Now We've Got an Airspace Grab

To: Honorable Senator Harry Reid

The lame duck Bush Administration is working overtime fast-tracking last minute favors to their buddies in big business and the military/industrial complex. There is even an airspace grab going on in Eastern Nevada.

The proposed expansion of military operations area into Nevada (White Elk Military Operations) is unacceptable. It will profoundly effect those of us who live here; physically, economically, environmentally, and spiritually.

1. With some of our airspace gone, we probably won't see nearly as many gliders in the future.

2. Our property values will decline due to jet noise and sonic booms.

3. Our natural spaces will be degraded.

4. This will be one more reason not to visit White Pine County.

5. This will be one more reason not to move to White Pine County.

6. Peak noise levels (from sonic booms) will likely harm our hearing.

7. Increased anxiety from loud noise has been shown to result in health problems, such as heart disease.

8. Property damage has occurred in the past near sonic booms.

9. Wildlife and livestock will be disturbed significantly.

10. Flares and chaff will be littered over wilderness and public lands. Flares pose increased fire risk. And over wilderness areas, there doesn't appear to be any fire suppression plans.

11. Chaff pose health risks if inhaled or ingested.

12. Degradation of my Native (Western Shoshone) homeland will harm us spiritually. This is far more significant than a sonic boom going off during a ritual. This is the desecration of the place that sustains us.

13. And of course, our tax money will be wasted on excessive, unnecessary training for cold war era threats. More supersonic flight training will not protect us from terrorists.

Apparently, there was a public hearing in Ely on this on September 2. But nobody I know heard about it. Was it publicized? I've heard about unpopular “public” hearings that the military has conducted without any practical announcements. Either way, we need more time to make our comments. It isn't right that residents here will find out about this after the public comment period is over.

Thank you,

Richard A. Spilsbury

I've been informed that the White Elk Operations Area Draft Environmental Impact Statement attempts to veil damaging health impacts from earth shattering sonic booms by providing ONLY noise level averages while ignoring peak sonic boom noise levels.

As you can see by the blank areas on the map, they will let wilderness areas burn! We saw the BLM watch a fire in wilderness area burn on for months last summer. Flares over wilderness areas are a recipe for multiple fire disasters.

Please write your Senators and Representatives about this.

Great Basin Outdoor Adventurers Meetup

I have just started a new group at Meetup.com
...the Great Basin Outdoor Adventurers Meetup

Meet with people who like outdoor adventures - like hiking, mountain biking, camping, backpacking, kayaking, climbing, skiing, etc. All Adventures Welcome!
You can even schedule adventures.

Check out the Last Chance Expedition of the SNWA Watergrab Wildlands
May 17-21

click here to visit the new group.
Join now! It's free.

Longest Walk 2 video

The Longest Walk 2

What if you had something so important to tell that you were willing to walk across the country to say it? That's what the “Longest Walk” is about.

Native Americans across the country are joining together in sending a message to Washington. We intend to “bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth.”

The walkers just passed through Ely, Nevada. If you want to see what they are accomplishing; check out www.earthcycles.net

We in Nevada were glad to see them. We helped where we could. We even walked a couple of miles with them... Solidarity! We won't forget. When they reach Washington, we will be reminding the world to pay attention.

We also sent two messages with them. Here's one:

Conservation and Desalination First

The Great Basin is a vast, mostly natural area; smack-dab in the middle of the American West. Here you can find some of the last of America's open range. Here cattle don't live in pens. Here some wild horses still run free. Here is where the deer and antelope play – along with the elk, the lions, the cute little fuzzy animals, the migratory song birds, the sage hen, and the eagle.

The Western Shoshone (Newe) people have lived here for thousands of years. When the European immigrants showed up, they found this land healthy. We now fear that within less than 200 years to our first introduction to capitalism, our homeland will become uninhabitable. Why? To sustain unsustainable growth in Las Vegas.

Southern Nevada Water Authority intends to take a river of water from a place that has no rivers. The land area effected here will be larger than some of America's smaller states. And yet our own state laws are impotent to protect us. Would you consider the State of Vermont to be expendable? Just drain it? Turn it into a dustbowl? Of course not. But that's what greedy developers in Las Vegas want to do with an equivalent size of our home. And they want to do it without even considering sensible alternatives.

• Las Vegas could learn to live within their means. They will have to someday.

• Las Vegas could desalinate sea water and trade it with California and Mexico for a bigger allotment of the Colorado River. The desalination facilities could be built offshore so as not to harm coastal ecosystems.

