Community Church of Lake Berryessa, Craig Morton, Morton”s Pest Control, Jerry Rehmke, J. Rehmke Painting
Marcia Ritz, Spanish Flat Country Store & Deli, Sharyn Simmons, Cucina Italiana, Stu Williams, Fog Canyon Vineyards —
The Lake Berryessa Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors unanimously opposes the creation of a Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area. This NCA is neither a good idea nor a bad idea; it is a “non- idea.” There are no compelling arguments for its creation. It is a huge and unwieldy geographic area which would be difficult to manage even under optimal circumstances. At best it may have some marginal benefits. At worst it will impose additional requirements on already overburdened government agencies with no guarantee of any new resources for them.
The current proposed area extends 100 miles from Lake Berryessa at its southern end to north of Snow Mountain and consists of several separate pieces, the largest being in Mendocino National Forest east and north of Clear Lake. The land is currently administered by the National Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Bureau of Reclamation, and includes the Cedar Roughs, Cache Creek and Snow Mountain Wilderness areas.
When the NCA concept was first proposed by Tuleyome in 2007, it was called the Blue Ridge Berryessa National Conservation Area and encompassed only the geographic region coordinated by the Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area Conservation Partnership.
The BRBNA is a model organization for regional coordination at reasonable local level. When the BRBNA partnership published an analysis that questioned the real value of a Blue Ridge Berryessa National Conservation Area and decided to be a neutral party, Tuleyome greatly expanded the geographical area of its proposal. The new NCA was called the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area and stretched north and east to include much of the Mendocino National Forest and large swaths of Mendocino, Glenn, and Colusa counties.
This new proposal met with immediate strong resistance from private landowners and others in Glenn and Colusa counties. The Colusa and Glenn County Board of Supervisors passed resolutions in opposition of the designation. Tuleyome then downsized the proposal to remove much of Glenn and Colusa counties to concentrate on the area within Congressman Thompson”s district. Compare the present NCA map to the previous one.
This Goldilock”s approach to NCA designation (too small, too big, then “just right”) has done nothing to change the basic conclusion that this NCA is of little value and should not be pursued by our elected representatives ? especially in light of the other pressing needs of the region such as returning the Lake Berryessa area to its previous position as the recreational jewel of Napa County serving the Bay Area and beyond.
The concerns raised about the value of an NCA in 2008 remain the same in 2012. When you dig beneath the thin crust of the applehood and motherpie claims of the NCA proponents, you find little analytical substance. The excellent BRBNA report from February 2008, Federal Designation for the BRBNA: A Summary of Viewpoints and Issues, concludes that while there may be some positive environmental benefits to the NCA designation, the long list of potential negatives will be difficult to overcome. The actual support from federal agencies, local land trusts, and private landowners described in the report is best characterized as aggressively lukewarm ? “prove the benefits exist and we may be marginally interested”.
Tuleyome touts the potential economic benefits of an NCA designation to “gateway communities” as a major reason for cities like Winters and regions like Lake Berryessa to support the proposal. But there is only anecdotal evidence for this proposition. Winters is already, and always has been, the major gateway to the Lake Berryessa region ? including hunters and users of the Knoville Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) area. Napa, St. Helena, Yountville, Angwin, and Pope Valley are also present gateways which would not gain any particular benefit from an NCA designation.
Winters and Lake Berryessa are not suffering from the lack of an NCA designation, which might at best bring another few thousand annual visitors, probably mostly hikers, to the region. They are suffering from the destruction of Lake Berryessa recreational opportunities caused by the years-long tragic mismanagement by the Bureau of Reclamation. An NCA designation will not bring back the hundreds of thousands of missing visitors annually, nor return the large numbers of jobs lost by Winters and Lake Berryessa businesses.
We request that people carefully review the pros and cons of this proposal. The Chamber Board believes the cons significantly outweigh the pros. In fact, the pros don”t really seem to exist at all.
Lake Berryessa Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors
Peter Kilkus, Lake Berryessa News
Pastor Bob Lee,
Community Church of Lake Berryessa
Craig Morton, Morton”s Pest Control
Jerry Rehmke, J. Rehmke Painting
Marcia Ritz, Spanish Flat Country Store & Deli
Sharyn Simmons, Cucina Italiana
Stu Williams, Fog Canyon Vineyards
