Memorandum Opinion

Interior Motion to Change Venue

Stand Up Motion pt 1

Stand Up Motion pt 2

Stand Up Motion pt 3

Picayune Rancheria Memorandum

Interior Response to Picayune Memorandum

Interior Response

North Fork Rancheria Opposition

Picayune Reply

Stand Up Reply

Hosted by Lemhi County Extension & Lemhi Regional Land Trust

Does the NEPA process leave you scratching your head? This workshop is designed to provide
cattlemen with a working knowledge of the NEPA analysis process, and identify ways that
cattlemen can participate in and impact decision-making under NEPA.

Through a presentation, discussion and question and answer session, participants should
expect the workshop to help them:

• Understand the fundamentals of US legal system and how the federal court system is

organized.

• Better understand the history and purpose of NEPA.

• Gain a clearer understanding of what NEPA requires.

• Learn the difference between a Categorical Exclusion, Environmental Assessment, and

an Environmental Impact Statement.

• Identify opportunities for public involvement and impact in the NEPA process.

This workshop will be presented jointly by Sustainable Northwest, with a presentation by Susan Jane
Brown of the Western Environmental Law Center.

Via Flickr:
Interstate 81, PA, January 2013

DJ Woogie ~ New World Order (Festival TRVP) 

If your from the NEPA area (Northeastern PA), then chances are you have already heard of DJ Woogie aka Tommy Trillfiger. He’s been tearing up the club scene in the NEPA region for years and has gained both national and international attention. Aside from his shows in the NEPA region and along the east coast, he has toured in Dubai alongside some of the biggest international DJs. Check out this Moombahton edition of his Club Nights mixtape series which was featured on “This Song Slaps” and follow him on soundcloud.

Well, now the landlines are pretty much non-existent but the logic still reigns.

Check this out:

My aunt has an pre-paid meter for her electricity. It’s something the government have tried to introduce to do away with the issues of people being over/undercharged for their electricity. So you basically pay upfront for your electricity and once the card runs out, your electricity runs out. Simple.

Well my aunt had been out-of-town for a few months. Got back and even though she still have credit on the card, went to NEPA to put some more credit onto the card.

They then told her that since she hadn’t topped up the card in a while, she was going to have to pay a surcharge before she could add more credit.

What?

Yep. You heard me. She was basically being charged for not using up her electricity.

I think I’ll suggest she writes to the Ombudsman or maybe to her local councillor.

… sold! Now that’s how you hammer out a sale!

Ever go to an auction? It’s not only a really interesting and fun thing to do, it’s also a source for great bargains and unusual finds.

We list all sorts of local auctions both online and in print. Most of the time the ad will tell you precisely the kind of auction it is (property for auction, restaurant supplies, machinery, etc.). Even better, the ads frequently list a number of the items that are scheduled to go on the block, often in some detail.

If you’re looking for local auctions, be sure to check in on the Events section of our website from time to time. You’ll find a listing of upcoming auctions, coin shows, sports expos and gun shows, complete with links to more information about it all.

We don’t need to remind you how cold it is out there. And we probably don’t need to remind you that we’ve got a wide variety of heaters to make you more comfortable. Our Heating & Plumbing category’s got fireplaces, wood burning stoves, water heaters & pellet stoves. If you’re shopping around for a heating source, however, it’s important to mind your BTUs.

You’ll often see a BTU number in ads for heaters and air conditioners. BTU stands for British Thermal Unit, and it’s a standardized measurement of heat. In the case of heating units, it indicates the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water 1° Farenheit. Because it’s a standard measurement, it’s a great way to compare the capabilities of various heating systems.

BTUs are also used to measure the amount of heat generated by different fuels. For example, propane is approximately 15,000 BTUs per pound, while charcoal is just about 9000 and wood is around 7000. If you happen to be of a scientific bent, you can figure out exactly how much fuel you’d need to, say, grill a hamburger.

