Ashley Indrieri”s recent letter “Berryessa, Snow Mountain” contains comments so far from fact that I feel a response is required.
Last week I heard a presentation by the Tuleyome organization about its campaign to permanently preserve federal lands from Lake
Berryessa to Snow Mountain by designating them as a National Conservation Area. Ms. Indrieri came up from her home in Maxwell (Colusa County) to attend and made similar remarks then.
She seems to have reserved her most farfetched accusations for the newspaper, where they could not be readily responded to; that the government is using a “willing seller hoax to acquire land,” is such an incredible fiction.
She states “A National Conservation Area (NCA) designation is a way for Congress to say these lands are special.” That”s about the only accuracy in her letter.
The NCA designation does create a management plan which will be formulated by local interests, including private landowners. She says it”s easier to track down your county supervisor etc., however these local entities have no jurisdiction on any of these lands, which are all federal properties, managed by three different agencies that currently have no coordination.
Each agency operates from its own central authority without any local planning or evaluation ? try to talking to them. They don”t even talk to each other.
With NCA designation these separate agencies will sit down with local interests to create a local plan that addresses local concerns. The designation will also allow additional funding for improvements and enforcement of existing rules. The additional regulation is to prevent any new mining leases. Everything else is intended to maintain the status quo, prevent further degradation of our public lands and coordinate disparate agencies.
The Tuleyome people have been very proactive in meeting with adjacent land owners and agencies and Ms. Indrieri.
Yet Ms. Indrieri asks: “Who gains from this designation? How can the government preserve your land better than you?”
Clearly, properly managed public lands benefit us all, perhaps local property owners most of all.
Again, all the designated lands are now federally owned. Private lands in and around the designation will maintain all existing access and entitlements and the preservation will be up to the owners.
Tim Williams
Clearlake
