 The famous Alabama Hills arch frames Lone Pine Peak in granite. The Hills Stewardship Group sub-committee is eight months into a two-year study on possible official designations for the popular rock groups, such as National Monument or Recreation Area. File photo By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
7-7-2009 The Alabama Hills, arguably one of the most recognizable and visited spots in California, may soon be carrying some official titles.
A sub-committee of the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group is eight months into its two-year process of studying and gathering input from stakeholder and user groups about possible designations for the 30,000-acre recreation area that includes the jumble of famous, dark and rusty-red rocks at the foot of Mount Whitney.
The group is moving very diligently and with attention to detail from every stakeholder or user group that uses the Hills. Joe Q. Public has to put on a label and join one of these groups to have his voice heard, according to Kevin Mazzu, sub-committee chair.
Mazzu was very adamant about informing the public that the specific task of this sub-committee is to gather input from the public about what kind of designation is wanted and will be to the benefit of all concerned, including improved management options of the Hills. The sub-committee is not an elite group that will make the designation behind closed doors, according to Mazzu.
“We’re trying to get a consensus on this and not rush to judgement,” Mazzu said Thursday.
The next scheduled meeting for the sub-committee will be at 5 p.m. tomorrow, July 8, in the Lone Pine Film History Museum. Everyone interested in the Hills is invited, according to Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kathleen New, who especially urges business owners to attend. She said the informational meeting will be held to make people aware of the progress thus far on possible designations and the group’s future plans.
Mazzu added that if there is anything done at all with the Hills, “all current user groups will be able to continue that use.” Whether it’s rock-crawling or four-wheeling, rock climbing or filming, all the activities going on in the Hills now will continue in the future.
The sub-committee is also planning to talk to other communities that have completed or are going through similar designation processes, such as the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains National Monument near Palm Springs.
The possible designation titles for the Alabama Hills are that of a National Monument, a Scenic Recreation Area, an area of Outstanding Natural Resource, a Conservation Area or the current designation as a Special Recreation Management Area. These are all possible under the Bureau of Land Management’s National Landscape Conservation System.
Mazzu explained that the sub-committee is working hard and as quickly as possible to retain control of the whole process and any language that may be included in any designation. Mazzu said the group does not want to have that control fall into the hands of the federal legislature.
The idea of a designation for the Hills was prompted by a letter California photographer David Murnch sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein asking her to consider a National Monument designation for the Hills.
Mazzu added that from the outset of the designation process, there has been a deal between the group and legislators that lawmakers have “no interest in making a designation without local community input.”
This local input comes in the form of user groups and stak holders.
“It’s our commitment to reach out to everyone,” Mazzu said.
Some of the 40 user and 25 stakeholder groups include local businesses, the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors, the Advocates for Access to Public Lands, the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Friends of the Inyo, the Lone Pine Film Commission, Inyo Associates and the rock climbing community.
Mazzu explained that after a designation has been selected, some sort of public forum/informational meeting will be presented to locals and a formal recommendation will be passed on to the Stewardship Group.
For now, Mazzu said the sub-committee is still talking to those who may be affected by the designation.
At a February 2009 county supervisors meeting, the group was warned by the supervisors that a designation may open the door to unwanted restrictions on the area.
That issue will come to the plate when a designation, if any, is decided upon.
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