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Post Office Box 506 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 | 831-423-3191 www.ventanawild.org vwa@ventanawild.org |
April 16, 2002
Jeanine Derby, Forest Supervisor
Los Padres National Forest
6755 Hollister Avenue, Suite 150
Goleta, CA 93117
RE: DEIS for the Los Padres National Forest Oil and Gas Leasing Proposal
Dear Supervisor Derby:
The Ventana Wilderness Alliance wishes to take this opportunity to comment on the LPNF Oil and Gas Leasing Analysis Draft EIS. Of the alternatives presented, our preference would be for Alternative #1, No Action-No New Leasing. We would have preferred for the DEIS to have offered a true "no action" alternative which would have called for no additional leases on lands already authorized for leasing, and a re-examination of current operating leases for compliance with environmental laws.
Additionally, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance would like to express our concern that by fast-tracking the pursuit of oil and gas past the general management plan, the Forest Service is subverting a process intended to ensure proper management of our public lands. The small fraction of a percent, of the total petroleum resources available, which occur in the LPNF does not of itself justify this fast track process. Being as the Los Padres National Forest is currently in the process of updating its Land and Resource Management Plan, which should provide a framework to better assess the toll that drilling will take on the Forest and the species that depend upon it, we feel that the current Oil and Gas Leasing Proposals are ill-timed and premature.
With the increased population pressure which California, and the United States as whole, is experiencing what little is left of our wild heritage and natural environment become ever more precious. Once wildlands, roadless areas and wilderness are lost they are lost forever. The threats, which the DEIS does indeed mention, to natural habitats, wildlife, endangered species and watershed resources are very real and getting more serious with time. The only way to provide any sort of a heritage for our great-great grandchildren is to think of them now and consider more long-term solutions to our short term problems and not rush into a fast track process when it can be done in a fashion which, in the big picture, is better for the Earth as a whole.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the DEIS. Please continue to keep us informed of any and all opportunities to comment on this NEPA governed project.
Sincerely Yours,
Jonathan A. Libby
President of the Board
Ventana Wilderness Alliance
