We now have a great opportunity to permanently protect the nearly 1,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands in the San Juans. There is legislation in Congress to designate the lands as a National Conservation Area (NCA). Identical results can also be achieved through a presidential proclamation as a National Monument.
The Department of Interior is asking the San Juan County Council for input. We want the Council on April 3 to answer that request and to support both the legislative and presidential approaches – protecting these lands by whichever approach can be successful first.
Please encourage all members of the County Council to support protecting the BLM lands by proclamation as well as by legislation. Please send a copy of your email to info@SanJuanIslandsNCA.org by April 2, 2102.
Thanks.
Here is the contact information for the County Council members:
Lovel Pratt – San Juan South, lovelp@sanjuanco.com, (360) 370-7473Rich Peterson – San Juan North, richp@co.san-juan.wa.us, (360) 370-7468Howie Rosenfeld – Friday Harbor, howier@co.san-juan.wa.us, (360) 370-7469Richard Fralick – Orcas West, richardf@sanjuanco.com, (360) 370-7474Patty Miller – Orcas East, pattym@sanjuanco.com, (360) 378-2898Jamie Stephens – Lopez/Shaw, jamies@sanjuanco.com, (360) 378-2898
Ingrid Gabriel, Clerk of the Council, council@sanjuanco.com (360) 278-2898
Thank you for helping permanently protect these scenic and natural lands.
Bob Myhr
The county postponed voting on this until April 3rd – so please contact them and support this very important measure. There is the possibility of voting it in as a Nat’l Monument as well.
There are always an upside and a downside to deciding to have a distant Federal authority responsible for something in your back yard. I urge us to go slow; give the public ample time to explore up or down and then take our best option. Urging an elected official to “take action now” on something so little understood feels premature.
This area should be named “Press Release National Conservation Area.” More trees have died to provide paper for the self-serving political press releases about this over the past two years than grow on any of these lands. All the other NCAs are tens or hundreds of thousands of acres. This is one acre of what the BLM person called “rocks and islands.” Why not transfer the land to the Preservation Trust? They have a system of stewards set up already. And will not need a citizen advisory council or multi-million dollar “management plan.” A quick glance at what BLM has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on is disturbing. Finally, what guarantee is there that these areas will not be closed to the public? One would think that, with all this publicity, there would be some answers.
P.S. The comments on the BLM’s “scoping” process for management include the Wilderness Society stating that “Threats to these areas [Colville and Iceberg] include unsustainable recreation use and loss of natural meadows from fire. WS stated that BLM should “seek out opportunities to acquire nonfederal land within the ACEC boundary, including purchase from willing private sellers and/or exchange. It also recommended closing the areas to any use or combination of uses that tend to degrade the natural values of the sites.
Why now? Several key individuals within BLM and the Department of the Interior share with us the desire to give the 1000 acres of BLM land in the San Juans the level of protection to which they deserve given the recreational (hiking at Point Colville for instance), scenic (gazing out from Eastsound and seeing Indian Island), historic (the Lighthouses at Cattle Point, Patos and Turn Point), cultural (ancient camas fields at Iceberg Point) and ecological (Garry Oak, nesting shorebirds, marine mammal haulouts to name a few) values of these lands. If we do not indicate now that we want these areas permanently protected, they have other beautiful, special places where they can give their attention and funding – leaving us back again with uncertainty as to the future of these lands. And these individuals may change jobs or priorities may change for them – leaving us again back with the uncertainty as to the future of these lands.
We have a great opportunity to bring local input into the…
“There are always an upside and a downside to deciding to have a distant Federal authority responsible for something in your back yard.”
The BLM is already a distant Federal authority in our back yard. With National Conservation Area status, we will gain local input into how best to manage and preserve these public lands. Currently, the only access is on foot, but this and other uses could change under future (national) administrations.
No trees were harmed by this internet posting.
Why not the San Juan Preservation Trust or the County? It would take a big capital campaign or budget to compensate the Federal government for these lands. Ongoing costs for maintenance and stewardship also need to be considered. The BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NCA/Natinal Monument) has the conservation mandate and funding to manage these lands. Lands in this program range from 18 acres to tens of thousands of acres, and this program is for the conservation, preservation and restoration of nationally significant landscapes for the benefit of current and future generations – A good fit for the BLM lands in the San Juans.
A big thank you to all who support transfer of BLM lands to a Conservation System.