The Hammers are Threatened

[petescoffee]

Johnson Valley is threatened.. (The Hammers)

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A lot of you do not venture to the more hardcore areas that often but one of the OHV meccas is actually in Danger.

Johnson Valley, home of the Hammer trails is possibly going to be taken over by the US Marines

USMC plans to take over Major Portions of Johnson Valley - NAXJA Forums -::- North American XJ Association
JOHNSON VALLEY@USMC - District 37 Message Board

The Document
http://www.district37ama.org/forums/...5&d=1204511827


And to find your local representative.
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Attached Images

 

[petescoffee]

Corps considers expanding combat center


By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 6, 2007 13:18:46 EDT
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The Marine Corps’ largest training base just might be getting bigger.
Officials want to expand the Corps’ 935-square-mile desert training area near Twentynine Palms, Calif., so it’s large enough to support the full scale of combat training as the service grows by more than 20,000 Marines.
The service recently got the green light from the Pentagon to move ahead with a study of possible land purchases near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, a spokeswoman confirmed.
“During the study, we will be analyzing land near the boundaries of the combat center for possible acquisition, as well as looking into any airspace requirements that may be needed to support training in the respective area,” Capt. Amy Malugani, a Marine spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said Tuesday in a response to questions from Marine Corps Times.
Under orders to expand the Corps to 202,000 Marines by 2011, top leaders say they also need to push out the center’s physical boundaries to accommodate the combat training requirements for those leathernecks.
The Marine Corps is potentially eyeing public lands near the combat center that are managed by the federal government, including the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees a patchwork of parcels across California’s vast desert.
“The additional land would afford the combat center the ability to accommodate the growing force, providing important training opportunities,” Malugani added.
“It is imperative that Marines receive the most realistic training before deploying into a combat environment which demands split-second life-or-death decisions,” Malugani said. An expansion “would allow Marines to ‘train as they fight’ at a large-scale Marine air-ground task-force level. This critical training will push Marines to their physical, mental and emotional limits, ultimately saving lives on the battlefield.”
The Corps’ first step is to conduct an environmental assessment and a more detailed environmental impact statement. Both processes, required under the National Environmental Policy Act, “will involve a great deal of input from the local community,” Malugani said.
Environmental issues

The Mojave Desert is dotted with off-highway vehicle areas managed by BLM, including Johnson Valley, along the west border of the combat center. The areas north and east of the combat center are patchworks of open space parcels and several desert wildlife management areas.
Any expansion plans likely will draw protest from conservationists who have fought to protect the habitat of the desert tortoise, listed as a threatened species, from off-road recreational uses and development, including an ongoing expansion of the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, north of Barstow.
“Things aren’t looking good for the desert tortoise,” said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, Ariz.
Anderson, who had not seen specifics about the Corps’ expansion plans, said she was concerned about the possible impact on the tortoise’s health, noting that ongoing monitoring programs have raised concerns about disease.
“We’ve seen just die-off sweeps across the Mojave,” she said.
The extent of environmental impact will hinge on what specific parcels the Corps wants to use. “I don’t know how much land they would absorb and for what purpose they would be using it for,” said Lisa Belenky, a staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Development in the desert region threatens the protection of existing federal lands designated as wilderness or desert wildlife management areas and places more and more homes closer to military training areas, Belenky said. “You can see and hear the bombing in the evening,” she said, noting more home construction in places including Joshua Tree, Wonder Valley and Twentynine Palms.
“The sprawl development is just pushing right up” to the base boundaries.
Room to stretch

