Rim of the Valley: Wildlife Corridor or Land-Grab?

Consider these elements:
1. ( From http://www.whittierdailynews.com/)
Forest Service to start study of massive Southern California open space protection plan


By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer      Posted: 06/04/2010 08:27:07 PM PDT

PASADENA - U.S. Forest Service officials announced Friday the beginning of a five-year study of an open space that stretches from the Santa Monica range to the San Gabriel Mountains.

The Rim of the Valley Corridor includes private and public land from the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susanna Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills.

The Forest Service wants to bring the lands under federal protection and would study the possibilities of trail development, land acquisition and preservation of wildlife corridors that connect different sections of open space in the area.

Failure to preserve the lands will have negative consequences for local wildlife, as well as for outdoor recreation, said Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, whose legislation has led to the study.

"These are incredible wild areas that are loosely connected corridors that allow for wildlife to pass through," Schiff said Friday at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. "If the areas become disconnected we lose those corridors."

The study will start in August with a series of public meetings meant to help define the scope and ambition of the project.

Improving the trail system, recreational opportunities and protecting wildlife habitat are some of the major topics that will be discussed in developing the plan.

The study will cost $500,000 and will be finished in 2014, at which time it will be presented to Congress with recommendations.

Though the plan could result in a new national recreation area or other Forest Service protections, it will not likely mean a new national park in L.A.'s backyard, said Jody Noiron, forest supervisor for Angeles National Forest.

It will mean that the Forest Service will be looking to acquire lands from private owners who currently hold title.

But the Forest Service will not use eminent domain to take land from property owners, Schiff said.

"Whenever you are dealing with the Forest Service some people will always say it is a land grab," Schiff said. "This is not a land grab ... we only want to deal with willing sellers."

Among those who are labeling it a land grab is the Washington state-based American Land Rights Association.

Chuck Cushman, a spokesman for the group who grew up in Southern California, said members will be participating in the public process, opposing development of the plan.

He said that he is not convinced the Forest Service will stick to its promise to avoid eminent domain. Additionally, he said, there are other people with interests in the area who could be threatened by the plan.

"There are a whole bunch of people with cabins in the area, who lease the land but don't own it," Cushman said. "There are people with mineral rights ... if the park service takes over the area all those people are at risk."

dan.abendschein@sgvn.com

Read more: Forest Service to start study of massive Southern California open space protection plan - Whittier Daily News http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_15231347?source=rss#ixzz0q021sTq2

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I am ALL FOR wildlife corridors (and pedestrian corridors! -for the feetsies of wildlife, humans, domestic animals under human & humane responsible control, and gently used, quiet, non-polluting small wheels), and as 'GREEN' as anybody...Which, history has shown, can be a lot more green than guvmint enviro-honchos [such as the abominable Let It Burn, no-reservoirs, erosion-loving, crack-brained worshippers of fire and death, and those who have infiltrated the system only for the sake of getting payola and power-fixes by exercising 'Public Domain' which is almost always in the interest of the Military-Industrial Complex, porkbarrel contractees and pol-buddy developers, not the real general PUBLIC - let alone non-voting, non-taxpaying, non-workerbee Nature's Children], so let' give a note to the opponents, who are, for the most part, Not Cheneyesque At All:
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http://www.landrights.org/OCS/CARA.cushman_testimony.99_6.htm

(Looking up a particularly shameful steal I remenbered, by example):

http://us.forestle.org/en/search.php?q="Santa%20Rosa%20Island"%20"land%20grab"

A big YES for genuine wildlife corridors, a big NO to totalitarian Trojan Horse ways of having them!