By Sarah Rolph

After seven years of repeated National Park Service (NPS) allegations that Drakes Bay Oyster Farm harmed the environment, the multimillion-dollar NPS Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) created to support those claims was quietly abandoned by Interior Department Secretary Salazar and NPS Director Jarvis, raising fresh questions about the propriety of the process.  Secretary Salazar claims his decision against the oyster farm was based on sound legal interpretation, yet he cited no legal opinion or analysis document. The Salazar decision was a complete reversal of established NPS policy.  And it directly contradicted previous NEPA assessments of the very same oyster farm.

Just fourteen years ago, in 1998, Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) officials supported plans to upgrade the shore operations of the oyster farm (then owned by the Johnson family).  This was to be a major construction project, creating a new, modern visitor and education center that would also house the oyster processing facility.

NPS held that a full EIS was not necessary for the upgrade, and instead created an Environmental Assessment (EA), pursuant to the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).  The EA was fully approved by Marin County officials, who jointly with the NPS issued a Negative Declaration under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as being consistent with their coastal planning policy.  The local community was supportive, including local environmental organizations.  A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was issued by NPS, and the project was approved.  Sadly, Mr. Johnson died before the project could be completed.

The contrast between the NPS 1998 NEPA process and the NPS 2012 NEPA process could not be more stark.

The NPS 1998 EA cited support for aquaculture in the NPS General Management Plan (GMP) for Point Reyes National Seashore, cited the county approvals as significant, stated that “no special-status species are found in the project site area,” and made no mention of a sunset date for the oyster farm—in fact, the EA cited as an issue to be addressed “the long-term status of the lease agreement past 2012.”

The NPS EIS ignored the existing GMP, ignored the county, contained an entire section on endangered species it claimed would be impacted (most of which do not even exist in the estero), and alleged incorrectly that existing law required that the lease agreement not be extended past 2012.

No public statements have been made about what, if anything, in law, policy, and science has changed since 1998 to justify the Park Service changing its position from strong support of the oyster farm to its current position that the law requires it to be shut down.

While NPS was silent as to its reasons for the change, its new position was supported and promoted by a vociferous group of wilderness activists, often citing the same bogus science.

For example, the National Park Conservation Association (NPCA), sent an online mass mailing to its members in October 2011 saying “Drakes Estero is home to several endangered plants and animals, including eelgrass, harbor seals, and birds including Black Brant and Great Egrets. Yet industry wants the waters for its motorized oyster boats…”

The definition of an endangered species is, of course, a matter of Federal law.  None of the species named here were or are actually endangered—the claim was fabricated.  In fact, eelgrass has doubled in Drakes Estero during the past 20 years, and according to federal agencies, harbor seals are at near-carrying capacity in Drakes Estero.  It’s a gross exaggeration and deliberate distortion to say that “industry wants the waters,” for motorboats or anything else.

If the oyster farm did harm the environment, it would be a simple matter to report this to the appropriate authorities—the California Fish and Game and/or the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (which is responsible for wildlife protection).  This has never happened.

National Academy of Science (NAS) reviews, directed by Congress, found NPS claims of harm to be without merit.  In 2009, the NAS found that NPS scientific documents “selectively presented, over-interpreted, or misrepresented” data.  In 2012, the NAS review of the NPS Draft EIS found “a high level of uncertainty” with the document’s impact assessments for harbor seals, the coastal flood zone, water quality, soundscapes, and socioeconomics. The NAS determined  “there could be reasonable, equally scientific, alternate conclusions for impact intensity.”  That’s a very polite way of saying that the document is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Nevertheless, groups such as NPCA relentlessly worked to claim otherwise with misleading advocacy campaigns, even going so far as to flood the public review process for the EIS with non-substantive comments.

In November 2011, the NPCA and three other groups sent online mass mailings to their members encouraging them to “take action” by clicking to send a form letter to NPS.  The form letter was sent directly into the Park Service comment database, thanks to sophisticated software from Convio, an Austin, TX firm that provides what it calls “constituent engagement solutions” to “help organizations translate their mission into online or integrated marketing programs that successfully acquire, engage, and convert individuals into lasting supporters.”