The additional space is expected to give Marines — specifically, air-ground task forces as large as brigade-size — the room to stretch their forces as they train on the center’s ranges.
The combat center’s 598,400 acres — nearly five times the size of Camp Pendleton, Calif. — cover desert flats and mountains, making the center one of the premier training sites for desert warfare. But most of that acreage is not available for training.
“To date, only 40 percent of the combat center is available for maneuver training,” Malugani said. “The remaining 60 percent of the land is self-imposed safety buffer zones, protected environmental and cultural resource areas and not easily accessible mountainous terrain.”
For 54 years, tens of thousands of leathernecks have fought mock tank wars and combined-arms battles and trained on the center’s ranges, including rifle and other weapons, urban warfare and vast live-fire operating and maneuver ranges.
In recent years, the center has seen a major growth spurt, with the construction and expansion of training ranges designed for convoy and urban operations, as well as mock Iraqi or Middle Eastern towns, villages and truck stops. Training at the center, which hosts exercises including the monthly “Mojave Viper” pre-deployment workups, has been constant as ground combat units prepare for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2001, and again in 2002, several thousand Marines took to the Southern California deserts in “Desert Scimitar” exercises in which they maneuvered from the combat center in 600 combat vehicles through Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino counties and crossed the Colorado River on makeshift bridges. The exercises served as a precursor to 1st Marine Division’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The expansion plan, part of the Marine Corps’ training capability modernization program, has been approved by the Marine Corps Requirements Oversight Committee and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Under the NEPA process, several public hearings would be scheduled to get feedback on the Corps’ initial proposals, which would include proposed purchase of specific land parcels, as well as the alternative of no expansion.

 

[petescoffee]

Cut and paste from Pirate

Below is a list of members of the House Committee on Armed Services. These are the key congressional representatives that need to hear that you are opposed to Marine Corps encroachment in the Johnson Valley and Stoddard Wells Off Highway Vehicle Recreation Areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the southern California desert.

Letters and faxes can be sent to the House Committee on Armed Services address.

If one of the House Members is your elected representative, their wab site link is provided. Please go to their web page and leave them a message.

Talking points:

The recent Western Mojave Resource Management Plan identifies Johnson Valley and Stoddard Wells as recreation areas. There are no other options for that type of recreation in the southern California desert as all other areas have been designated wilderness or military reserve and off-limits to the public.

The loss of recreation would have a significant economic impact on the surrounding rural communities; an impact that would not be replaced by military activity.

The proposal calls for acquisition of private lands. That acquisition would remove private lands from the local property tax base causing serious economic impact in the surrounding rural communities; an impact that is not mitigated by increased government support to the local economy.

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Committee on Armed Services
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Phone: (202) 225-4151
Fax: (202) 225-9077

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Ike Skelton, Missouri, Chairman
Congressman Ike Skelton's Website

Duncan Hunter, California, Ranking Member
Congressman Duncan Hunter - Proudly Serving the 52nd District of California : Home Page

John Spratt, South Carolina
Representative John Spratt, Proudly Serving the People of the 5th District of South Carolina

Jim Saxton, New Jersey
Home Page - Congressman Jim Saxton Representing the Third Congressional District of New Jersey

Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas
Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz - Home

John M. McHugh, New York
Congressman John M. McHugh

Gene Taylor, Mississippi
The Home Page of Congressman Gene Taylor

Terry Everett, Alabama
Congressman Terry Everett - HOME

Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii
U.S. Congressperson Neil Abercrombie - 1st District of Hawaii

Roscoe G. Bartlett, Maryland
Representative Roscoe Bartlett

Silvestre Reyes, Texas
U.S. Representative - Silvestre Reyes

Buck McKeon, California
U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon - 25th District of California - U.S. Congressman Buck McKeon

Vic Snyder, Arkansas


Mac Thornberry, Texas
Mac Thornberry Temporary Home Page

Adam Smith, Washington
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.)

Walter B. Jones, North Carolina
Congressman Walter B. Jones - Student Center by DexteraNet

Loretta Sanchez, California
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez - HOME

Robin Hayes, North Carolina
Welcome to North Carolina's 8th Congressional District!

