#OccupyParks Blog |  |
- #OccupyCaParks: Forest service continues user fee despite court ruling
- PROFLOWERS STATEMENT: ProFlowers has suspended advertising on Rush Limbaugh #FlushRush
- Global Warming In Yosemite Park This Winter Could Affect This Summer
- Twitter / OccupyCalParks
- LA COUNTY STATEMENT ON BALL/FRISBEE-THROWING ORDINANCE
- "Buffalo Soldiers in the National Parks Study Act" passed House 338-70 vote All lawmakers voting no were Republican!
- #OWS Video: CNN Special: Law Enforcement is Intimidated by #Anonymous
- Feds confiscating the 1st Amendment: #OccupyDC
- Twitter / OccupyCalParks
- #OccupyParks Blog
| #OccupyCaParks: Forest service continues user fee despite court ruling Posted: 15 Mar 2012 10:10 AM PDT Last month a federal appeals court issued a ruling that prohibited the U.S. Forest Service from asking visitors to pay user fees to park and walk in the national forest. "It is clear that the Forest Service cannot collect a fee from someone who does nothing other than park," wrote District Judge Robert Gettleman for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 15-page opinion. In Ventura County, the user fee is called the Adventure Pass and costs $5 a day or $30 a year. Activists have been contesting the imposition of this fee for walking or picnicking in unimproved areas — such as along Highway 33 north of Ojai — since l996, when Congress first empowered the Forest Service to test the concept of requiring visitors to pay a fee for accessing the national forest. "Millions of Americans will once again be free to go for a walk in these national forests without risking being ticketed by Forest Service staff," said Alasdair Coyne, conservation director for Keep the Sespe Wild, which, with other environmental and some anti-tax groups, has been contesting the fee since its inception. But Sue Exline, the district ranger in Ojai who oversees Forest Service operations in the Los Padres National Forest in the Ventura County area, said that her office will continue to collect the fee. "The agency's direction to the field offices was to continue administering the Adventure Pass until further notice," she said. "Nothing's really changed. We still require visitors in Rose Valley to display an Adventure Pass, and yes, we are still checking to see that it's displayed." Scott Silver, director of Wild Wilderness in Oregon, a leading figure in the anti-fee movement, wasn't surprised by the agency's decision. "Basically, the ruling makes it impossible for the Forest Service to issue a ticket to a parked vehicle for failing to display a pass," he said. "If the Forest Service were to follow the instructions of the court, it would be the end of the Adventure Pass. But it's not going to play out that way." Silver said that already the Forest Service, to avoid restrictions on the fee program, issues what some activists call "fake tickets." "What the [notice of noncompliance] says is that we saw your car at this trailhead and you didn't pay the fee and now we're giving you the opportunity to pay the five dollars or otherwise we will write you a ticket," Silver said. "From the standpoint of the Forest Service, actually writing violations has never been terribly important. If a person pays the five dollars to avoid that, they're satisfied." The user fee issue was approved on a trial basis by Congress in l996, but proved controversial, and when the fee was reauthorized by Congress a decade later, it was limited to popular "high impact" areas. In Ventura County these are the Rose Valley area north of Ojai and the Mt. Pinos area during the winter, along a road popular for playing in the snow. The law authorizing the fee expires in 2014, and the reauthorization is expected to be controversial. Two weeks after the court ruling, the Forest Service released an internal committee report, two years in the works, recommending that the fee be further limited. In Ventura County the Adventure Pass would not be required at all, and in the Los Padres National Forest, it would be required only at Santa Ynez and Figueroa Mountain recreation areas. In the meantime, Coyne continues to advocate resistance. "We haven't had any real trouble in Southern California for refusing to pay the noncompliance notice," he said. "But anyone who is given a court summons of any sort for refusing to buy an Adventure Pass should contact our group. We have people who can help defend them vigorously in court. And we mean that." Source: http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/forest_service_continues_user_fee_despite_court_ruling/9639/ Twitter @OccupyCalParks  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PROFLOWERS STATEMENT: ProFlowers has suspended advertising on Rush Limbaugh #FlushRush Posted: 04 Mar 2012 11:03 AM PST PROFLOWERS STATEMENT At ProFlowers, our mission is to delight our customers with fresh and long lasting flowers, and that is our singular focus each and every day. We do not base our advertising decisions to align with any particular political view or opinion as our employees and customers are as diverse as the USA. Mr. Limbaugh's recent comments went beyond political discourse to a personal attack and do not reflect our values as a company. As such, ProFlowers has suspended advertising on The Rush Limbaugh radio program. Twitter @OccupyCalParks  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Global Warming In Yosemite Park This Winter Could Affect This Summer Posted: 13 Feb 2012 10:55 AM PST Lack of snow turns Yosemite National Park into a very different place
