Tensions high in the preserve - Gun incident highlights residents' animosity toward the National Park Service
(Note: Conspicuous by its absence is the failure to interview Casebier
or Connie or anyone else out there for their side of the story.
The reporters are performing the bidding of the National Park
Service et al. Language deception has been noted by red bolding. Using
lower-case wording like "park service", "the
preserve", etc. -- which employs language deception to lull
the reader into believing that the NPS is 'warm and fuzzy' -- and
"sandwiched between", which infers that the 1.6 Million-acre
vast federal landholding is small, which it is anything BUT, is
deceptive, nothing less. Private landowners with PROOF OF OWNERSHIP
are referred to contemptuously by the 'reporters' and no mention
whatsoever is made of the fact that insatiable NPS land acquisition --
in and of itself unconstitutional -- has made inholders of these
landowners and homeowners. The very real threat of eminent domain is
glossed over in this article as being something that one federal
employee, Ziemann, currently employed at that location and accountable
to no private landowner, says that the NPS 'would not do that' --
knowing that he can say anything with impudicity and. The old 'willing
sellers' Trojan Horse is trotted out for review in this article, too
-- no less false than ever.)
March 6, 2005
By Kelly Donovan and Ian Morrison, staff writers
Victorville Daily Press
P.O. Box 1389
Victorville, California 92393-1389
760-951-6270
Fax: 760-241-1860
Last month, a local resident was arrested on suspicion of pointing a rifle at two National Park Service rangers in the Mojave National Preserve. The incident underscores some of the tensions in the preserve, a place where residents steeped in the traditions of the Old West are grappling with the transition to a culture more similar to that of a national park. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, Leo H. Spatziani and another man were approached by the rangers as the men allegedly operated a dredging machine on public land near an area rich in sensitive archeological and cultural resources. Bobby Parker, the other man with Spatziani, said this week that he and Spatziani were on Parker's 160-acre homestead, working to install a water line, when the rangers came up and asked them to stop. Parker said he isn't sure why Spatziani reacted the way he did, but he guessed that Spatziani is among the preserve residents who are fed up with the National Park Service after more than 10 years of the agency's [aggressive and combative] presence there. The Mojave National Preserve's chief ranger, Denny Ziemann, said he thinks residents like Parker -- who contends that the [National] Park Service has a vendetta against him -- are the vocal minority. Most of the people in the preserve are able to co-exist with the park service peacefully, Ziemann said. While some residents report having good relations with the park service, there are also some who have complaints. The birth of a preserve The Mojave National Preserve, which is east of Barstow, sandwiched between interstates 15 and 40, was born after President Bill Clinton signed the California Desert Protection Act in 1994. Unlike most national parks, a national preserve allows uses like hunting, grazing and mining within its territory. And within the Mojave National Preserve, private land holdings are interspersed with federal property. The preserve is sparsely populated, with an estimated 200 or less residents who've gotten used to life in the wilderness -- many of whom lived in the area for years before the preserve was created. Some of those people opposed the creation of the preserve. "It was unwelcome," said Gerald Freeman, who operates a hotel, RV park, store and restaurant in Nipton, on the northern boundary of the preserve. "For the most part the locals were hostile. But a lot of them were squatters on government land ... they were just sort of anti-establishment, like the militias in some of the other states." Ranching and land ownership Critics like Parker and Dennis Casebler, a historian who runs the Goffs Schoolhouse, use the harshest possible language to describe how the park service has dealt with the people who live in the 1.6-million-acre preserve. Casebler goes as far as likening the park service to the Gestapo. Casebler started to take action and wrote a letter February 24 to U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis,R-Redlands, that contains a litany of complaints about the park service. Among other things, Casebler and Parker accuse the Mojave National Preserve of trying to eradicate the ranching and mining industries there -- a charge the agency denies. Ziemann said he doesn't think the park service has ever rejected a mining application in the preserve. He also said the Park Service doesn't pressure ranchers to leave, although the retirement of all the grazing allotments in the preserve is part of its General Management Plan, a blueprint for its future. "We're not going to force these ranchers out," he said. "Nobody will ever be forced to sell their land." Three major ranching families sold their properties to the National Park Foundation in recent years and moved out of the area, retiring their grazing allotments. Because the government cannot directly acquire land, the foundation buys it and then donates it to the park service. Rob Blair, who is a fourth-generation member of the last remaining large ranch in the preserve, said he knows the park service wants the Blair Ranch grazing allotments to be retired. However, he said the park service and the National Park Foundation haven't tried