High Sierra Showdown on Feb. 15 - Regular Folks v. TNC in Fight at Independence Lake

Map of Independence Lake (click on photo to enlarge)

Back in August 26 of 2010, HQ featured a story about a small but determined band of local recreationists fighting for their historic access rights at Independence Lake located in the Sierra Nevada. It is one of those all to familiar and tragic stories where a land trust comes and “buys’ up acreage and does not tell the local folks that they will be turning that land into de facto Wilderness.


Aug. 26 Blog on Fight between The Nature Conservancy and Local Recreationists
http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/2010/08/loss-of-freedom-at-independence-lake.html

Since that post, the Friends of Independence Lake have been aggressively fighting for their access rights to a lake that many families have used for generations. Those efforts have resulted in the Sierra County Board of Supervisors taking up that issue on Feb. 15 at a board meeting in Loyalton, CA.

Feb. 15 Sierra County Board of Supervisors Meeting at Loyalton
http://www.sierracounty.ws/index.php?module=calendar&calendar[view]=day&month=02&year=2011&day=15

It’s not just lake access that has been impacted, but general public motorized use of historic county roads. Some of those roads are gated and use by street legal and non-street legal OHVs and OSVs are at risk as well.


For a current overview of the battle, please go to the Friends of Independence Lake and read their story. It is important for users to show up and let the board know that they should defend continued OHV and OSV access as well as historic boat access at the lake.

Friends of Independence Lake Website (great overview of issue and how taxpayers are helping fund closures like this - read about how Grandpa was told to take a hike)
http://www.friendsofindependencelake.org/

If you want to find out more about what land trusts and other green interests are doing to attack your access and property rights, feel free to visit the Property Rights Foundation of America’s website below. They have a lot of good information.

Property Rights Foundation of America’s Website
http://prfamerica.org/

HQ urges all access interests in the Loyalton area or others who recreate in or near Independence Lake to attend the Feb. 15 BOS meeting.  Since my August 26 blog, I have talked with several retired FS staffers who know the area and they feel that the lake should have gone to the FS where that agency would have kept it open for multiple-use recreation.

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