One thing that surprised The General while attending the January 13 BLM CCMA DEIS public meeting in Coalinga was the number of ranchers and farmers who were monitoring the Carnegie SVRA crisis.
The main concern is that a victory by anti-OHV groups at Carnegie would open the legal floodgates for similar lawsuits - to be filed against property owners – that would seek to interfere with an agency's executive branch authority to exercise discretion regarding how they select to enforce state regulations.
An excellent response and overview on this topic by the CA Water Board on the Carnegie lawsuit is posted by my good friends at CarnegieForever.org:
http://carnegieforever.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/parks-v-superior-court-carnegie-svra-1-11-2010-signed.pdf
The main concern is that a victory by anti-OHV groups at Carnegie would open the legal floodgates for similar lawsuits - to be filed against property owners – that would seek to interfere with an agency's executive branch authority to exercise discretion regarding how they select to enforce state regulations.
An excellent response and overview on this topic by the CA Water Board on the Carnegie lawsuit is posted by my good friends at CarnegieForever.org:
http://carnegieforever.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/parks-v-superior-court-carnegie-svra-1-11-2010-signed.pdf
What the anti-OHV groups are doing at Carnegie could be likened to having some public interest group filing a lawsuit against the CHP for not properly enforcing the state’s driving or speed laws. As you know, the CHP is given a lot of discretion on how it deploys its officers to enforce said laws. Having a “citizen’s group” successfully insert itself into what is historically an administrative decision-making process at Carnegie could have grave impacts to private property owners, small businesses, and recreationists throughout the state.
As the Recreation HQ has stated before, 2010 will be a very challenging year for OHV access interests at Carnegie, CCMA, and elsewhere. The HQ thanks you for your service and support.
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All Americans should be concerned any time our freedoms come under attack. This is a classic divide and conquer maneuver. I'm glad the ranchers and farmers can see this. In reading the comments on the draft EIS for CCMA, I was concerned when reading the suggestions from a rock hound. His statement came across as if he could care less about OHV problems and was only concerned about access for him and his fellow rock hounds. Seems very short sighted to me. We are ALL under attack here, and we need to band together. United we ride, divided we walk.
ReplyDelete10:4 Don.
ReplyDeleteThe Water Boards seem really ticked off that the suit against Carnegie was approved by a judge rather than an agency that is commissioned to determine water quality.
Dave D.