OAKLEY, CA -- In response to the Bureau of Land
Management's (BLM) recent Decision Record to close Black Sands Beach to
motorized vehicles, the Blue Ribbon Coalition is preparing a "protest letter"
that must be received by the Washington Office of the BLM by November 6,
1998.
An initial review of the September 30, 1998, Decision Record
by the Coalition finds it to be fundamentally flawed and in conflict with
Congressional intent and in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Coalition also finds the Decision Record to be in violation of at least
three Principles of Environmental Justice.
According to Don Amador, the California State Representative
for the Coalition, "The decision to close the King Range National Conservation
Area (KRNCA) to off-highway vehicle (OHV) access for families, the disabled,
sportsmen, and the elderly is apparently based on the 1974 King Range Management
Program's "direction" for the KRNCA. The Coalition finds this direction to be
in conflict with the original intent of the KRNCA Act of 1970 which states in
the first paragraph of the enabling legislation that the KRNCA shall be managed
for multiple-use."
"A review of the minutes of the BLM's November 4, 1997
hearing at the Mateel Community Center will show that a majority of longtime
residents who testified at the hearing stated this OHV closure is discriminatory
to the disabled, and is front-loaded to support the closure. Numerous
individuals and leaders from various user groups stated that they have been left
of the decision making process and that this Environmental Assessment (EA) is
biased to fulfill the elitist land-use views of the green community," Amador
continued.
Amador also stated, "The BLM completely ignored and failed
to note in the EA that 3,000 inholders of the Shelter Cove Property Owner's
Association stated their collective opposition to the closure. Also
mysteriously absent from the BLM's document is the petition against the closure
circulated by the Friends of the Beach that had over 3,500
signatories."
"The Coalition contends that said infractions violate at
least three provisions of the Principles of Environmental Justice and the Civil
Rights of local residents, property owners, the disabled, and multiple-use
recreationists," Amador concludes.
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