Death Valley N.P. enlarged

[hikeaz]

DEATH VALLEY, CA – The largest national park outside of Alaska just got bigger. On March 12, President Trump signed public lands legislation that included several changes to Death Valley National Park.

The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (Public Law 116-9) transferred approximately 35,000 acres of land from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the National Park Service. Already nearly the size of Connecticut, Death Valley National Park increased by about 1% to 3,422,024 acres.

One part of the transfer is a 6,369-acre lollipop-shaped section of land adjacent to the Big Pine – Death Valley Road in the northern part of the park. It includes the Crater Mine, a colorful former sulfur mine.

The 28,923-acre “Bowling Alley” is a long, narrow swath of land on the northern border of Fort Irwin National Training Center. This area includes a portion of the Quail Mountains.

About 93% of the park is designated as the Death Valley National Park Wilderness, which is the sixth-largest wilderness area in the nation and the largest outside of Alaska. The Dingell Act added 87,999 acres of wilderness in North Eureka Valley, Panamint Valley, Warm Springs, Ibex, Bowling Alley, and Axe Head.

The Act designated 5.3 miles of Surprise Canyon Creek as a Wild River. The wild river designation provides further protection to this rare desert creek and adjacent Panamint City, a 1870s silver mining ghost town.

[chumley]

In review:

[SAMBA]

There's got to be an insidious motive behind it. He/it has never done anything in his life to benefit anyone other than himself. Is it a done deal? If not, tell him/it to shove it where the sun don't shine.

[hikeaz]

I considered not posting this DVNP news - figuring that it may, for some devolve into a Trump-hate receptacle vs. merely taken at face value. Guess my crystal ball was seeing 20-20.

[markthurman53]

@hikeaz
Glad you posted even though It doesn't take a crystal ball to know that would happen.

[jonathanpatt]

@SAMBA

This was bipartisan legislation that has been widely praised and passed both the Senate and House by a wide margin. The President signed it into law, but this wasn't his action, it was an act of Congress.

It's not perfect, but it does include extensive new public lands protections and expansions.

[LosDosSloFolks]

@hikeaz
Thank you kindly for posting this news. When I was younger I spent some time in that area and studied the Panamint/Koso and Paiute tribes that lived in the area and their material culture. It should not matter one bit that the bill is named after a democrat or signed by a republican. Enlarging and protecting that little corner of the world by even 1% is a good thing.

[RedRoxx44]

Crater area is cool, lots of areas adjacent to DVNP that are pretty darn neat, and fortunately not overrun nor featured on Instagram.

[Tough_Boots]

This same bill hands over "at least" half a million acres of pristine Alaskan public land to the Chugach Alaska Corporation and also allows for more freedom in the route of a new oil pipeline.

There's your catch. This bill is not a win.

[sidhayes]

@SAMBA
Have a pen? Write the WH and try to have it reversed.

[hikeaz]

@SAMBA
Have a pen? Write the WH and try to have it reversed.

Yep! Always better to light a candle than curse the darkness....

[chumley]

This bill is not a win.

I think what it's technically called is a "win-win".

It's what happened when government used to function. Two sides would come together and compromise, each giving up a little to the other, until both agreed on the result. You aren't ever going to make everybody happy.

It reminds me of the landmark 1984 Arizona Wilderness Act that preserved over 1.1 Million acres of land in Arizona as wilderness, while also specifically allowing some land near Grand Canyon to remain open to "multiple uses" (e.g. mining). Of course, nobody with an environmental/preservation mindset wants to see mining near Grand Canyon, but in exchange for the preservation of places like Aravaipa, West Clear Creek, Kachina Peaks, Wet Beaver Creek, Red Rock Secret Mtn, and dozens of other Arizona wildernesses, environmental groups joined the mining industry, Native Americans, FS, BLM, local ranchers and the timber industry -- among others -- to compromise on a solution all sides could agree on.

So Yes. There's a catch. And it used to be how leaders governed a society of people who don't all agree on the same things. Unfortunately we don't see much of it anymore.

[Tough_Boots]

@chumley
Compromise is great but unfortunately this is not that.

The devil is in the details--

in section 1493: "(iii) identify not less than 500,000 acres of economically viable Federal land, being managed by any Federal land management agency, in or outside the State that can be made available to CAC in exchange for any CAC land identified by CAC as available to the United States for exchange."

If you feel that a land swap with a high mandatory minimum and no set maximum of "economically viable" land for "any" land decided by the profiteering party is a win-win then I definitely don't want you negotiating anything for me. Ever.

[chumley]

@Tough_Boots
I'm not gonna lie here, I have done very little research on this law. But when congress votes 363-62, followed by 92-8 in the senate, and people like Arizona's Raul Grijalva says it "represents Congress at its best and truly gives the American people something to be excited about" while introducing new designations of 1.3 million acres of land as Wilderness, protects over 350 miles of rivers as "Wild and Scenic", designates over 2500 miles of new national scenic trails, and provides permanent authorization for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, I tend to think it's a win for people who enjoy outdoor recreation and environmental policies that protect our public lands.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune: "It’s rare to see Congress act in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner, but today reminds everyone that the protection of our public lands isn’t a red or blue issue, it’s an American one

Are there some things in it that I would prefer not to see? Almost certainly. But that's exactly the point I was making above.

[Tough_Boots]

This type of legislation is theft and its embarrassing that people fall for it. The CAC buys some dirt cheap land anywhere they can find it and trades it to the American people for some extremely valuable land. Then Washington throws some completely unrelated shiny things into the legislation to make it look good.

It's like having someone tell you that you have to let your backyard be obliterated to keep your front yard-- but they'll let you plant a little flower garden out front and not let anyone stomp on it.

But hey-- even compromise among people being paid by the same lobbyists is compromise.

[SAMBA]

@Tough_Boots
Yo TB, as much as I'd like be on your side on this issue, my cursory research tells me the passage of this act is a win for the "Good Guys". Nary a nay vote was to be had in either the House or Senate by members of the "truth, justice, and American Way" party. Democrats voted UNANIMOUSLY for this bill, and 'pubs "not-so". That alone tells me it was a victory for good.

In addition, the CAC which you're vilifying ain't one of those corporation one would normally associate with the blood-sucking, lying, corrupt organizations one normally associates with the term "corporation". CAC is acronym for Chugach Alaska Corporation which exists to serve the interests of the Alaska Native people of the Chugach region. Unless you've got some dirt on the CAC you'd care to share with your HAZ peeps, me thinks you'd do well avoiding bad-mouthing the CAC.

[Tough_Boots]

@SAMBA
CAC profits from oil drilling-- regardless of the great things their homepage says about themselves. I didn't vilify them. They're doing what most businesses do when allowed-- nothing especially evil there.

Time will tell-- maybe protecting this other land will outweigh the damage of more drilling, a new pipeline, and shrinking Alaskan wildlands but I doubt it. That's not really how the last half century has gone.