and faxes for the Committee Members are listed below.  

-----C.  Send a copy of your letter (testimony) to your own Senators.

-----D.  Ask your Senator to attend any hearing and oppose S 1053.  Ask him or her to get you a copy of the map of the proposed area.  Only a few Senators have seen a map and those were supplied by American Land Rights.  By requesting a copy of the map, you force them to at least look at the map.  When they do, they should realize how crazy the Rim of the Valley is.  You need to get your Senator to look at the map. 

-----E.  Be sure to go to www.landrights.org for a copy of the map of the

Rim of the Valley.  You can enlarge it to make it more readable.  Make sure you ask your local newspapers to print a map of the proposed Rim of the Valley National Park Service area.  People have no idea what is coming at them.

*****

 
Republicans:  (Minority)
 
Richard Burr (R-NC) (Ranking Minority Member) – Fax:  (202) 228-2981 –      E-mail:  natasha_hickman@burr.senate.gov
Larry Craig (R-ID) – Fax:  (202) 228-1067 – E-mail:  brooke_roberts@craig.senate.gov
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) – Fax: (202) 224-5301 – E-mail:  isaac_edwards@murkowski.senate.gov
Jim DeMint (R-SC) – Fax:  (202) 228-5143 – E-mail:  matt_hoskins@demint.senate.gov
Jeff Sessions (R-AL) – Fax:  (202) 224-3149 – E-mail:  alan_hanson@sessions.senate.gov
Gordon Smith (R-OR) – Fax:  (202) 228-3997 – E-mail: rob_epplin@gsmith.senate.gov
Jim Bunning (R-KY) – Fax:  (202) 228-1373 – E-mail:  kim_dean@bunning.senate.gov
John Barrasso (R-WY) – Fax:  (202) 224-1724 – E-mail: bryn_stewart@barrasso.senate.gov
shawn_Whitman@barrasso.senate.gov
les_sealy@barasso.senate.gov
Bob Corker (R TN) – Fax: (202) 228-0566 – E-mail:  todd_womack@corker.senate.gov
Mel Martinez (R-FL) – Fax: (202) 228-5172 – E-mail:  michael_zehr@martinez.senate.gov
Pete Domenici (R-NM) – Fax:  (202) 228-3261 – E-mail: edward_hild@domenici.senate.gov

 
Democrats: (Majority)
 
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) (Chairman) – Fax: 202) 224-2852 – E-mail:  trudy_vincent@bingaman.senate.gov
Ron Wyden (D-OR) Chairman – Fax:  (202) 228-2717 – E-mail: Joshua_sheinkman@wyden.senate.gov
Daniel Akaka (D-HI) – Fax:  (202) 224-2126 – E-mail:  bonni_berge@akaka.senate.gov
Tim Johnson (D-SD) – Fax:  (202) 228-5765 – E-mail:  todd_stubbendieck@johnson.senate.gov
Mary Landrieu (D-LA) – Fax:  (202) 224-9735 – E-mail:  janet_woodka@landrieu.senate.gov
Maria Cantwell (D-WA) – Fax:  (202) 228-0514 – E-mail:  michael_daum@cantwell.senate.gov
Ken Salazar (D-CO) – Fax:  (202) 228-5036 – E-mail:  grant_leslie@salazar.senate.gov
Robert Menendez (D-NJ) – Fax: (202) 228-2197 – E-mail:  karissa_willhite@menendez.senate.gov
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) – Fax: (202) 228-1371 – E-mail:  jim_stowers@lincoln.senate.gov
Bernard Sanders (I-VT) – Fax: (202) 228-0776 – E-mail:  peter_tyler@sanders.senate.gov
Byron Dorgan (D-ND) – Fax: (202) 224-1193 – E-mail:  geoff_plague@dorgan.senate.gov
Jon Tester (D-MT) – Fax: (202) 224-8593 – E-mail:  bridget_walsh@tester.senate.gov
 

If S 1053 passes and the huge expansion eventually passes Congress it will:

-----1.  Will threatened thousands of landowners and recreation users.

-----2.  Create a huge fire hazard.  The Park Service will not allow you to clear your brush and they will not clear theirs.  The result could be a disaster. 

-----2.  By our estimate, it will cost over $2 billion dollars and perhaps a

great deal more to carry out their grandiose land acquisition and regulatory scheme.   It will become a never-ending money pit with Congress having to keep up with public expectations.

-----3.  Would study expanding the Santa Monica Mountains National

Recreation Area by adding a corridor encircling large portions of all the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley, La Crescenta Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Simi Valley and Conejo Valley in California on the North side of Los Angeles.

-----3.  S 1053 includes part of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa

Susanna Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Verdugo Mountains, the San Rafael Hills, and adjacent connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests.

-----4.  The study area will encompass 491,518 acres, that’s two-thirds the size of Yosemite.  It’s nearly three and a half times the size of the existing Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area which is 153,750 acres.  It will run approximately 300 miles giving it a huge scope.

-----5.  Will control land use within and adjacent corridors by threatening eminent domain (condemnation) of the land.  That is how they prevent building and lots of other uses.   ALRA saved a ski area in Maine recently that had been continually threatened with condemnation.

-----6.  S 1053 will ultimately dilute the Park Service budget meaning less care for other parks.

-----7.  The combined length of these corridors is likely to run as much as 300 miles long.  The Santa Monica Mountains Corridor NRA is only about 40 miles long and is already costing over one billion dollars.

-----8.  The corridors will be like a series of giant nooses put around the necks of the many communities in the encircled areas.  Economic and social activities will be greatly inhibited.  Access people now take for granted will be lost forever.  Frankly, the Park Service has a record of being a very bad neighbor.   Go to www.landrights.org for several socio-cultural assessments and histories of Park Service abuses.