While these programs may be appropriate for fundraising and some kinds of advocacy, the use of these systems to populate a NEPA public-comment database is troubling.  The public comment process is meant for informed, substantive comments on pending federal activities.  The NEPA guidelines state:  “Commenting is not a form of “voting” on an alternative. The number of negative comments an agency receives does not prevent an action from moving forward.”  Not only do NEPA guidelines specify that the process is not intended to be a vote, it also makes it clear that form letters must be treated differently from substantive comments.

Yet the activists conducted a campaign to create thousands of form letters.

What’s more, they did this with emails that were highly misleading.  For example, one begins:  “The National Park Service wants to hear from you! Should they preserve the only marine wilderness on the West Coast or commercialize it?”  One would never know from this that the oyster farm in question already exists, and has for eight decades.

Nor would one know from this pitch that this is a request for a NEPA comment.  Significantly, the mass mailings do not even mention that the point of the solicitation is a comment on an EIS, much less suggest that recipients read and consider that document.

Yet the results of the mailings were trumpeted as if they were informed, substantive comments.  On March 1, 2012, NPS issued a press release saying it had “posted 52,473 public comment letters.” Minutes later, the wilderness activists issued a press release that said:  “Of the 52,473 public comments submitted on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), 92% (48,396) supported ending the private commercial use of the estuary and designating full protection for America’s only marine wilderness on the West Coast.”  Most of these 48,396 comments were exact-duplicate form letters sent via the Convio campaign.

The Park Service and its allies did not act in good faith.  As independent scientist Dr. Corey Goodman said when first interviewed by the author in 2009, “I just watch it evolve month after month and I realize my government—I’m sure there are a lot of fine individuals—but overall, my government doesn’t have any ethics when it comes to scientific data, and doesn’t actually care about scientific integrity; it just cares about winning and getting its way.”

That Goodman statement was hauntingly prescient.  The NPS falsified science, abused the NEPA process, disregarded its own policies and guidelines, and pretended that the 1998 EA—which should have been a baseline for the EIS—did not exist.  DOI and NPS spent more than two million taxpayer dollars to prepare an EIS that was abandoned nine days before the Secretary made his decision to close the oyster farm.  It is undeniably clear:  Secretary Salazar’s misguided decision hides from real history and abandons responsible science.

Sarah Rolph is a freelance writer based in Carlisle, Massachusetts.  A California native whose favorite place is Point Reyes, she is writing a book about the Lunny family. Her website is www.sarahrolph.com

John Hulls contributed to this article. 

It’s almost the end of January and I still feel like I just started to get my butt in gear for training. After last week’s rude awakening of riding, I knew I needed to get out on my bike at ANY opportunity.

Last winter was dry and cold so there was ample time to be on the bike. Last weekend was wet, foggy and cold with poor visibility. Not my visibility, but cars’ visibility to see us. Even with my blinky tail light last weekend, the sound of a car coming up behind us was a bit unnerving. The only comfort you have on some roads is hearing the tires hit the rumble strips of the two yellow lines.

I did pretty good keeping up on the flats.

This weekend was MUCH nicer and I was dying to get out on the road bike. My mind played against me on Saturday. No one else was riding andI get nervous riding alone. The sun was out and the sun was blinding. Saturday ended up with me trail running behind to Mukluks as they road through Lackawanna State Park which was 6 miles of fun on the snow, ice and mud. I also managed to spin for an hour that day too and cook a dinner for my hubby and parents. It was a great day!

Had to stop and take a photo of the partially frozen lake at LSP.

That left Sunday as the day I needed to get on my bike, but it was about 40 degrees and the wind was gusting at 20mph. It’s now or never, I thought. With single digit temps looming and snow next weekend, my road bike would only be hooked to the trainer. This was my chance. I suited up in my dorkiest and brightest gear. I turned my blinky light on and I was off. A short 20-mile ride with about 2,000 feet of climbing was accomplished. It was windy, my face was wind burned but I was happy.

Road bike in snow…weird.