Mike McIntyre, North Carolina
US Congressman Mike McIntyre

W. Todd Akin, Missouri
Congressman Todd Akin - Second District of Missouri

Ellen O. Tauscher, California
Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher's Website

J. Randy Forbes, Virginia
Congressman J. Randy Forbes - The Official Online Resource for Constituents of Virginia's Fourth Congressional District

Robert A. Brady, Pennsylvania
The Online Office of Congressman Robert Brady - Home

Jeff Miller, Florida
United States Congressman, Jeff Miller

Robert Andrews, New Jersey
Robert E. Andrews - First District of New Jersey

Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Congressman Joe Wilson

Susan A. Davis, California
Congresswoman Susan Davis - Welcome

Frank A. LoBiondo, New Jersey
Congressman Frank A. LoBiondo

Rick Larsen, Washington
Home - Rick Larsen, Representing Washington State's 2nd Congressional District

Tom Cole, Oklahoma
Congressman Tom Cole (OK-4) | Home

Jim Cooper, Tennessee
The Online Office of Congressman Jim Cooper - HOME

Rob Bishop, Utah
Representative Rob Bishop

Jim Marshall, Georgia
Jim Marshall, Representing the People of Georgia's Eighth Congressional District

Michael Turner, Ohio
Representative Turner

Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam
The Official Website of Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo

John Kline, Minnesota
United States Congressman John Kline :: Welcome

Mark Udall, Colorado
Congressman Mark Udall - Home

Candice S. Miller, Michigan
Candice Miller 10th District District

Dan Boren, Oklahoma
Congressman Dan Boren : 2nd District Of Oklahoma : homepage

Phil Gingrey, Georgia
Congressman Phil Gingrey, M.D.

Brad Ellsworth, Indiana
The Online Office of Congressman Brad Ellsworth - Home

Mike Rogers, Alabama
Congressman Mike Rogers :: Alabama's 3rd Congressional District :: Home Page

Nancy Boyda, Kansas
Congresswoman Nancy Boyda : Home

Trent Franks, Arizona
Congressman Trent Franks, 2nd Congressional District of Arizona - Homepage

Patrick Murphy, Pennsylvania
Congressman Patrick J. Murphy - Home

Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania
.: Congressman Bill Shuster :.

Hank Johnson, Georgia
Congressman Hank Johnson -- Representing Georgia's Fourth Congressional District

Thelma Drake, Virginia
U.S. Congresswoman Thelma Drake : 2nd District Of Virginia

Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter : Home

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Proudly Serving the People of Eastern Washington :: Home Page

Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Representative Joe Courtney

Michael Conaway, Texas
Congressman Mike Conaway

David Loebsack, Iowa
Congressman Dave Loebsack

Geoff Davis, Kentucky
Geoff Davis - Serving Kentucky's 4th

Kirsten Gillibrand, New York
The Online Office of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand - Home

Doug Lamborn, Colorado
Representative Doug Lamborn

Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania
Home Page » Representative Joe Sestak

Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

Niki Tsongas, Massachusetts


Elijah Cummings, Maryland
Congressman Elijah E. Cummings :: Proudly Representing the 7th District of Maryland

Kendrick Meek, Florida
Congressman Kendrick Meek, 17th District of Florida

Kathy Castor, Florida
Representative Kathy Castor

 

[petescoffee]

Eric Wehrer brought this to my attention this morning.
More information to come.

Important Announcement! Rally For The Hammers!

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Cross-posted from the JV forum:

Announcing the first ever, Pirate4x4.com: VIRTUAL RALLY FOR THE HAMMERS

Please read the following very carefully!

We need your help to pull this off and make it effective. Any and all input is greatly appreciated and will be carefully listened to.

First, let me be VERY clear. It does not look good for the Hammers.

John Stewart for Cal4Wheel is working extremely hard on this with several other people and organizations, but they cannot do it all alone. Like never before, the OHV community needs to develop a grass-roots effort to show that we have strength in numbers and that we care about our trails being taken away from us.

Here is the goal:

In a four hour time frame pack Pirate with so many people the server fries and Pirate crashes. (OK, just kidding…but that would sound awesome on a press release! LOL!)

All politicians care about is numbers. If you have ever taken a poly-sci class you may remember hearing that 1 letter from a person is seen as roughly equaling 300 votes. The greatest number of users ever logged into Pirate was 3,305 on 2/11/2008. The goal is to CRUSH that number and have all of those people post up in the Rally thread what the Hammers mean to them and to the OHV community.

