Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Interior Secretary Donald Hodel (inset) denounced Alan Cranston's plan to shut down the California desert. RadngA YAMAHA? SLOAN'S HONDA/YAMAHA Join Competition Support Discount Program!! INSTMT SERVICED OBI P.u $I Ips'" UPS'" ......... "21JI8:~ ..... ......7 S.s t , 1M ~~!> . IiiiMiiiI tUm .._... ~ • ClII Z T , IF .. .. ..... _~ Sloat'S HOHDAIWW.:N" IJt"• • , .... CiII'. . .. . . I~ C I Cycle Ne."'s readers - !he £;rsIIO know! HUGE STOCK - LOW PRICES EXPERIENCED STAFF Why Buy Anywhere Else? BELLFLOWER YAMAHA 104111 A1lll1r•• BoIllowor. CA (213) 925-5097 Interior Secretary blasts Cranston, S.7 By Farren Williams UNIVERSAL CITY, CA, APR. 30 Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel blasted U.S. Senator Alan Cranston's (DCA) Senate Bill 7 today, calling the proposed 1987 Desert Protection Act, "a violation of the public trust. "We are strongly opposed to ',,' the Cra?st?n bI.II, PreSIdent Reagan s Intenor secretary said. "It appalls me. We will join with you in resisting this legislation." Hodel's comments, made at the! Sheraton Universal Hotel before a 15-member panel representating organizations opposed to the Sierra Club-backed measure, marks the first time any Reagan Administration o££icial has gone on record against S7 . . " . Cranston s. bill, the largc:st arldla;nd protecuon proposal 10 U.S. history, ~oul~ ~lose mo~t ~f southern Cahform.a s 25-.mllh~n acre desert .t~ pubhc use, 10eluding off.road TIding. Under S.7, the amount of land commiu~d to park and wilderness preservauon would more than double, from 19% to 42%. The amount of land managed by the Bureau ?f Land Mana~ment and made available for pubhc use would be red~ced from 40% t? about 17%. And pTl;vate lands which make up hold1Ogs within proposed parks and wilder· ness areas would be acquired by the government, through cash payment or by land exchange on an acre-peracre basis. 1£ land exchange occurs, acreage given to private landowners would come from the 17% of the desert designated for general public use. . "A gross injustice and wrong could be perpetrated here," Hodel warned. "The Cranston bill reflects the philosophy that what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable. We oppose the bill because it violates the public trust by ignoring the California Desert Plan and because the supporters of the bill are misrep- resenting its effects." "SuPIX?rt~rs claim "the ~ill won't a££ect eXlsung uses, said Hodel. "They are spreading falsehoods. There is no truth whatsoever to their st3;~ements. . . When the Cahforma Desert Plan ~as a'ppro~ed by the ~t.e~ AdminIstrauon (10 (980), crlllClsm was often. leveled. at then-S~?"el!lryof the ~~tenor o;cI1 Andrus, said Hodel. It was said .tha~ Andru~ was 100% pro-preservauomst. !h~t s not true. He ~as pro-presevauoDlst,. but even he,reJected w~a~ you have 10 S.7. 'The (exlstmg) plan protects preservation as well as multipleuse," said Hodel. "That was true in 1980, it is true in 1987 and it should continue to be true." Hodel warned that even with administration backing, it could be difficult to defeat Cranston, who is one of the most powerful Democrats in the U.S. Senate. "You will have to do more than you are now doing," he said. "You've got to work together for a common interest (without conflicts between separate user groups). We'd like to work with you. You've got a story to tell 1£ you tell it Americans will respo~d." ' The time for action is growing near, according to Derrick Crandall, a spokesman for !he American Recreation Coalition which sponsored the meeting with Hodel. "Key congressional sta££ers see momentum building around S.7," Crandall said. "It's a serious and very live proposal. They see hearings this year. It's time for opponents to become more visible." According to Marie Brashear, chief executive o££icer for the California Desert Coalition, field hearings on the measure could be held by the senate sometime this summer, and senate hearings in Washington D.C. could be conducted',

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