The VWA was the lead organization that successfully challenged, and defeated, the US Navy's proposal to create a new practice bombing range on Fort Hunter Liggett, adjacent to the Ventana and Silver Peak Wilderness Areas. The Navy's proposal would have allowed over 3,000 F-18 practice bombing runs each year.
VWA Board Member Tom Hopkins confronted Interior Secretary Gail Norton (see below) during a condor release in Big Sur, California, on April 5, 2001. Even as the birds were taking wing, the Navy was moving ahead with plans to fly 3,000 jet-fighter bombing sorties a year within miles of the release site.
Tom was quoted in an April 6, 2001 San Jose Mercury News story by Paul Rogers:
"If she fails to oppose the Navy's plan, then her presence here is hypocritical." said Tom Hopkins, a spokesman for the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, an environmental group. "The birds she released today would be right in the flight paths of fighter jets."
