Farr bill passed by House seen as boon to tourism; condors
delayed as park officials struggle with logistics
If the Senate agrees with the House this week, the government
will set aside 2,715 more acres around Pinnacles National Monument
as federally protected wilderness, a move that will enhance the
park’s plan to reintroduce six rare California Condors, whose
arrival now has been delayed by logistics until at least next
spring.
Farr bill passed by House seen as boon to tourism; condors delayed as park officials struggle with logistics
If the Senate agrees with the House this week, the government will set aside 2,715 more acres around Pinnacles National Monument as federally protected wilderness, a move that will enhance the park’s plan to reintroduce six rare California Condors, whose arrival now has been delayed by logistics until at least next spring.
The legislation, sponsored by Congressman Sam Farr, has been in the works for two years. Last Thursday the House of Representatives voted to extend wilderness designation to nearly 57,000 acres of federal lands in Monterey and San Benito counties, the last major component of Big Sur land protections geared to preserve the rugged terrain for research and recreation. On Wednesday the Senate agreed.
Farr said preserving land in the Pinnacles has a two-fold purpose: keeping the land pristine and boosting tourism.
“We’re working on getting the boundaries expanded and designated permanently, to get the federal government to put resources into better access on the western and eastern sides of the park,” said Farr.
On the eastern side, people enter from the Central Valley and Hollister, and on the western side they come in from Soledad and Gonzales. People traveling long distances, he said, go through those towns and spend.
“It’s an attractive area for tourists to come,” he added. “But you can’t get there unless you go through the main street of Hollister. It’s not just pretty scenery, it’s jobs, jobs and jobs.”
About 90 percent of the Pinnacles’ 24,000 acres is already designated as protected federal wilderness. If the bill clears the Senate and the President’s desk, it will convert a chunk of the park’s year-2000 land acquisition – called “plain old BLM land” by Farr’s aides – into officially protected wilderness as well.
These buffer zones, said the congressman, were protected – but not permanently — as BLM wilderness study areas.
About 10,000 acres were added in 2000 to the Pinnacles through former President Clinton’s federal Wilderness Preservation Act. Of that, 8,000 acres are designated BLM wilderness study areas, and 2,000 are on private land that was placed inside the park’s perimeter. The private land is owned by Stu and Peggy Kingman and several other private owners, who have agreed to sell their acreage to the park but who are not affected by this pending legislation. The acreage that is slated for federal protection is on the BLM land, and is separated into several parcels, mostly portions of the Chalone Creek watershed in San Benito County, the undisturbed McCabe Canyon and the southern half of the northern ridgeline. McCabe Canyon is a tributary of Chalone Creek and is an important riparian habitat.
“We treated it like protected wilderness area anyway, but it’s good to clean (the designations) up, otherwise it leaves that land in limbo,” said Pinnacles Park Superintendent Cicely Muldoon.
Land designated as “protected wilderness” is permanently protected from development or structures of any kind, is free of chainsaws and devoid of motorized vehicles. It is the highest level of protection the United States can place on federal land.
With Senate approval, most of the land from the lush coastal mountains to as far west as 15 miles off shore would be protected in some manner. Under the plan, protections would extend to the remaining segments of the Los Padres National Forest that have not been included in the wilderness areas.
The Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur would acquire 37,000 protected acres. The remaining acreage would fold into the Silver Peak wilderness area, which would gain 17,055 acres. The Pinnacles National Monument, augmented by 2,715 protected acres, brings the total acres of permanently protected wilderness in the park to 15,667.
Ventana Wilderness officials have made an agreement with Pinnacles officials and the federal parks system to re-introduce the nearly extinct California Condor into the park perimeters. The juvenile birds, bred in captivity in San Diego, were scheduled to arrive at the park before Christmas, but park officials have run into snags.
The biggest problem is the daily trips bird caretakers would have to make in vehicles over private land to get to the birds’ enclosed habitat, still not built. The shelter will serve as the initial foster home and sanctuary when the birds arrive.
But the private landowners whose land must be traversed haven’t liked the traffic caused during just the site-scoping process, so park officials are now looking at another site closer to park headquarters on the eastern side.
“We really have to have a road,” said Muldoon.
The change in plans has bumped up the scheduled arrival of the condors to early spring, and the original “gang of six” birds will probably go to the Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur. The Pinnacles will get a new batch of hatchlings from San Diego next year.
After they arrive and become acclimated to their surroundings, the six young condors will be protected beyond what was originally expected. Farr and his aides see the new wilderness designations as a benefit to the condor recovery endeavor, and Muldoon concurs.
“I absolutely agree with that,” she said. “And condors are a symbol of the wilderness.”
With the new protection, Farr said, none of the forest lands could be developed. No logging or mining would be permitted in the areas, but swatches of forest would remain open for grazing, he said.
Supervisor-elect Reb Monaco wasn’t as enthusiastic about the wilderness expansion, or even the condor program, as Farr and park officials are. Monaco said he doesn’t have an issue with expanding the wilderness area in the park as long as it doesn’t deprive anyone of private land. However, he does have a concern with public accessibility to it.
“What are we going to do with that expanded land?” said Monaco, who called from Pasadena, where he was attending a supervisors’ orientation this week. “It has to be public access land. Are they going to allow overnight camping in there?
“At some point, when are we going to say ‘enough is enough’ to the size of a public park facility?” he added. “The condor program is good. But I’m not sure how much the people are interested in the condor program.”
The included areas also are part of a larger, controversial 2.5 million-acre statewide wilderness bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
“Obviously, this is encouraging,” said David Sandretti, a spokesman for Boxer. “We’re taking this as the first step that we can build some momentum for the senator’s wilderness bill going into next year.”
The wilderness inclusions were part of a collection of a dozen or so non-controversial bills approved early Friday by the House before it adjourned for the year.
The region south of the coastal cities of Monterey and Carmel is one of California’s most visited recreation areas. Farr said preserving the land for hiking and camping, as well as wildlife and ecological research, will add to its draw.
Access to private property in-holdings that are adjacent to the new wilderness areas and within the national forest will remain unchanged from present agreements. The property rights and titles of landowners in or near the National Forest or the Pinnacles National Monument will not be affected. Likewise, water rights and water source agreements with federal land agencies will remain unchanged.
“We have a preservation mandate versus a multiple-use mandate in the park,” said Muldoon. “For us, this is another nice layer toward that.”
Farr sees the extensions of federal lands as a win-win situation.
“One of the great draws to San Benito County has always been the Pinnacles,” said Farr. “But the Pinnacles has always been low priority on the federal parks list…you have Mohave, you have Yosemite. It’s always been the bridesmaid of the National Park Service.”
“I’ve always said since I entered this office that my environmentalism is connected to the economy,” he said. “I’m trying to improve the quality of life by protecting both.”
