Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

type, but he isn't sure what it is. BLM documents state, however , th at the withdraw al plan ca lls for using th e land for th e establish me nt o f live bombing target a reas, lo w-flig h t app ro ach pa ths , a nd sa fety bou nda ries . One o f the mo st plausible reasons for th e withdraw al , says Mark Anderson of the Mot or cycle Industr y Council (MIC), is to keep the land in go vern me n t hands one way or anoth er. The land th at th e Nav y wants 10 th e Imperi al Vall ey, in fact, inv olves th ree Federal agencies - the BLM, Bureau of Reclam ati on (BO R), a nd the Nav y. Appar ently, the Imperial Vall ey situa tion works o u t some th in g like thi s: Some of th e land th at 's being a Is and plants. as ked for under th e Navv withdrawal The situa tio n ha s crea ted some pl an belongs to th e Bureau o f Recstra nge allia nces; organ izations whi ch la ma tio n; o the r parts are leased from never go t a long with each o ther befor e th e BO R to the Navy, and still o ther a re n ow banding together in th e face land par cels are leased from th e BOR o f a com mon ene my . District 38, to th e BLM to manage. Apparently, whi ch does virt ua lly a ll of its racing some o f th e BOR la n d th at th e Navy activi ties in th e Plaster City area , and wants is a bo ut to have its lea se expire th e local Sierra Club cha p ter a re now a t some time in th e future; if tha t land in agree me nt tha t somet hi ng ha s to isn 't re-leased for withdrawa l, it th en be done to stop the Nav y fro m taking reverts back to the publ ic - the a way half of th e Imperi al Valley. And BLM . The 'BLM, in turn , wouldn 't if th at weren't a ll, San Diego Gas and want to giv e up that land , and (as Electric is tak in g sides with th e racer s ment io ned ea rlier) they don ' t want to' a nd env iron me ntalists because th ey lose th e la n d they a lready have. So , to have hundreds of m iles (read milkeep th e la nd " usefu l" for any future lions of dollars) of h igh -power lin es expa nsion withou t hav in g to bother stru ng up th rough th e proposed withwi th lon g dela ys an d lot s .of paperdrawa l a rea . wor k, the Nav y is putting forth it s Even the Burea u o f Land Manwi thdrawa l now. The lan d th e Na vy agement sta nds to com e ou t on th e gets wo uld be theirs for a minimum of short end of the Navy la n d gra b if it . two years, but they cou ld possibl y have goes th rough. Accor di ng to BLM it for an indefi ni te a mou nt of time if documents, valua ble la nd s and rethey play their cards right. so u rces would be lost to the Na vy Ano ther reason. acco rding to local whic h wo ul d th en manage sai d pr onewspa pe r reports. is that the Navy pert y as it sees fit, meanin g th at an la nd scoo p is a lleged ly a sche me to estima ted $394,000 a year wh ich comes upgrade th e El Centro Naval Air from vari ous m in eral use lea ses a nd Faci lity to a full-fl edged nava l base. o ther agreeme nts wo uld be lost. And H ow th e Navy is goi ng to use a ll o f pri vate landowners in the proposed tha t land is a lmos t as mysteri ous as wi thd ra wa l areas wou ld sim p ly be th e h istory of th e land gra b itself. denied access to th eir own land. But , acco rdin g to Fudp ucker. Ca liSo there you have it. Not on ly does forn ia OR V lo bbyist Bob Ham a nd the Na vy land withdrawal seem u nbe BLM docu ments , the Navv would lieva bl y large (beca use it is), but, ha ve its land righ t now had it not according to D-38 President Otis Fudbeen for a co uple o f accidents. p ucker, " It's managed to o ffen d After a lmost six years o f stud ies to everybody - off-readers, the Sierra determi ne its land-u se requirem ents, Cl u b, local industry and uti lity co mthe approva l for th e land wi thdrawa l pa n ies, hu n ters, and even the BLM ." in th e EI Centro area wa s made Ap ril T he Navy wants to withd raw two 17 of la st yea r. In August, th e Navy's large pa rcels o f land , o ne ca lled T he Real Estate Division in San Bruno , Westside (Pa rcel I ); the ot her ca lled California , filed a withdr aw al ap pliThe Eas tside (Parcel 2). No t co untcatio n wit h the BLM a nd said lands ing the approxi mately 100,O O-plus O were pl ott ed a co up le of months acres th at th e Navy cu rrent ly cont ro ls later. At a bou t the same tim e a local (w h ich is leased to them fro m th e rod a n d gu n club in the El Centro Bu reau o f Recla ma tion ), BLM figarea app lied ·for a land wi thd ra wa l ur es reveal that T he Westside wo u ld