Message Preview
From: Your Name <you@example.com>
To: director@parks.ca.gov secretary@resources.ca.gov
Subject: Preserve the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area of the California Desert
Your Personal Statement
Dear Ms. Coleman and Mr. Chrisman,
I am very concerned about the fate of the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area in Imperial County, California. I am alarmed that the California Dept. of Parks & Recreation appears ready to turn recent and upcoming acquisitions within this area - a landscape filled with precious cultural and natural features - over to management by Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. You could do much to allay my concerns by establishing interim protections for this fragile area while the environmental review and planning process is under way.
In past State Parks acquisitions in the Colorado Desert, the newly acquired lands were closed to all public access during environmental review. Despite protests from recreationists who had legally used these areas, the lands remained closed because State Parks deemed it irresponsible to allow public use without a management plan in place. I respectfully request that the same interim closures be established in the Desert Cahuilla Area. If public access is to continue during environmental review, then vehicles should at least be limited to the street-legal variety, and confined to designated routes in wash bottoms.
In order to ensure an impartial environmental review, I also request that the process be removed from the exclusive control of the OHV Division, and instead be managed jointly by the Colorado Desert District and Ocotillo Wells SVRA. With resource specialists from the Colorado Desert District currently shut out of the planning process, I have no confidence that resource protection will be given the place it deserves in any resulting management plan. The process certainly appears to be prejudiced toward the particular final use of turning the area over to Ocotillo Wells SVRA. This situation violates promises made by State Parks officials to the OHV Commission and to conservation groups when the "Freeman properties" within Desert Cahuilla were acquired in 2006.
The destruction off-road vehicles have done to Desert Cahuilla over the years is well documented, and there is evidence that this destruction is increasing since the Freeman properties were acquired in 2006. I am shocked that State Parks appears to be abandoning its stated mission: "To provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve...the best of California's natural and cultural history." I ask both of you to do everything within your power to ensure that State Parks' management of the Desert Cahuilla area lives up to this mission.
Please reply to this letter as soon as possible. I look forward to learning how you plan to fix this broken planning process and provide full protection for the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area.
Sincerely yours,
Your Name
Your Organization
123 Your St.
Yousville, YO 12345
Phone: (123)456-7890
Fax: (123)456-7890x123
--
Delivered by CitizenSpeak!
Report abuse to abuse@citizenspeak.org [1215]
To: director@parks.ca.gov secretary@resources.ca.gov
Subject: Preserve the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area of the California Desert
Your Personal Statement
Dear Ms. Coleman and Mr. Chrisman,
I am very concerned about the fate of the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area in Imperial County, California. I am alarmed that the California Dept. of Parks & Recreation appears ready to turn recent and upcoming acquisitions within this area - a landscape filled with precious cultural and natural features - over to management by Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. You could do much to allay my concerns by establishing interim protections for this fragile area while the environmental review and planning process is under way.
In past State Parks acquisitions in the Colorado Desert, the newly acquired lands were closed to all public access during environmental review. Despite protests from recreationists who had legally used these areas, the lands remained closed because State Parks deemed it irresponsible to allow public use without a management plan in place. I respectfully request that the same interim closures be established in the Desert Cahuilla Area. If public access is to continue during environmental review, then vehicles should at least be limited to the street-legal variety, and confined to designated routes in wash bottoms.
In order to ensure an impartial environmental review, I also request that the process be removed from the exclusive control of the OHV Division, and instead be managed jointly by the Colorado Desert District and Ocotillo Wells SVRA. With resource specialists from the Colorado Desert District currently shut out of the planning process, I have no confidence that resource protection will be given the place it deserves in any resulting management plan. The process certainly appears to be prejudiced toward the particular final use of turning the area over to Ocotillo Wells SVRA. This situation violates promises made by State Parks officials to the OHV Commission and to conservation groups when the "Freeman properties" within Desert Cahuilla were acquired in 2006.
The destruction off-road vehicles have done to Desert Cahuilla over the years is well documented, and there is evidence that this destruction is increasing since the Freeman properties were acquired in 2006. I am shocked that State Parks appears to be abandoning its stated mission: "To provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve...the best of California's natural and cultural history." I ask both of you to do everything within your power to ensure that State Parks' management of the Desert Cahuilla area lives up to this mission.
Please reply to this letter as soon as possible. I look forward to learning how you plan to fix this broken planning process and provide full protection for the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area.
Sincerely yours,
Your Name
Your Organization
123 Your St.
Yousville, YO 12345
Phone: (123)456-7890
Fax: (123)456-7890x123
--
Delivered by CitizenSpeak!
Report abuse to abuse@citizenspeak.org [1215]