to force him, because any sales need to be with willing sellers. However, Blair said he knows some people feel intimidated. "People say, 'They're going to take our land if we don't sell to them,' " Blair said. "People are scared for their homes, some of them." One longtime resident of the area, Mike Daughtery of Baker, blames the park service for driving out the ranchers with grazing regulations. However, he also said the ranchers might not have had other opportunities to sell their holdings for cash had the National Park Service and National Park Foundation not been interested in the land. [IMPORTANT NOTE: Once Department of Interior agencies and their land-buying 'partners' become interested in land, there are often/usually no other buyers, because prospective buyers know they are going to be in the same boat as the current private owners, and no one wants to be coerced into becoming a 'willing seller': when the ONLY BUYER is the fed or its agent.] "There's no simple answers to this stuff," Daughtery said. The federal government can forcibly acquire land through eminent domain proceedings, arguing that it is in the public's best interest, but Ziemann said the Mojave National Preserve would not do that. "The claim that we're harassing these people or running them out is not true," Ziemann said. One recent land dispute that has sparked public interest and continues to infuriate Parker and Casebler is a dispute involving longtime preserve resident Connie Connelly, who Casebler calls "a genuine desert character." Parker and Casebler said they are upset that the park service has forced Connelly to leave the simple home she's lived in for years in a remote part of the preserve. Ziemann said that Connelly was living on park service property without a valid lease -- essentially squatting. Also, he said the park service had to spend about $60,000 several years ago to clean up waste generated at the site. To help Connelly, Ziemann said, the park service offered to buy her a new home anywhere she wanted. In the end, she agreed to move to Wyoming, and is scheduled to move this month, he said.
Copyright 2005, The Victorville Daily Press.
Additional researched, verified
information:
A search at www.Google.com
for this search string: "Mojave National Preserve" "in
holdings" .gov produced no less than 16 results:
Press
Release [PDF]
ZONE
D-17 [PDF]
MOJAVE
NATIONAL PRESERVE CALIFORNIA WATER RESOURCES SCOPING
REPORT ... [PDF]
I.
INTRODUCTION The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of ... [PDF]
DESERT
TORTOISE COUNCIL NEWSLETTER [PDF]
O
Tough New Regulations O [PDF]
Off-the-Track:
America’s National Parks under Siege [PDF]
West
Mojave Plan Draft Evaluation Report [PDF]
AN
INVENTORY OF PALEONTOLOGICAL RESOURCES ASSOCIATED WITH NATIONAL ... [PDF]
Lingua
Botanica [PDF]
Joshua
Tree National Park Business Plan [PDF]
California’s
Abandoned Mines [PDF]
Chapter
4 - Environmental Consequences [PDF]
2003
Annual Report KF6ZPL [PDF]
DEER
ZONE D17
Here is the first one:
Clinton Administration Announces Record-Setting Land Purchase in California Desert
"News from Senator Dianne Feinstein of California" – Announcement would complete Feinstein effort to protect desert inholdings – Washington, DC – Vice President Al Gore and the Clinton Administration announced today that the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Wildlands Conservancy, a non-profit conservation organization, have secured the funding to complete the historic acquisition of lands from the Catellus Corporation in the Mojave National Preserve and in Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas. The funding package would complete the second and final phase of the 405,000-acre acquisition which was first announced in December 1998 by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Wildlands Conservancy, the Interior Department, and Catellus, the major private landowner. In 1994, President Clinton signed Senator Feinstein’s Desert Protection Act into law, protecting 7.7 million acres and designating two national parks, Death Valley and Joshua Tree -- and one national preserve -- the Mojave. The following is Senator Feinstein’s statement on the announcement: “This agreement is a win-win for the California desert as a half a million additional acres can be added to this national treasure. This purchase adds to my Desert Protection Act, which is the largest wildlife protection bill in the history of the United States. I want to congratulate the Wildlands Conservancy for raising these funds in the private sector. This dramatically shows that people do care about preserving our great California desert as over $50 million of private money has been raised. Last year, we were successful in funding the first phase of this project and now, thanks to this public-private partnership, we will protect more of this natural resource for all time.” The Catellus lands are part of a stretch between Barstow and Needles, California, which includes some of the most pristine and scenic desert lands in the world. The former railroads owned by Catellus, which were threatened by development, include spectacular rock ranges, dunes, valleys, and important habitat for the endangered Desert Tortoise. Earlier this year I wrote to the President and asked that the $15 million that he requested in his 2001 budget be used to purchase small in-holdings from willing sellers. I will work to see that Congress makes this appropriations. It was my intent at the enactment of the Desert Protection Act and it is still my intent now to do whatever I can to help willing small landowners in the California desert to sell their properties to the federal government.” |