with th e BLM so it co u ld esta blish a mak e up 110,944 'acres u nder the target-shoot ing range - on the very with drawal. wh ile T he Eastside wo u ld same land that the Na vy wa s pl anbe a nother 96,650. n ing to withdraw. Just befor e Novem Besid e affectin g th e riding areas ber th e conflict was dis covered and a lrea dy mentioned, the two par cels the Navy's paperwork was brought to would in cl ud e severa l o ther rid in g ligh t. Local BLM o fficia ls - wh o up a reas, ut ility sites and even a co uple unt il the n were co m ple tely un aware of hi ghways. Parcel I would also of wh at wa s happening - kicked th e swa llow up the O cot ill o Well s proapp lica tio n ba ck to th e Navy due to pos ed add-on ORV area , a ll Nat ional some improper descriptions o f th e G ypsum mining facilities and seclands requested for withdrawal. tions of Highways 78 a nd 80. Parcel 2 Despite a ll th eir work , a fluke was would in clude a BLM ra nger sta tio n , a ll it took to mak e th e Navy 's plans the Gecko cam pgrou nds , a port ion of sud de n ly co me undone. But th ey ra ilroad belonging to Sou the rn Pa ciweren' t fin ished. In a matter of weeks fic, portions of several geo therma l. gas a new ap p licat io n with the proper a nd oi l leases, a portion of a loca l descriptions had been written up a nd ai rport facil ity, and a segme nt of was ready for resubrniual , but it was Highway 78. too la te. The news o f th e Navy 's deeds' With th e cu rre nt testing facilities had stirred up a horn et' s nest of availabl e to th e Navy, their proposed indi gn at ion and a n ger - that was land withdrawal has left man y o bserveno ug h to stop them dead in the wa ter , ers puzzled, to sa y the least. Since then, a flurry of letter-writing a nd telephone call s have been mad e Still , in light of th e vast amou nt by ou traged off-re ad ers. Sierr a Clubof land that th e Navy's cu rre nt ly bers, hunters , miners - just a bo u t using, the withdraw al o f a n extra a ny body you can think of - to th e 300,000 acres .doesn 't seem to mak e BLM and the Navy. Congressman much sens e. The best gu ess, says Fudpucker , is that the Navy is planDuncan Hunter (R -45), who's a mern . n in g a new ' test progr am of som ~ _. ber.oh he H o.use.com t}lj t~ QQAr!Il .d ~ grab of 1985 00 O"l By Rex Reese ...... For the past several months the United States Navy has been on maneuvers in the middle of California's'Imperial Valley. They aren't using aircraft carriers or submarines, and nobody's ca lled in any tactical air strikes - not yet , that is. What th e Nav y's done is that they 've thrown up a bureau- -- 22 cra tic smo ke screen and have div ed deep ben eath a sea of paperwork a nd Federal inter-agen cy com pe titio n in a n a ttem p t to " wit hd ra w' ''a total of 315,164 acres o f land in the Imperial Vall ey area for their ow n uses. And if th e Navy gets th eir way, they will have closed down some o f the most important and popular o ff-roa d ridin g a reas in th e co u nt ry, places which in clude th e Pl aster City ope n riding a rea a nd th e famed a nd fabl ed G la mis sand dunes. This massive planned acq uisitio n by the Navy would eat up just a bou t every useable acre of riding turf in Imperial County. The repercussions from the Nav y withdraw al - if it goes th rough would be serio us. Closing o ff the many pop ula r rid in g ar eas in the Imperial Vall ey, in cl uding the p ro posed Ocot ill o Wells ORV add -on a rea a nd the San Seba stion Marsh would result in lit erall y hundreds of th ou sands o foff-roa d mo tor cycle and ATV riders bein g deprived of. in some cases , the on ly ridi ng land th ey have access to. The Gl am is du nes, for exam p le, were visit ed by approximt ely 400,000 ORV user s in 1984, according to BLM figu res. Also, m uc h of th e land a t sta ke ha s been acq uired . and developed over th e years wi th BLM and Cal ifo rnia State " G reen Stickie" moni es. Bu t the loss o f all o f this land wouldn ' t affect just OR V users; there would be a " trick le down " effect a s well. Busin esses in th e local ci ties of Brawl ey, EI Ce ntro a nd Im peri al woul d feel the pi nc h as the mo ney spe nt by off-roa d recreati onali sts dries up. In particu lar , th e handful of motorcycle a nd accessory store dealers, without any sport to su p port th em , would mo st likely go o ut of business; deal ers in neighboring San Diego , Riv erside, Sa n Bernardino , Orange and Los Angeles co u nties would suffer to varying' degr ees as well. T he Na vy land withdraw al would