An independent group has been digging into the California Wilderness Coalition and the proposed Boxer wilderness bill. We have exposed conflict of interest on the part of USGS and CWC that has created a stir with the misuse of the USGS logo and official titles of employees on the letter to Gov. Davis. We believe it lead to Paul Spitler's resignation from his CWC position. Key to this is a letter to Gov Davis that employees the use of the USGS logo along with the California State Parks logo.

The CWC, Nature Conservancy and Zoological Society of San Diego logos are also featured on the letter. The list of signers includes names and official titles of USGS, Forest Service and BLM employees. The fact that federal employees signed the letter is not the issue. The issue is they used their OFFICIAL TITLE and government affiliation to sign a lobbying letter to Governor Davis. The is in direct violation of federal conflict of interest. In addition, the USGS logo was used on the letter without permission from the USGS which implicates the CWC in a fraudulent act of misrepresentation. That is documented with a letter from USGS.

For more information, see www.outdoorwire.com/access/news/ca/wild/wildlands.htm The Mammoth Times (where many enviro-socialists live) has picked up the story www.mammothtimes.com/times2002/FalsifiedSupport05-09.html

We have the pressure on from the federal side as the above article contains a letter that implicates CWC and USGS employees in direct violation of federal conflict of interest statues. The information has been turned over to the Justice Department (by VP Cheney) for review. So, now is the time to turn attention to the State of California. Research of the state conflict of interest indicates that the logo for the State Parks and the use of official titles by state parks employees is a conflict of interest. The state statutes appear to follow the federal; however, the federal statutes are more definitive. The California State Parks logo appears on this letter along with the signatures and OFFICIAL TITLE of some state parks employees. The state parks employees are in positions that could influence the decision affecting state lands and access to the public. Like the federal statutes, California statutes prohibit employees from using their position for personal gain.

The letter to Governor Davis is a directed lobbying effort and the state employees signing are in violation of state statutes of using their official office for personal gain; i.e. they are using their title to lobby the state for a personal belief. More validation of the truth behind the allegations, the California Wilderness Coalition is starting to remove information from their web site. They have removed from their web site the page that states "The California Wilderness Coalition (CWC) is implementing The Wildlands Project vision in the Golden State. The first stage of this effort are the mapping meetings we will hold throughout the state. The purpose of these mapping meetings is to gather conservation activists, scientists, and other folks who care about wild California together to map areas critical for the preservation and restoration of biological diversity and wilderness. These maps are not meant to be scientifically valid, peer-reviewed documents. Rather, the maps are meant to assist the conservation community in identifying priority areas for preservation and restoration. The second stage is the establishment of regional workgroups to implement The Wildlands Project's vision. We intend to help create such workgroups in the northern Sierra, southern Sierra, desert, south coast, north coast, and central coast. These workgroups will identify over the years to come ways to make The Wildlands Project Vision a reality in their local areas."

I have a Sept 7, 2001 and April 17, 2002 archive of the California Wildlands Coalition web site. At 308 PM -0700 5/10/02, sharon thompson wrote Gentlemen, Looks like the California Wilderness Coalition is starting to try and hide more stuff. They removed the page that states "The California Wilderness Coalition (CWC) is implementing The Wildlands Project vision in the Golden State.........." Glad I saved it as a web archive. I think things must be heating up for them. I can't see Boxer wanting to be associated with the above statement and this is one of the statements that Supervisor Dorame read into the record on May 7 while Bohigian was there. I include the web archive, but I'm not sure if those with a PC will be able to open it since I made it on a Mac. Oh what fun!!

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CWC, TNC Falsified Support Letter Thu, May 9, 2002

Access and property-rights advocates have been investigating for several months the facts in an incident involving misuse of official government seals by the California Wilderness Coalition (CWC) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). According to John Stewart, Conservation and Recreational Access editor, "In a letter to California Governor Gray Davis, following a symposium hosted by the California Wilderness Coalition in November 2000, participants submitted a letter to Governor Davis summarizing the results of the conference and urging him to take action to set aside lands for wilderness. The letter contains the official logo of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) along with names of federal employees, their official affiliations (USGS), the United States Forest Service (USFS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the California State Parks seal with State Parks employee affiliations. This use of the official seal of the USGS and federal affiliations is unlawful." Stewart's investigation continued, "Access and property rights advocates in California contacted the USGS about the CWC and TNC misusing USGS seals to promote the Wildlands Project. A transcript of the letter received from USGS is included below.