When the rally is over, we will lock the thread and fab-up ANOTHER press release to the powers that be, showing how many people attended this virtual rally, how many posts there were, and invite them to read the thread and our concerns if they did not attend.

Here is the Plan:

1. We will issue a press release this Friday to politicians, media outlets, companies etc. announcing a virtual rally on Pirate4x4.com and invite them to come.


2. Lance will do a mass e-mail to ALL PBB members this Friday asking them to participate in the rally from 2-6 by posting their concerns in the thread.

3. We will come up with “sample” post to put in the thread to give people an idea of what we are looking for. (post them here please) Even people that have NEVER been to the Hammers need to post their concerns. This is all about showing how many of us there are and that we have a VOICE as a community.


4. The Rally will be on WEDNESDAY MARCH 12th from 2 to 6 pm Pacific Standard time.

5. Mustard Dog will start the “Rally” thread at 2pm that day. As of now, it will be in chit-chat, but we may be able to have it in all forums at once.

6. In the thread people will post their concerns about our trails being taken away, why the Hammers should remain open, pictures of them and their FAMILIES in the Hammers (appropriate ones!), etc. etc. People are encouraged to post multiple times.

ALL CHIT-CHAT BULL**** AND INAPPRIOPRATE POSTS WILL BE DELETED! We plan on having important people read this thread. If we are not on our best behavior, the OHV community will look bad.

7. As stated above, after the rally another press-release will be issued showing the number of people attending the rally, the number of posts, data on how fast the thread grew etc… We will also invite those in power that did not attend to read the thread.

What I am asking from all of you:

1. PLEASE: Get the word out! E-mail everyone you know, put something about it in your sig-line, go to other boards and sites and announce the rally, send out bulletins on Myspace etc. etc.

2. Write sample “posts” for people to see and post them here. Hopefully, they can type something up over the weekend and just cut and paste it on the day of the Rally.


Will this Rally save the Hammers? I do not know. But if it shows politicians and land-managers that we are a force to reckon with because of our numbers, it may make them think twice.

Why am I doing this if I have never been to the Hammers? During the ELDO fiasco last summer, I asked for help in chit-chat. People asked me, “Why should we help you guys? Where were YOU when OUR trails were being closed?” After I though about it, they were right. Where was I? It seems that we only fight for our own backyards. Not anymore. I promised the PBB in that thread I would fight route closures EVERYWHERE. So I am.

In a few, I will post up what I plan to post in the rally thread on the 12th.

A huge thanks to John Stewart, Del Albright, Randy Burelson, Cal4, BRC, and the other “Land-use” guys for their help, guidance and support. Many of them are working VERY hard behind the scenes on this issue.

I would also like to thank Lance and Camo for letting us do this on their site.

For all of those that e-mailed and PM’ed me on this: A huge thanks for your input and help. I am asking you to all step up in leadership roles in this.

I am sure there are people I forgot to thank. I am sorry….it’s been a long day already! LOL!!


It’s AWN like Donkey KONG!

GET IT!

Kurt Schneider

The Friends of Eldorado National Forest.
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VIRTUAL RALLY FOR THE HAMMER TRAILS IN JOHNSON VALLEY ON PBB!! Be there and post POSITIVE COMMENTS!!

MARCH 12th 2-6 pm Pacific standard time!

 

[TRT2]

thanks for sharing!

of note, the Johnson valley area is the largest BLM (?) and ohv type areas. I would hope there is enough for everyone.

 

[bentntwisted]

Dont forget to post up on pirate 2-6pm Wendsday. You dont have to be a member to post in the rally

 

[CRUZR66]

The Hammers Expansion, NO WAY STOP IT NOW

Dont forget to post up on pirate 2-6pm Wendsday. You dont have to be a member to post in the rally

As a Former Marine. I do Not Like the fact of what is Proposed, To the North of the Main Troop Area there is an area known as the Delta Corridor, let them clean that up and use it for training, it was a Bombing Range During the 60's and early 70"s, Also let them expand into the Mountians to the North of there, and join with the Base at Barstow, They need to leave Johnson Valley alone, I am sending many E-mails to as many people as I can,