KTMrad 508 Posted May 2, 2012 LINK HERE Everyone, we're going to need people to go to these local meetings to express our opinions about this and fight these proposed changes and closures...IN OUR OWN BACKYARD ! UT Tribune Article.... The U.S. Forest Service is planning to modify its land use plans in some roadless areas of the Cleveland National Forest and three other Southern California forests. The agency is seeking public comments about its new approach, which it says would include more nonmotorized uses and recommended wilderness areas. Details are at fs.usda.gov/cleveland/. The proposed changes are part of a legal agreement approved January 2011 to settle lawsuits against the Forest Service over the environmental impacts of its long-term plans for forest management. Public hearings about the amendments are planned across Southern California. Meetings about the Cleveland forest are from 4 to 7 p.m. the following days: • May 31 at the Palomar Ranger District Office, 1634 Black Canyon Road, Ramona • June 5 at the Descanso Ranger District office, 3348 Alpine Blvd., Alpine • June 5 at the Trabuco Ranger District office, 1147 E. 6th Street, Corona Environmentalists sued the Forest Service in 2008, saying it had not adequately considered the cumulative impact of roads and trails when writing management plans for the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino forests. They said the contested strategies designated more than 900,000 roadless acres for possible road building or other development. Roads can harm habitat by increasing noise in the backcountry, becoming a vector for nonnative plants and creating erosion. They are a common flash point on forest lands across the West because some visitors want more roads and amenities. At roughly 460,000 acres, Cleveland National Forest extends across San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties. It’s a major recreation area that gets hundreds of thousands of visits each year from a wide variety of user groups, including hikers, bikers, rock climbers and off-roaders. It also serves as a haven for several species of wildlife and provides water for county residents. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KTMrad 508 Posted May 2, 2012 Another LINK from the Cleveland National Forest Website Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dsfox 0 Posted May 3, 2012 Randy, thanks for always keeping us informed..... I will be there May 31, and June 5 Descanso....!!! This is outrageous......Forest service spends years and tons of money coming up with the plan and it gets set aside?.......I love the environment too, but these idiots go too far.... We REALLY should try to get a big group at these things.....If we don't speak up, there won't be anywhere left to ride, mt bike, jeep, etc etc.........and no one will see our National Forests except those who can backpack.....I'd like to know what percentage of our population is truly capable of doing a backpack trip.....leaving the vast majority of citizens with no use of their public lands...... ...suppose to be the Land of MANY uses....Not Just ONE!!!......This gets me fired up.... We could perhaps start an online petition, and those of us who go, can bring that with x hundreds of signatures.....??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Czechsix 1 Posted May 3, 2012 I'll try to be there for a couple of them. One of the things that I remember helping, back when I was sahara club, et...the bad old days....we (CORVA, SDORC, and others) would show up wearing a specific color - usually orange. Orange T-shirts, or orange hats. It made a pretty big impression on the board members seeing all the orange in the crowd, I remember that we outnumbered the enviros, was great to see. If we can get enough folks, might want to do the same thing, give them a better idea as to how many of us there are. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KTMrad 508 Posted May 15, 2012 If any of you are planning on attending the National Forest Meetings coming up, to voice your concerns about the new Management Plans that may shut down more of our forests to motorized travel, and if you want to know how to express the best, most effective public comments at these meetings.... DSfox and I are having a phone conference Tuesday night May 15th at 8pm with Amy Granat, Managing Director of CORVA, and Ed Stovin, SoCal Rep for CORVA. We will discuss how to make the most effective comments at these upcoming meetings with the Cleveland Nat'l Forest. Please PM me if you're interested in being part of the conference call and I'll give you the details on how to dial in to the call. Later, on June 2nd, CORVA will have a workshop on how to write the most effective public comments in letters, to be submitted to the Nat'l Forest. We NEED A LOT of people to help out with the submittal of letters to fight more closures in our local areas. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