Within that letter, Mr. Charles G. Groat, Director of USGS, stated the seal was used without authorization. In detail, Mr. Groat explains how the junior, noncareer employees signed a blank piece of paper at the request of the CWC representative using personal email account to complete the transactions. Mr. Groat stated that the USGS employees were acting as 'private citizens.'" The symposium report also included a statement that USGS and California State Parks were "cosponsors" and in the Appendix (E) of the symposium report, a list of conference participants were included. The attendees are listed by affiliation, including their official government phone numbers and government email addresses.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a press release by the CWC and TNC on August 7, 2001, and the statement included, "The report was supported by the Wilderness Coalition, the U.S. Geological Survey, The Nature Conservancy, the Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species and the California Department of Parks and Recreation." The CWC became aware of the investigation and began to change the original letter. At first, the letter was removed from the CWC web site and then replaced with a copy that did not contain the USGS seal or the names of the USGS employees, said Stewart. The original web pages that depicted the agency logos has been captured by several individuals, and the State of California and Governor Gray Davis are in receipt of the original, falsified letter.

The symposium report is a central part of the CWC and their work with Senator Barbara Boxer to develop the "California Wilderness Act of 2002", which is expected to be released in the coming weeks. The letter from Charles Groat, the Director of the United States Department of the Interior (USGS), to Larry Thompson of Bishop outlined the duplicity involved in the use of the official seals Thank you for your letter dated January 25, 2002, bringing to my attention the matter of a letter to Governor Gray Davis signed by employees of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). There were two persons identified in the signatures as USGS employees, Lisa Lyren and Chris Haas. Upon investigation, we find that the employees did not consent to the use of their names in association with the USGS, nor was there authorization for use of the USGS logo.

Following the symposium hosted by the California Wilderness Coalition (CWC) in November 2000, some of the participants decided to submit a letter to Governor Davis summarizing the results of the conference. This was done independently of the symposium and was not advocated by the USGS employees involved. After the letter was drafted, Lisa Lyren and Chris Haas, both junior, noncareer employees of the USGS, were asked to sign it by a representative of CWC. They both replied that they would only sign the draft letter as private citizens, not as USGS employees. In fact, the request for signatures from the CWC was sent to their personal email accounts. Both Ms. Lyren and Mr. Haas signed a blank piece of paper that was mailed to CWC using private stationery, postage, and on their own time.

The representative of the CWC then scanned the signatures and inserted them into the draft letter. The draft was apparently sent to the San Francisco office of The Nature Conservancy where the USGS affiliations and logo were added to the final letter. Neither the use of the affiliation nor the logo was authorized by the employees involved or anyone else in USGS. We were unaware that we had been misrepresented until we received your letter. Both Ms. Lyren and Mr. Haas were acting as private citizens. Immediately upon being informed of this misrepresentation, both employees submitted letters to the CWC asking that their names and affiliations be removed from the letter. We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention. Our credibility as scientists is diminished if we are not known for providing objective, impartial, peer-reviewed science to our clients and the public at all times. If you need additional information, please let me know. Sincerely, Charles Groat Director

Federal investigations are ongoing, and federal agencies continue to look into the misuse of official agency logos by environmental groups in California who are providing reports and information for Senator Boxer's "California Wilderness Act 2002" bill. - CAR ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Copyright 1990 - 2002 Mammoth Times --

John Stewart KF6ZPL Webmaster of Tierra del Sol 4 Wheel Drive Club of San Diego - www.tds4x4.com Webmaster of Jeep-L ...The Web Site - www.jeep-l.net Conservation and Recreational Access Editor - www.outdoorwire.com