So, there you have it, I blogged about my training. I knew it would resort to that, but you know what? That’s okay. I am proud of what I am trying to accomplish. And I’ll feel good if I can gain any support from some people or if I can encourage others.

I hope everyone enjoys reading about my progress. I really can’t wait for my first race to really give this blog some character. Last week, my blog views crushed 1,000. I am so thankful that you all read about my journey and leave such wonderful comments. Thank you!

Matt and I took his puppy for a walk yesterday afternoon and it was so sunny and nice out. Then I went shopping with Bria and Chelsea

Chelsea stayed the night and bleached my tips and we dyed them purple! They look really good I would like more bleached next time.

January 20th. Chelsea and I started tiedying last night and got crafty with our shirts today!

I’ve had a great weekend off!

First off, they don’t give you light (you foreigners would say ‘they don’t supply you electricity’) so you end up having to use the generator to sleep.

That means you can run the fan but not the air conditioner (ac) so you still don’t sleep too well/deeply – the heat, the noise, the mosquitoes etc.

Then at about 4am they bring light. You wake up, get out of bed and go turn the gen off. You turn on the ac, close the windows and get back into bed. However, you don’t fall back to sleep immediately – you’ve been woken up and you’re also waiting for ac to cool the room. Then probably 30 or 45 mins later, just as you are about to fall back to sleep, they take the light.

Now, the ac has started cooling the room but it hasn’t been on long enough so any coolness will only last another 10mins before you start to sweat – especially since the windows are closed.

So you get up, gamble on the fact that they will probably being back light and decide not to put the generator on, but you do decide to open the windows.

Then you get back to bed and again you wait for sleep to come calling.

Then about 30/45 minutes later, just as you have stopped swatting the mosquitoes and are dozing off, they bring back light.

By now it’s still only about 5.30am so not yet late enough for you to give up on sleep. You calculate that if you can manage to sort yourself out quickly enough, you can probably squeeze in another hour of sleep before you got to get up.

So, you get out of bed and close the windows – you left the ac on anyway but it won’t be effective if you don’t close the windows.

That done, you get back to bed and try to fall asleep.

Then 30/45 minutes later…

Okay so it’s 6.15am. You really haven’t slept that well and everybody knows that the sweetest part of the sleep is those last few hours before you get up in the morning. So, you really really don’t want to give up and get up and start the day. So you get up and again, open the windows. Get back to bed and this time, it only takes then 15 minutes to bring back the light. But you’re not falling for it – once bitten etc. So you simply leave the ac on and the windows open. But then after about 30 minutes you get up to close the windows. Get back to bed and they take light again.

And then you give up.

Areas of agreement?

Despite their differences, both Bishop and Grijalva said they are optimistic that the 113th Congress could reach bipartisan compromises on public lands issues that have eluded it over the past two years.

Bishop, for one, said he could support conservation bills if Democrats are willing to allow management decisions on federal lands to be made locally rather than in Washington.

“I may surprise some people with what I’m willing to do if people are willing to make trades,” Bishop said. “If there’s anything that Grijalva wants to work with me on that moves it so local people actually control their own destiny, I’m actually very willing to talk to him about it.”

But Bishop acknowledged that there was little, if any, discussion last Congress about a viable package of lands bills that could pass Congress, despite the introduction of a handful of Republican-sponsored conservation bills.

The House’s biggest conservation act last Congress was passage of a bill elevating Pinnacles National Monument in California to full national park status. Some conservation measures reached the Senate floor last Congress, but the chamber, on the whole, didn’t accomplish much more. It, too, failed to introduce a public lands package.

Bishop said much of the subcommittee’s agenda will also depend on his discussions with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with whom Bishop said he sees a greater chance at compromise.

Grijalva said he is willing to limit his ambitions for land protections in order to meet Republicans halfway.

“While the rhetoric may not be scaled down, I think there is some room for compromise on some scaled-back public lands issues, particularly around designations and acquisitions,” he said. “We can’t disengage from that bluster, but I hope we take some responsibility for the fact that it was a dismal, dismal performance [last Congress] passing legislation and getting legislation done.”

