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McKeon rebuts critics' claims |
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
 U.S. Congressman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon stands before a stretch of the Northern San Gabriel Mountains as he offers details of his bipartisan wilderness legislation during a press conference in Santa Clarita on Thursday, May 29. File photo By Ken Koerner
Register Staff 5-31-2008
In the wake of Congressman Buck McKeon’s announcement last week that he has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to designate 400,000-plus acres of Eastern Sierra lands as wilderness, the lawmaker is defending himself against allegations from a group he once counted among his top supporters.
Following Friday’s press conference at the Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop in which McKeon offered details on his H.R. No. 6156 wilderness legislation, and a companion bill in the U.S. Senate by Barbara Boxer (D-California), Advocates for Access to Public Lands (AAPL) called the congressman’s proposal a “180-shift” in policy and even a “betrayal.”
McKeon expressed his disappointment Friday in Noles’ views, releasing a two-page statement in which he takes to task some of the more harsh claims made by Noles in the Thursday, May 29 issue of The Inyo Register.
“He (McKeon) respects the work of certain local activists who are and will continue to be important as this bill moves forward,” McKeon Press Secretary Lindsey Mask said, “but he is extremely disappointed by recent comments that were made, especially considering how hard he worked to accommodate their primary concerns.”
In the response received from McKeon’s office, under the heading “AAPL Member Claims About H.R. 6156 Truth Sheet,” the Congressman’s staff highlighted “AAPL Claims” in one column and “The Truth” in an opposite column.
The “AAPL CLAIM” is consistently attributed to quotes from Noles in the referenced article.
• AAPL CLAIM: “...this is backdoor stuff that the public doesn’t know anything about. It’s a 180-degree shift on the part of Buck McKeon.”
According to McKeon, various interests have been working with him for several years on the matter. “In 2004 McKeon brought together a select group of local elected officials, OHV advocates and wilderness enthusiasts to craft a compromise wilderness bill,” his response states, noting that the product of those discussions, H.R. No. 5149. was introduced on April 6, 2006.
Within this same section of his reply, it’s noted that “since McKeon’s election to represent Inyo and Mono counties in 2002 he has received thousands of letters, phone calls and emails expressing support for an Eastern Sierra Wilderness designation.”
McKeon goes on to say that in “letters of support received between December, 2005 and March, 2006” regarding the 2006 legislation, H.R. No. 5149, “was supported by a myriad of groups including Mono County Board of Supervisors, Town of Mammoth Lakes, and over 150 local businesses.”
Not only that, McKeon indicates that “many of those same groups expressed support for a large bill to deal with even more of the ongoing federal land issues in Mono and Inyo counties.”
• AAPL CLAIM: “Now (Buck) turns around and puts his support into essentially backing Senator Boxer’s Wild Heritage Act which was unanimously opposed by every member of the Inyo County Board of Supervisors less than a year ago.”
According to McKeon, the two bills are not one and the same. His legislation “contains 472,804 acres through the 25th District of California. Boxer’s statewide bill, S. No. 493, contains almost twice as much wilderness in the 25th District – over 840,000 acres.”
McKeon’s statement goes on to note that “essential components of his new legislation include important protection for snowmobile use near Bridgeport, CA, over 50,000 acres of Wilderness Study Area release and unrestricted access to areas such as Dumont Dunes, Sperry Wash and Laurel Lakes. Boxer’s statewide Wild Heritage Act includes none of these provisions.”
• AAPL CLAIM: “We developed a plan that provided for 50,000 acres and called for 170,000 acres of land to be managed as a national recreation area. This alternative to a ‘pure wilderness designation’ was most actively championed by Mono County Supervisor Hap Hazard and agreed to by all those with whom we were interacting as a totally reasonable and workable management plan for the Whites.”
First off, according to McKeon, National Recreation Areas are “typically created to encompass non-controversial water recreation sites such as Lake Mead, Nev.”
The congressman also noted that “the concept of a 170,000-acre NRA in the Inyo National Forest is neither reasonable nor workable for one of the largest unprotected roadless area in the lower 48 states, containing the world’s oldest living trees, the ancient Bristlecone Pines.”
Beyond the specific rebuttal points provided in the Congressman’s reply, there was also something that may be construed to reflect McKeon’s “hands across the water” attitude.
“Congressman McKeon understands what a highly charged and emotional issue wilderness designations, access and land rights are, and he deeply appreciates that,” McKeon Press Secretary Mask said. “The congressman has worked tirelessly to visit with and include all key stakeholders as he worked towards drafting legislation and will continue to do so as the legislative process continues.” |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 )
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| I`ve been vacationing in the bishop area all my life. as a child
my father would take us up to tom`s place every summer to fish.now that my father
has passed, my visits there remind me of him. i`ve been visiting since 1965! William Jones - San Diego, CA | |
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