probabl y be severe enoug h to crea te a ripple effect that would see off-roading acro ss th e co u ntry hurt gr eatl y. Other land users besid es off-readers can expect to be di splaced o r o the rwi se a ffected by the proposed Navy land gr ab. A major group of vict im s would be lo cal co m pa n ies which extract minerals and other raw material s from th e ground for the construction and chem ica l industries. One company in particular - National G ypsu m - may en d up getting thrown out of its own mining facilities. In th e sa me area a re geothermal a nd natural gas sources which co u ld be exploited to provide power to local com m u n ities - but th e withdraw al would probabl y limit th eir use prim arily to the Navy. In additi on to these, the Navy land withdraw al would also disrupt local agriculture, archeological sites, natural formations; and the habitats of rare anirn - _ Services, is apparently doing his best to get th e Navy to cha n ge its mind. The BLM , accordin g to El Centro Area Manager Roger Zortman , is trying to get th e Nav y to sign a memorandum o( understanding (MOU a lso known as a "coo pera tive agreement " ) which would let th em use th e lands in question wh ile still a llowing other uses a t th e sa me tim e. Local ORV groups, su ch a s' Distri ct 38's San Diego County Sports Commi nee a nd th e San Diego Off-Road Coalition have been working hard to keep the pressure up. The latest ro u n d in the dispute between th e Nav y an d those who want to keep th e Imperi al Vall ey open was recently staged before th e Imperial Vall ey Pl anning Commissio n (wh ich is cha ired by Mr. Don Brown, wh o happens to be a n a vid ATV rider , by the wa y). According to those who witnessed the proceedings, th e Nav y presented an a p pa ren tly stra ig h t-for wa rd a rg u me nt for it s ca use. But, when spo kesmen from th e El Centro Naval Air Fa cility were as ked speci fic questions about their reasons for the land withdrawal, they began taking eva sive manuevers. Th e major reason for th e withdrawa l o f so much land, the Nav y is reportedl y saying, is sa fety. The withd rawn land would be divided up into zones to acco rnoda te various milita ry ac tivi ties, some of whi ch would involv e th e use of live weapo ns and lasers. Zon e A land , for example, is designat ed for targets and weapons use which would a u to ma tica lly preclude a ny cons ide ra tio n for civilia n use of a nv nature - in o ther words, o fflim its! Zon e B land is for a p p roach to th at target areas an d arm ing of weapons and o th er related devi ces. Accor ding to BLM documents, weapons may have to be ejected into Zon e B a reas due to eq u ip me n t malfunction a nd/or sa fety rea sons a nd would a lso be o ff-lim its to civi lia ns . Zon e C land would serve as a sa fety bounda ry for Zone A and B areas as well as providing room for maneu vering Naval ai rcraft. Zon e C land , co u ld be open to civi lia n use with some restric tio ns applying. H ow ever, the most seri ous aspect of th e Nav y plan a re the areas desi gnat ed for Zone B use. The corridor wh ich run s from th e Pl a ster City area , th rou gh Naval Air Facility land, to O cotillo Well s fall s in to this ca tegory . Addi tio na lly, th ere a re tw o pat ch es of land o n NAF land which wou ld receive Zon e B designations - a san d dune rid ing a rea sou th of Superstition Mountain a nd a dry la kebed , The cl osure of thes e three a reas would effectively sh u t down all District 38 racing. Still , th e Navy assu red those present a t th e Commission me eting that there "wou ld be no conflic ts" of usage under th e withdrawal. The Navy maintains tha t though th e land would be under their contro l, "co us age" (as th ey ca ll it ) for civilian use would be a llowed. Until February 5, th e Navy land grab is in a holdin g pattern of sorts. That 's just eno ugh time to become a pa the tic a bo u t wh at 's happening and forget abo u t it unti l it 's too late. It' s al so en ough time for the Navy to get its ac t toge the r to make a strong a rgu me nt a bou t wh y it needs to withdraw the huge amount of land that it wants. And it would be a sha me if th ey goi a way with it . For it' s own part, the Navy has been very qui et a bo u t th e whole matter , probabl y hoping that it will just go aw a y. The cu rre nt plan is that Navy representatives will meet with BLM officials February 5at the BLM 's R iverside, California office to work out details; it was originally in tended

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