Reading the quotes from Bishop and Grijalva, it sounds like well, they could disengage from the bluster and actually do something productive. I wonder what it would take for the people in the middle to hold this committee accountable for something more productive than “rhetoric” and “bluster”?

Event Name: Washington State Lands Meeting – East Side

Event Date: 01-19-13
Event Time: 09:00 AM – 05:00 PM PST
Location: Yakima Clarion hotel
1507 N First St
Yakima, WA 98901
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1507+N+First+St%2CYakima%2CWA+98901+us

Contact Person: Jim Putman

Details: Hotel phone number is 509-248-7850
Meeting will be in the Naches room.
Coffee and water provided, on your own for lunch.
Several quest speakers coming and we will be having a NEPA 101 class in the morning to help people understand the NEPA process and how to effectively participate in it.

Everyone welcome.

365 January 14th last night Matt took me to dinner and a movie. We went to a bistro that’s fairly close to his house. It was so cutesy! Then we saw Promised Land which was amazing. We didn’t go up to Vestal to see it which was nice that we saw it in Pa since that’s where it takes place. Yesterday was great!

I suffer from migraines and had one from last Tuesday until about Thursday afternoon. I still worked out, but it certainly wasn’t to my full potential. I spent the week focusing on my core muscles, cardio, legs and abs. By the time Friday rolled around, I was ready to get on my road bike. The weather here in PA finally got above 40 degrees, but not by much. On Saturday, I did a road ride with some guys.

Now, I know they are faster than me and I always hesitate with my decision to go, but I need to ride with them if I want to get faster.

My last road ride was in early November and then since, it’s been a few miles here and there on the mountain bike. Mentally, I thought, “Hell, I can go out and ride with no problem. I’ve been working out training so I’m strong.” Silly me. Those little spurts of cardio I did were not enough. The weather was about 42 degrees and there were six of us. I was the only girl.

We rode up the valley (local terminology) into Forest City, on through to the Stillwater Lake dam and back down. Sounds like an easy ride, right? I felt like my lungs weren’t working. And by the time we were looping back around mile 30, my quads started to cramp. No more standing for me. I felt awful.

This is me, feeling awful. Above Stillwater.

Our ride ended up being about 44 miles and 2,000 feet of climbing, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to what others did this weekend. (Vicki Barclay rode 100 on Saturday!) After the ride, it was a few Blue Moons and a quesadilla that got me feeling a bit better. But my muscles were tight, hips were hurting. I knew I needed to start focusing on those muscle areas.

Come Sunday, two friends of mine wanted to do a nice ride out to the country and back. The ride was probably more climbing than Saturday’s ride, but less miles. I was game.

I knew my legs would be tired so I sat in the back of Ed and Taylor and shouted, “car back!” That was about the extent of my conversation on the ride. The fog was dense to the point that it was probably dangerous to be on the roads, but it eventually cleared toward the end of the ride. We rode 30 miles and climbed about 2,900 feet in elevation. It’s not much, but I’ll take it. I was tired but my muscles weren’t as angry with me as they were after Saturday’s ride.

Ed and Taylor riding along as the fog finally lifted.

It’s funny how you can be so happy to be out on a ride and know you are getting a good workout, but be so disappointed. Why am I so slow? Why do I feel like my muscles hate me? How come I feel like my legs have nothing to give? Well, it IS January in northeast Pennsylvania and you have NOT gone more than 20 miles on a bike since November!

I do need to remember that the season does not start in a week and I have two more months to prepare and build myself up before my first endurance race of the season. It was a great week of working out. I noticed strength in my core and I felt good knowing my muscles were tight from working them out.

In the end, I need to really bust my ass on the trainer and get running. Cross training is great for me and I need to do it. This weekend only made me stronger and I need to keep going. This season will be tough, but I can line up and be just as confident as my peers on that starting line if I staying focused.

CAAD got dirty..just like her sister EMD.