-----9.  There will be a massive increase in regulations controlling private and community activities with the encircled areas.  S 1053 will interdict transportation corridors, which will mean new bridges and passageways for wildlife corridors throughout the region.

----10.  They’ll use the wildlife as an excuse for substantial new regulatory controls.  They’ll build bridges for the wildlife over the freeways but you’ll be locked out.   For example over 90% of Yosemite is now closed off to most of the public.  They are closing campgrounds and parking lots and soon you will have to take a bus just to get into the park.

----11.  Force the closure of hundreds of miles of exiting roadways substantially reducing motorized recreation.

----12.   It will be hard or impossible to get communication towers and other utilities installed in these corridors.

----13.  They say they will put in hiking trails, but the area is so hot in the summer that very little hiking takes place.  There is virtually no water.   In the winter, it becomes floods and mud.  At the existing Santa Monica Mountains NRA they have to actually bus people out of the center of the City of Los Angeles in order to increase visitorship.  People who have a choice don’t spend much time there.

----14.  Movie and TV companies who use these areas for films will be prevented from doing their normal work.  The Park Service likes naturalness.  They don’t really like people.  They just want enough to justify their budget.

----15.  Creation of the Rim of the Valley Corridor could require tougher Class I air standards that would have a negative impact on private industry throughout the San Fernando Valley and the other areas.  If you like the notion of viewsheds and soundsheds, you love the Rim of the Valley Corridor bill.

----16.  The House has not held a hearing on S 1053.  They did hold a hearing on another very different bill a year ago.  The Senate held a hearing but had no one testify against the bill.  That’s fairness for you.  You would think they would want to hear from both sides.  So Congress is really operating in the dark.

----17.  Even though there is very little water, what exists is valuable.  S347 will give the National Park Service a large measure of control over all the high ground around these valleys.  Historically that means the agency uses that power to interdict the goals of local communities and business.

----18.  The Park Service also seeks to keep communities from allowing landowners to use their land by threatening the cities and towns with the loss of Federal funds of all kinds.

Why is the Rim of the Valley Corridor bill (S 1053) so important?

It will threaten thousands of landowners and permittees in the mountains around Los Angeles.  It will threaten private owners in the Angeles National Forest and may threaten owners in the Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests as well.

When the Park Service takes over a Forest Service area, landowners and recreation users lose.  The Park Service does not like private uses and has almost no permit system.

S 1053 will set a standard nationwide for corridor and greenway bills involving many urban and rural communities.  It will likely lead to other corridor measures in other National Forests.  If you like the notion of viewsheds and soundsheds, you love the Rim of the Valley Corridor bill.   If they pass it in California, it will be hard to stop in other areas.

S 1053 is a “study” bill.  But it is much cheaper and easier to stop the study bill than to stop the authorizing bill that will most certainly come later.  They are using S 1053 because that is the Senate version of the bill introduced and passed through the Senate by Diane Feinstein (D-CA).

If you don’t live anywhere near Los Angeles, why should you care?  Because these studies are the first step toward a Federal land grab in your area.  They are the camels nose under the tent.

Even if you live in Arizona, Washington, Idaho or Colorado,  a few calls to your Senator can make a huge difference.  As few as ten letters in a Congressional district will get that Senator thinking about why he should vote for this bill.  Usually he will get very few calls in support from greens in your state.  So a few calls like yours really count.

Any Senator can all be reached at the same number by calling the Capital Switchboard at (202) 225-3121.  Ask for the Senator you are calling when the switchboard operator answers. When their staff answers the phone, ask for the person who handles National Parks or Resources Committee matters or S 1053.

S 1053 is really creating a monster new national park.  The size is huge and the cost will be even larger.   The size could be a series of corridors with a total length as long as 300 miles and costing you, the taxpayer over $2 billion dollars.

Ultimately what the Park Service will want is a giant network of corridors,  some very wide, covering all the mountains around the North West part of Los Angeles and part of Ventura Counties.  Some of these corridors will likely mean the conversion of multiple-use land managed by the US Forest Service to the National Park Service.

The Park Service is famous for its land grabbing and regulatory technique.  One example is that Santa Monica Mountains NRA is well known for being a park where the Park Service was sued and ultimately had to pay large damages for initiating a raid against an innocent rancher, Donald Scott, who was killed in the raid.  All because the Park Service wanted his land.

The Park Service has been a nightmare for landowners in Santa Monica Mountains.  Relations with landowners and others who traditionally used the area have always been bad and continue that way

It was supposed to be a “string of pearls” with most land left in private hands.  But that concept largely went away as the Santa Monica Mountains NRA gradually grew and more landowners were wiped out.

The National Park Service promised they would protect private property owners and that most private land would not be purchased.  However, they continually expand their appetite so the scope and cost of the NRA just keeps increasing.

The Santa Monica Mountains NRA surrounded thousands of landowners preventing them from getting access.  Then they bought out the major landowners and just left the small landowners to twist in the wind.  Numerous complaints have been filed about the Park Service creating hardships and doing nothing about it.

That is what will happen in the Rim of the Valley Corridor.  It will start with a small scope and gradually increase over time until the Federal Government and the National Park Service take over huge portions of the mountains around Los Angeles.

The proposed new Park Service area is likely to cost over $2 billion in additional dollars.  That could be grossly understated.  The funding required would detract from existing National Parks that are already strapped for funds for basic health, safety and visitor services.

If you live in California, call at least three friends to ask them to call, fax and e-mail.