I am a resident of Leesville, a small hamlet located at the head of Bear Valley, High Valley and Indian Valley. Here, my neighbors and I eke out a living from the land, raising our children to be respectful of the land and to be proud Americans, just like our forebears had done when they had settled this beautiful area beginning in the 1850’s. This is all grazing country now (beef production) as the mines played out years ago and the mineral water resorts are long abandoned. It is quiet out her now, peaceful, a place of much contentment… that is until the weekend rolls around.
By Friday afternoon, our narrow roads come alive with the roar of traffic, endless streams of off-roaders with their many “toys”, RV trailers, ATV’s, boats, and lifted trucks. Fishermen, motorcycle riders, baja’ers, target shooters, you name it, there they go on their hurried way west to Indian Valley Reservoir, Walker Ridge, Goat mountain and Stonyford. We call them “weekend warriors;” they roll in on the Fridays, all hours of the night, and then roar back out on Sundays, leaving us with their garbage and ravaged roads. This is the crowd enjoying their public lands and good on them, as I am not writing this piece to deny them their rights, but instead I want to talk about those public lands and this whole National Monument thing.
It is not a good idea for multiple reasons. First, most of these lands, ie. Walker Ridge, Goat, and Snow Mountain are already owned and managed by BLM and Forest Service.
They are already “protected” (all though recently ravaged by wildfires. These lands are currently designated managed for “multiple use”, even though livestock grazers and loggers have been shut out for many years. Now, adding another layer of protectionism will only exacerbate the problem, worse yet, it will lead to further road closures, and less public access as has been the case to the south all the way to the Lake Berryessa dam. My guess is once the Blue Ridge Corridor is expanded to include Walker Ridge and Goat Mountain, the off-roaders will be expelled. I am not a fan of theirs, but it would be unjust to them to deny them multiple use.
The Whole Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument is nothing more than a continuous land grab. The current designation stretches from west of Winters (The Bobcat ranch) almost to Pope Valley and north all the way to Highway 20, and across at the county line. It encompasses all of Knoxville Road up to Morgan Valley and recently another ranch was purchased and added at the Cache Creed highway 20 juncture. These private deeded properties are taken from the County tax roles and condemned from further grazing thus creating in its wake another firestorm. The Payne Ranch (10,000 acres), the County Line Hayfield (1500) acres, the Judge Davis Ranch (360 acres), and Meloney Flat (160 acres) have all become part of this land grab and removed from further agricultural use and food production.
They are not going to stop this expansion, they are only really getting started. Enough of this state is already protected, as, according to BLM, about 46% of California’s land area or 48 million acres is owned by federal agencies, such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. That doesn’t include lands that are controlled and managed by conservation groups. Let us focus instead on feeding not only Americans but a world population. Let’s instead protect our land for our agricultural production.
Slim Edwards
Leesville, CA
