This has been a great spring and summer for the VWA. Our membership growth and support, see below, have been very gratifying to us. We had a wonderful annual membership meeting weekend at the beautiful Mitteldorf Preserve which included hikes up to Palo Corona Peak and trail work along the way. And, after years of hard work by many, the Wilderness Addition bills have been introduced and are beginning their dances through the halls of congress.
I continue to be thankful to those of you who contribute so much or your time to make the VWA what it has become. I would especially like to thank Terry Hallock, who has offered to be our recording secretary at the board meetings, and Vince Manning, who has agreed to take up the new position of VWA Activities Coordinator. Anyone who would like to help with any VWA activities should get in touch with Vince or call (805) 237-9708. Activities could include hikes, summit climbs, river floats, birding, wild flower walks, picnics, parties, local human history research, stewardship outings, readings, group discussions on topics of common interest (good rainy day activity), maybe even lectures on relevant topics by local authorities. Many of you already know Vince from his work as VWA Historian or maybe as that guy who will hike just about anywhere.
And lastly, it is apparent the the VWA is becoming widely recognized and respected, to wit: the VWA website was mentioned in the September Atlantic Monthly as the place to go for trail information in a Big Sur article (http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/09/wallraff_travel.htm), there was a big front page color spread in the Monterey Herald on July 22 about wilderness expansion (http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/3711227.htm) and there will be an article about the VWA in the August/Sept Hooked on the Outdoors magazine (http://www.ruhooked.com/). Thank you all for your contributions to this continued growth and accomplishment.
Jon Libby, President of the Board
The VWA has joined 19 other groups in the filing of a 60 day notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for failure to designate critical habitat for salmon and steelhead as required by the Endangered Species Act. For more information on the issue visit the Earthjustice website at http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html. More Info: Jon Libby.
The field survey portion of the BCT rare plant survey is now complete. BLM botanists Julie Anne and Bruce Delgado, who have led the field work, are preparing their final report. VWA members Nikki Nedeff and Dave Nelson assisted Bruce and Julie Anne in the field. No listed species were found that would impact our proposal to re-grade the tread of the Black Cone Trail.
The archeological report by Gary Breschini was completed this past spring, and we have received tentative approval of that report from the Forest Service. No archeological sites were located within the trail corridor.
We will continue to work with our consultants to get both of these reports approved by the Forest Service so we can schedule the tread work for the spring of 2003. We will hire a Forest Service enterprise trail crew to perform the bulk of that work, assisted by VWA volunteers and our partner nonprofit groups. We will also schedule a volunteer pruning trip to the BCT in early autumn. More Info: Tom Hopkins and Boon Hughey.
The VWA Wilderness expansion project was the subject of a very favorable front page article in the Monterey County Herald on July 22nd. The Herald endorsed Sam Farr's Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act of 2002 (HR 4750) the same week, with a number of letters to the editor (pro and con) running over the following couple weeks.
For the last several weeks, we have been setting up a table at the Monterey farmer's market on Tuesday afternoons. We have generated over 600 signatures for a letter asking Diane Feinstein to protect California wild lands, and educated many people on the local wilderness expansion project. We hold monthly volunteers' meetings at All Saints Church in Carmel; the next will be Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. All are welcome! Come and find out how you can help the effort.
Ilysia Shattuck, formerly the Bay Area coordinator for the California Wild Heritage Campaign who was our local contact with the statewide campaign, has a new position as Outreach Director for the entire state. Filling her shoes as Bay Area Coordinator is Dave Westman, also working out of the Sierra Club Oakland field office. Dave joined us at our information table at the Monterey farmer's market and at our monthly volunteers' meeting during his first week on the job. For more information contact: Kelsey Jordahl.
Big Sur Coastal Grazing Allotments:
Following the withdrawal of the Decision Notices for the 8 Big Sur coastal grazing allotments by the USFS in February 2002, things have been somewhat quiet on the grazing front. The word from the Monterey District Office in King City is that new, revised and more thorough Environmental Analyses are being prepared with regard to the allotments, and that these new and improved EAs will be available for public comment sometime in the fall of 2002. The VWA Public Lands Grazing Committee is looking forward to reviewing the new documents and becoming further involved in the allotment renewal process.
In the meantime, members of the grazing committee have been spending time on the coastal slope of the southern Big Sur area mapping important habitat for the federally endangered Smith's blue butterfly (Euphilotes enoptes smithi) in the form of seacliff buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium) stands that occur on land that is either currently being grazed or proposed for grazing by the Forest Service. On July 8, 2002, VWA grazing committee members accompanied professional lepidopterist Dr. Richard Arnold on a field trip to several of the seacliff buckwheat locations they had located on these lands. Dr. Arnold positively identified the presence of Smith's blue butterfly at every location visited, and based upon verbal description of the other locations nearby on the coastal slope between Salmon Creek and San Carpoforo he surmised that it was very likely that Smith's blue would be found at those locations as well.
