{"id":4622,"date":"2013-05-03T08:35:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T15:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/?p=4622"},"modified":"2013-05-03T08:35:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T15:35:50","slug":"comments-on-proposed-wilderness-needed-by-may-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/2013\/05\/03\/comments-on-proposed-wilderness-needed-by-may-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Comments on Proposed Wilderness Needed by May 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users:<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

As some of you know, the Forest Service, in response to a court order, has proposed three alternatives for the future management of roughly 40,000 acres of land to the northeast of Castaic Lake. \u00a0This area is referred to as Salt Creek and Fish Canyon. \u00a0In two of the three alternatives, large amounts of land would be designated as a \u201cRecommended Wilderness\u201d which would then prohibit any \u201cmechanized\u201d use including bicycles.<\/p>\n

The three alternatives are summarized as follows:<\/p>\n

Alternative 1: \u00a0No change. \u00a0The existing designation of Back County, Non-Motorized would remain. \u00a0Alternative 1, of course, is our preferred alternative.<\/p>\n

Alternative 2: \u00a0The entire Salt Creek\/Fish Canyon area would be designated as a Recommended Wilderness. \u00a0However, a number of existing trails including the \u00a0Gillette Mine Trail, the Fish Canyon Trail, and the Burnt Peak Trail would be \u201ccherry stemmed\u201d from the Recommended Wilderness and would remain accessible to bicycles. \u00a0If this Alternative 2 is selected, we would request some additional cherry stems and other changes.<\/p>\n

Alternative 3: \u00a0This alternative would designate the entire Salt Creek\/Fish Canyon area as a Recommended Wilderness WITHOUT any cherry stems for existing trails. \u00a0In addition, the new Recommended Wilderness would extend to the east side of Lake Hughes Road to include the Tule and Red Mountain areas just to the north of Tapia Canyon. \u00a0We oppose Alternative 3 entirely.<\/p>\n

Here’s a link to maps of the three alternatives:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/a123.g.akamai.net\/7\/123\/11558\/abc123\/forestservic.download.akamai.com\/11558\/www\/nepa\/76364_FSPLT2_370978.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

We are asking all of you to write an email or letter to the Forest Service with the following comments.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Identify yourself as a LOCAL resident of the Santa Clarita area who is concerned about a shortage of mountain bike trails in our area.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Express a strong preference for Alternative 1 and request a study to be done for additional trails in this and other areas in the Santa Clarita vicinity.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Request that if Alternative 2 is pursued, that it be amended as follows:<\/p>\n

a. \u00a0A cherry stem should be provided for Cienega Canyon, a decommissioned fire road used by the Crank n Stein group and other cyclists.<\/p>\n

b. \u00a0A cherry stem should be provided for Forest Route 7N13.1 from Forest Route 7N32 on the south all the way up to Sawmill Motor Way on the north.<\/p>\n

c. \u00a0The area be designated as a \u201cSpecial Conservation Area\u201d rather than a Recommended Wilderness.<\/p>\n

d. \u00a0The cherry stems should be wider than the proposed 25\u2019 to provide for trail maintenance and accurate mapping.<\/p>\n

e. \u00a0A provision should be made to move or adjust cherry stems in case of a need to re-route a trail on account of erosion or other similar issues.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Request that the Forest Service ensure that the Golden Eagle Trail is entirely excluded from any Recommended Wilderness.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Specifically ask the USFS if trail user counts were conducted on the existing and historical trails to determine the type and volume of traffic the trails currently support. \u00a0These sort of substantive comments can be used as the basis for an effective appeal.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Finally mention that we cyclists value and want to protect wild lands. \u00a0We enjoy the solitude that can be found away from people and civilization within such back-country areas and don\u2019t want to lose access to such lands in our own backyard.<\/p>\n

Please email your comments to socal_nf_lmp_amendment@fs.fed.us<\/a> or mail them to:<\/p>\n

Cleveland National Forest<\/p>\n

10845 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 200<\/p>\n

San Diego, CA 92127-2107<\/p>\n

ATTN: LMP Amendment<\/p>\n

Your full name and address is required in order for your comments to be considered.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Forest Service is accepting comments only until May 13, 2013.<\/p>\n

SCV Trail Users<\/b><\/p>\n

Safe and Equal Access for All Trail Users<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b>SCVTrailUsers@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Santa Clarita Valley Trail Users: Dear Friends, As some of you know, the Forest Service, in response to a court order, has proposed three alternatives for the future management of roughly 40,000 acres of land to the northeast of Castaic Lake. \u00a0This area is referred to as Salt Creek and Fish Canyon. \u00a0In two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,252,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4623,"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622\/revisions\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbamtb.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}