Obama creates 3 new Nat. Monuments in Cali Desert --YAY!

It's about the people that actually spend time in our deserts.

The masses need regulation.

The lands were purchased by private funds, then donated to the blm before becoming a monument.

Maddy!!!!!1111111 You're alive!!!

Cheers to you, Mate!

I'm just saddened to see the inevitable march toward there being NO place that responsible citizens can do what we used to do in JT back in the day, where just simply BEING for an extended period (weeks?) is illegal.

Given the growing (and ever-stupider) population, I guess it is inevitable. But I don't have to like or applaud it.

If it keeps the offroaders out of there (eventually), I'm all for it.

Yes, guyman, these lands would have been in far better hands of private corporate extractive interests.

I don't care. Those goddamn solar plants will not replace any of those other things. Solar plants are an addition to, and a stupid dead-end on the road to alternative energy.

Huge increases in human impact and restrictions for the sake of restrictions are also playing out big-time in the Escalante country, a "beneficiary" of executive action by Bill Clinton. If there are any monkey wrenchers still around there's a whole new crop of inappropriately-sited visitor centers there in dire need of attention.

The BLM is the best way to "protect" land... but this is just my opinion.

Hell, I'd move out of this $hithole of Los Angeles in a heartbeat if I could.

I think wilderness use though is entirely different. It seems like the less a place is talked about or "made special" by the government the less impact it sees. There are huge tracts of BLM land still in California and Nevada that I frequent that are empty and I never see anyone for days. It used to be like that in the Saline too, until they made it special.

From my experience more regulation usually comes with more roads, more signs, more buildings, more people.

escopeta-you say will be closed off from reasonable access. What exactly do you mean?
I'm only asking so i don't yell needlessly..

I still remember being able to....

Which frankly I would be a full supporter of, except I don't want to have to wipe cow sh#t from my boots while humping three days to get to a nice spot (that you previously could drive within a few hours walk) only to see the rancher running balls out across the countryside on his ATV after a heifer.

I personally don't need these regulations to use our public lands in a responsible manner.

Oh, I see you have hiked into the east side of Domeland wilderness.... walking endlessly on the dirt we all one time drove down.... and while you trudge in the hot sun you look at the tire marks, put down by mr. Ranger boy who drove out there yesterday. .... that is wilderness?????

I 100% support real wilderness....and its protection.

I dare any of you to find one real example of a government employee driving a motorized vehicle in designated wilderness. If you do, it will almost certainly be a SAR or Fire vehicle responding to a real emergency.

Even revoking a grazing permit requires an extensive process and can't be done for arbitrary reasons. There isn't a mechanism for a land management agency to arbitrarily take private land.

To top it off, the BLM issued an Environmental Assessment and Decision Notice authorizing this behavior on May 14, the day after the unveiling had been conducted. This mockery of legal process violated the spirit and provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, and deprived the public of any way to comment and perhaps protest.

That example is probably a counter example of your claim

Pretty funny to see freedom-loving climbers who climbed for decades on regulated and protected public land, whine about land designations that are aimed at protecting historic, natural, and recreational resources...

How much deferred maintenance is attributed to the total NPS asset portfolio?
More than $11.927 billion in DM – work that has been postponed for more than a year and remains unresolved – can be attributed to the NPS asset portfolio. NPS managers care for over 400 uniquely American treasures consisting of more than 75,000 assets. Aging facilities, increasing use and insufficient funding all contribute to the growing backlog affecting these assets.

From my experience more regulation usually comes with more roads, more signs, more buildings, more people.

Escopeta is it true there is an exception to the no motors in wilderness, for ranchers or miners too i guess, if their claims predate the designation? i always thought a wilderness designation meant no motorized vehicles of any sort, for any reason except emergencies at the discretion of the superintendent. No mountain biking for example.

With the tens of millions of people living in and moving to Southern Cali they need all the wild places they can get.

"Wilderness is supposed to be free from flyover except in the case of emergencies. I don't think killing a handful of dogs for the rancher is going to qualify as an emergency."

I absolutely frequent our public lands here in Idaho and the West. The issue I have with the management is that it has turned into nothing more than a boondoggle for the well connected and politically influential. How does it become that you might ask? By restricting as much access and consumptive uses as they possibly can, then they mete out how they see fit to the "right" people. Then they under-fund something and it restricts even more by default.

The process is broken.

Cattle and ATVs are not

Like Bluering...maybe there's a need for a designation between BLM and Monument?

That [elimination of accommodations and services for the general public] may be in Idaho, but my impression is that is NOT the case in Ca.

Why close roads in the name of wilderness?

Many people disagree with you that closing roads is silly. Most backpackers and day hikers try to get as far away from roads as possible since solitude is often one of the primary goals. If a road or two is the only thing keeping an area from being wild, closing those roads seems pretty reasonable

Anyway, most new Wilderness designations result in minimal road closures. If a Wilderness requires closing lots of roads, it probably is pretty low on wilderness character.

but people who have more experience with the issues involved came to a different compromise

That's not conspiracy theory, its reality.