Southern Nevada has better options than committing an environmental holocaust. But they complain that it's just too hard or too expensive. Sure it's cheaper to take than it is to make. But we should not make our decisions based upon how cheap it is to steal.

It is a humbling analogy to compare humanity's habitat destructing ways to a dangerous virus infecting it's host. But it is actually life on Earth that supports us. And all natural life on Earth is in decline. We all know what happens to a virus when it kills it's host. The virus dies too...

It is our duty to protect our host; life on Earth.

Help us influence Las Vegas to live sustainably.

Thank you,

concerned citizens of White Pine County, Nevada

Petition

Please sign the petition to delay BLM permitting of the Toquop coal-fired power polluter near Mesquite, Nevada.

Offroaders Beware!

I have shown in an earlier NoShootFoot blog entry that the Department of Interior (DOI) is effectively corrupt. Since the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) works under the DOI, no matter how dedicated our front line officials may be, we can't expect responsible administration. It is not a coincidence that the BLM has decided now to modify Resource Management Plans (land use plans) in Utah. Redrock Wilderness has reported that:

“The BLM is releasing a flurry of new and draft plans... Though it has taken the agency years to put these plans together, the public will have a scant 90 days to comment on them. If you don't think you can review, absorb, and intelligently comment on 5000 pages of text and hundreds of maps and graphs in that length of time, be sure to let the BLM know and ask for more time.”

The public comment periods for these areas end on these dates:

Moab 11/30/07

Price 12/13/07

Vernal 01/03/08

Kanab 01/10/08

Richfield 01/??/08

Monticello 02/??/08

You can view the Utah BLM's resource management plans and schedules at:

www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/planning.1.html

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) website has more information about these plans and citizen's conservation alternatives at:

www.suwa.org/rmp

Please send your comments as soon as possible.

Of course, here's my call on the situation:

The lame duck Bush administration is desperate. Their approval ratings are near an all time low. There have even been calls for Bush and Cheney's impeachment. These guys could even end up in prison. Consequently, they are quite blatantly selling out to any group who will support them. This is a dangerous time. There are many corporations, industries, and unscrupulous people who just love to take advantage of a weakened administration.

In the case of public lands, the mining industry is groping for everything they can get. For example; mountain top removal coal mining (that is even more destructive than before) is going to be allowed in the Appalachian mountains. (It appears that the coal industry won't be satisfied until they have polluted every stream in the Appalachians.) Is that what we want here? Hell no! But they're trying. The mining corporations want unimpeded access to any place they feel like mining in. And they're more than willing to take advantage of offroaders – who arrogantly want to drive anywhere they damn well please.

Offroaders are being used. That's right, used. Do they really believe the Bush administration gives a damn about them? This opening of wilderness is for the mining corporations. Don't get me wrong. I realize that we need to mine. But to allow mining anywhere these corporations please is just foolish. Many of these mining corporations are foreign owned. We can't expect them to care about our local wilderness. In the end, even offroaders won't want to go to some of these places – because the beauty will be ruined.

We've been to public lands. We've seen that there are plenty of roads. We don't need more roads.

What we have here are people who selfishly want to turn our public lands and wilderness into shooting gallery amusement rides. This is not Disneyland! We need to show some respect. This is supposed to be a civilized society. Guys have learned that we don't go barging into the womens' restrooms, loudly proclaiming that this is a free country and we can go anywhere we want. Everyone and everything need at least some privacy.

Personally, I like riding a quad. They're fun. I may buy one someday – when I get too old and feeble to climb the hills on my own. I drive a four wheel drive truck. I spend a lot of time off pavement. Hey, I'm an offroader! All I'm saying is that we need to drive responsibly.

Let's not succumb to the lowest desires of a vocal minority of the population. There may seem like a lot of them, but to truly gage their importance, we need to consider future generations – who we owe the respect of leaving them something natural to enjoy.

Besides, I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed onto public lands. I'm not saying you can't go there. I'm saying get off your lazy ass and walk sometimes. It's good for you. And it will be far less damaging to the land. Let's show some respect. Let's not allow ourselves to be used.

Please send your comments to the BLM now.

Talk by Naomi Wolf - The End of America

10 Signs of Impending Fascism.

Last Chance

Tuesday, June 19 is the deadline for written public input to the BLM concerning the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the coal-fired power plant that LS Power/Dynegy/White Pine Energy Associates want to build in Steptoe Valley, near Mcgill and Ely.

If all you do is take a note over to the BLM building that says you're against coal-fired pollution - do it. It will make a difference.

Thank you