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Field trip to Alabama Hills next step in process to develop lasting community stewardship program
By Jon Klusmire Register Staff
Hiding behind towering sage and waves of weeds is a forlorn pair of informational boards holding a smattering of information and notices. The “entrance” to what is ambitiously called an “information kiosk” is also somewhat hidden since it’s poorly marked and barely noticeable, even though it’s right on Whitney Portal Road.
What does stand out, however, is the huge, concrete sign that declares “Alabama Hills Recreation Lands.” Making an effort to educate visitors and locals about the history, value and the fragility of the Alabama Hills has become one of the key goals of the evolving Alabama Hills community stewardship program currently being developed by members of the Lone Pine community and the Bureau of Land Management. Recently, as part of a field trip to the Hills, the group paid a visit to the BLM’s scraggly little parking lot and informational kiosk, which probably marked the largest batch of folks to visit the spot in quite a while. The overgrown wide spot could become a legitimate “entry station” to the Alabamas, noted BLM’s Jim Jennings, who has been the BLM’s man on the ground in the Alabamas for years. While the BLM doesn’t have the money to revamp the kiosk area, there were plenty of volunteers willing to take on the task. And, they noted, it wouldn’t take much to get the kiosk noticed. A little brush clearing and some general pruning and weed cutting would, magically, make the “entrance station” visible from the road. With a little help from the community, the entry kiosk could be stocked with information about what to do and where to go in the Alabamas, the group noted. A good map could point out interesting sights on existing roads, point out popular climbing areas, highlight some of the area’s historic, movie-related scenery, and note where camping is most appropriate. Other information, whether in the form of a brochure or an “ethics flyer,” could inform visitors about the rules and regulations governing the 30,000 acres of “semi-primitive, roaded” public land that make up the Alabamas. See hills, page A-6 hills Continued from front page Sprucing up the kiosk and then rounding up a set of educational materials to put in a new “entrance station” might become one of the first projects undertaken by the stewardship group, but it has also laid the foundation for its effort in previous meetings. Guiding the community’s effort to play a larger, hands-on role in keeping the Alabamas a special place is a recently completed “vision statement.” The statement describes the unique beauty and features that draw everyone from photographers to movie productions to hikers to solitude seekers to the Alabamas. (See page A-6 for the complete vision statement.) “The play of light and quality of air lift the spirit and assure the participants that all challenges can be addressed and solutions found by listening and working together,” the vision statement notes. “These Alabama Hills continue to foster an important and complex relationship with all of us.” The “us” mentioned in the mission statement refers to everyone from the local who visits the Hills constantly to visitors who make the trek to the area a couple times a year to movie crews to random visitors simply being directed to the area after asking what there is to do in Lone Pine. The popularity of the Hills, and the diverse users in the Hills at any given time, guarantee that there will be plenty of projects, tasks, concerns and ideas for the stewardship group to ponder. From the very first meeting, the stewardship group said it wanted to focus on education as the first, and most effective, way to not only preserve the Alabama Hills in their current state, but continue to allow growing numbers of visitors to enjoy Lone Pine’s “backyard.” With such a diverse group to reach, the educational angle seems to make the most sense, both logistically and as a practical matter. Jennings said the BLM agrees with that approach, and has seen it work in other popular areas it manages. He noted that educating users before they get to the land in question is a good management approach for several reasons. First, clearly outlining rules and regulations keep accidental violations to a minimum. The educational effort can also minimize the number of signs and other “reminders” needed to help enforce the rules. Most important, when people know the rules and what is expected of them, they tend to play by the rules and feel like they are contributing to keeping the area in good shape, he added. The stewardship effort, Jennings stressed, is a long-term program. The pace of projects, be they educational efforts, clean-up days, marketing, work on roads and trails, would probably be determined by how many volunteers are available, and how many projects the group wanted to take on at any given time. Getting a good overview of the Alabamas can be a challenge. The roads that scoot off of Movie Road head in all directions and the lay of the land can limit the view to what’s right in sight. That point was brought home during the group’s next stop on the recent field trip, Lone Ranger Canyon. On the way, the car-pooling caravan got a small taste of what kind of recreation was being enjoyed that evening in the Alabamas. Just past the intersection of Movie Road and Whitney Portal Road, a camper had tucked itself right up to the edge of a nice rock formation. Several cars and SUVs were tooling around the area, sending up little plumes of dust. Anyway, once situated in the famous location (which is located on a side road not identified by any sign), the group enjoyed the view of the rounded rocks surrounding them and the Sierra to the west. Then out came a satellite map of the whole region with the roads cutting through and across the Alabamas in various colors. The road map made a few folks gasp almost as much as the scenery. Looking at the yellow squiggly lines that criss-crossed a large section of the Alabamas, someone noted, with a little alarm, “it’s almost like a street grid.” While most of the roads and even the little spurs off those roads actually led to something worth looking at or a place to enjoy, there were also plenty of roads that seemed to be duplicates or instances where several roads led to the same place. Jennings said the BLM would be working on a road inventory, and there was no rush to take any action. If the group wanted to, it could single out three or four unnecessary roads a year for work or closure or new regulations, or one area adversely impacted by roads, and try to rectify that situation. Again, he stressed there was plenty of time, and progress on any road-related issues would be driven by the group, not the BLM. While everyone pondered all the roads in the area, it seemed like a good time to hand out a fresh round of “Don’t Crush the Brush” buttons. Chris Langley, the Inyo County film commissioner, handed out the buttons. The program, he has noted, was a joint effort between the Film Commission and BLM to educate television, commercial and movie crews about the importance of staying on existing roads and not driving out into the sagebrush. That program has been quite successful, he has said, primarily because it shows visiting crews that the locals and the BLM are serious about not crushing brush. That environment-friendly attitude is picked up by the crews and they, too, take any brush-crushing as a serious move. Another key, though, is to actually have people on the scene. Jennings said that BLM definitely needs to have more of a presence on the ground in the Alabamas to monitor the area and users. Using volunteers, getting more federal or state funding and, once more, a more intense educational effort about how to enjoy and care for the Hills at the same time could be ways to increase manpower and reduce problems at the same time. Onward, to the wedding site. Yep, the wedding site. Remember the first meeting where a couple asked why they couldn’t get married in the Alabamas? Actually, they could, but they need a permit and permission and need to follow a bunch of rules. The site proposed for the nuptials was actually a broad, dirt “pull out” alongside a fairly nice road. “This wedding idea has been an eye-opener for us,” said Diana Pietrasanta, a BLM recreation planner. The BLM just finished helping a crew of 500 shoot scenes for the “Iron Man” feature film, which took several weeks, involved closing down some roads in the area and generally was a major undertaking. After that experience, it didn’t seem like such a big deal to allow, with some regulation, a wedding that would take place on a small spot of dirt, run for a couple of hours and include 100 people. In fact, Pietrasanta said the BLM might even consider designating several sites in the Hills for weddings and other group activities. Such a move, the group noted, might have a nice, positive economic impact on the local economy, and could be conducted in such a way that they wouldn’t have a negative impact on the area. As the group discussed the next meeting date (June 27), the sun started to drop behind the Sierra. But participants kept chatting, unwilling, it seemed, to leave a quite spot in the Alabamas where “the play of light and quality of air lift the spirit.”
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