VWA Signs on to National Public Lands Grazing Campaign:
The VWA has signed on in support of the NPLGC proposal to persuade Congress to establish a program whereby public lands grazing permittees would be compensated in return for voluntarily relinquishing their leases. For more information: http://www.publiclandsranching.org. For more information or to get involved with the VWA Public Lands Grazing Committee, contact Steve Chambers or Boon Hughey.
First of all, the National Day of Action in June was deemed a success, thanks to the organization of 30 demonstrations which garnered much media coverage.
Secondly, Rep. Hansen backed down under pressure and will NOT introduce Fee Legislation before retiring. This is wonderful news for everyone opposed to fee-demo. Clearly, the growing opposition to fee-demo has pushed permanent fee-demo authorization off its fast track. But the fact that Hansen will not introduce ARC's long-awaited legislative package does not mean that ARC's Pay-to-Play Agenda is dead or even mortally wounded. ARC has merely gone back to the drawing board for a new plan of attack. Furthermore, recreation user fees are still authorized as a "demonstration program" through FY2004, so failure to pass legislation in the current session will change nothing. Currently there are three bills in the Senate that would permanently authorize recreation user fees: Graham's S.1011, Thomas' S.2473 and Bingaman's S.2607. In addition, the ARC's National Recreation Lakes Program, (introduced by Senator Lincoln S.531) contains important recreation fee provision. It too must be vigorously opposed (http://www.recreationlakes.com/senate.html). Any of these Senate bills could move forward. If that happens, all it would take is a champion in the House (such as Rep. Scott McInnis) to introduce a companion bill. And if this were to happen, the threat of permanent legislation being passed in 2002 session could be upon us once again. You may contact your elected federal legislators (go to http://www.freeourforests.org/actionalert.html for info on how) and let them know you do not want to see Fee Demo become permanent. More info: Joy Greenberg.
After several months of inactivity mainly due to Forest Service personnel changes, the "Partners in Preservation" Heritage Resources program of the Los Padres National Forest has been reactivated. The new forest archaeologist is Joan Brandoff-Kerr and the local/district archaeologist is Brenda Reed. They hosted a series of meetings by region in June. The one is King City, which included some of our own VWA site stewards, was an opportunity to swap information on site work and to set some priorities for the future.
As of May, Paul Danielson resumed full-time duties as VWA site steward liaison. The roster of trained stewards and their assigned sites was updated as was the list of those wishing to receive the training. There are now eleven active, trained site stewards, as well as eighteen who wish to be trained.
An all-day gathering is being scheduled in September for the active stewards to meet at Steve Chambers' cabin at the Indians. Its purpose is to re-energize the stewards, strengthen ties, set goals and strategies, and to visit nearby sites. A training for the prospective stewards is in the mix for the Fall. More info: Paul Danielson.
The Pimkolam Trail Crew intends to spend a few weekends during October working on trails south of the Nacimiento Fergusson road in the Silver Peak Wilderness and other locations. More info: Steve Chambers.
The VWA Trail Crew is gearing up for another extended work trip to the Black Cone Trail this fall, as well as other shorter outings once the weather cools a little. More info: Boon Hughey.
The Monterey District of the Los Padres NF is still working on a local adaptation of the Leave No Trace principles and intends to have them available this season. More info: Steve Chambers.
The VWA website recently passed the milestone of 20,000 hits to the main page since the new site went live at the end of October 2001. If you haven't been there yet, check it out at http://www.ventanawild.org.
Webmasters Boon Hughey and Phil Williamson continue to explore ideas for the improvement of the website's content and usability, and are always interested in feedback and suggestions from its users. If you have an idea for new content, think you've spotted a way to make the site easier to use, or if you notice a bug, broken link, or other problem, please contact Boon and Phil.
Save the date October 20. The VWA board will be holding its quarterly meeting in Carmel Valley and invites the membership to come observe the meeting and learn more about what we are doing these days. There will certainly be some hiking, eating and storytelling activities after the meeting. Details will be forthcoming once finalized. Contact: Jon Libby.
24 new VWA members who have joined since May, 2002. This large list is clearly due to the exposure we have received from our new brochure.
The VWA Board Members are:
Jon Libby, President
Steve Chambers, Vice President
Tom Hopkins, Treasurer
Boon Hughey, Secretary
Gordon Johnson
Paul Danielson
Nikki Nedeff