But California's extremely dry weather has created conditions at Yosemite rarely, if ever, seen in the park's 147-year history. Over the past two months, tourists have been hiking in short sleeves. Visitors have flocked to ice skate on alpine lakes normally buried under snow. The Badger Pass ski area has been closed all season. And Tioga Road, California's highest state highway, has remained open later into the winter than any year in recorded history. "It looks like fall. Only the leaves are missing from the trees," said Kari Cobb, a Yosemite spokeswoman. "There are some places in the high country that have less snow now than during most summers. It's amazing." Some semblance of normal winter weather, however, may finally be coming. On Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for the southern Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Forecasters say that three storms will blow through the scenic mountains, bringing snow and gusty winds, starting Thursday and continuing through the weekend. The first storm will bring accumulations of 4 to 8 inches of snow in the Yosemite high country, which includes the Tioga Road's highest point, 9,943 feet. The second and third storms could produce total accumulations of up to 18 inches. The park planned to close Tioga Road at midnight Tuesday. Going back to 1933, when modern records were first kept, the latest the road has stayed open was Jan. 1, in 2000. If the incoming snow melts, the road will reopen, Cobb said. If the snow sticks, the road will remain off limits, likely until May or June. At this point, parks officials don't know what to expect. On Tuesday, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada was a mere 11 percent of normal for mid-January. The bone-dry weather has not only hammered Lake Tahoe ski resorts, but also made state water officials who depend on spring runoff nervous -- to say nothing of transforming Yosemite. Last Sunday, Sunnyvale residents Zak and Lindsey Akin and their dog, Hoosier, woke up at 5 a.m. and drove to the Yosemite high country. They walked out to Tenaya Lake, which sits in a granite-ringed landscape at 8,150 feet elevation off Tioga Road. Some years in January, the road is under 10 feet of snow. That day, the temperature was in the 50s. "It was like a summer day. I was in jeans and a rugby shirt," said Zak Akin. "It was a little breezy, but it was never cold. I've been there in July and seen more snow. That's what was really unusual about it." The couple walked out on the frozen lake with their dog, took photos and posted them later to their Facebook page. "By 1 p.m. it was packed. People had folding chairs and tables out there," Akin said. "They were having picnics. They were playing ice hockey." In Yosemite Valley, people were riding horses and putting on sunscreen. The week before, Francesca and Jeffrey Kapper, of San Jose, visited the park with their 2-year-old son, Vincent, and also found people skating on Tenaya Lake. "I told my husband, 'You are crazy, I'm not going on this ice,' " said Francesca Kapper. "But there were about 10 other people up there walking and skating on the ice. You could tell it was thick. It was too beautiful to pass up." Cobb, the Yosemite spokeswoman, said that if the park gets very little snow this winter, it could transform Yosemite's summer as well. Waterfalls could run dry, the risk of forest fires could increase, and hungry black bears could wander more frequently into Yosemite Valley campsites, looking for food to make up for shortfalls in acorns, berries and other natural fare. The balmy weather and a lack of snow this year in California's highest mountain peaks may be a precursor of the state's future if the climate continues to warm, said Peter Gleick, a water expert and president of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland nonprofit. Gleick, who has a doctorate in energy and resource studies and won a MacArthur "genius award" in 2003, noted that there is already clear, measurable evidence of climate change -- including melting glaciers, rising sea levels and changing migratory patterns of birds and other species. At current rates of warming, hydrologists at the state Department of Water Resources predict, California could lose 90 percent of its winter snowpack by 2100. "We can no longer assume that the conditions we've come to expect are going to be the conditions we experience in the future," he said. "We'll still get wet years, and we'll still get dry years, but if it continues to warm, the average will be drier and warmer than in the past." Source: Mercury News - Link Twitter @OccupyCalParks  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 11 Feb 2012 09:33 PM PST
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| LA COUNTY STATEMENT ON BALL/FRISBEE-THROWING ORDINANCE Posted: 11 Feb 2012 10:24 AM PST
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| Posted: 25 Jan 2012 09:41 PM PST Despite #GOP resistance House approved study establishing new national historic trail to Yosemite NP & Sequoia NP Buffalo Soldiers rode thru San Joaquin Valley patrolling & protecting Sierra Nevada lands. Bill passes 338-70 authorizes study commemorating role of the Buffalo Soldiers in National Parks early years. #p2 #GOP #CaParks http://www.thenewstribune.com/ Twitter @OccupyCalParks  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #OWS Video: CNN Special: Law Enforcement is Intimidated by #Anonymous Posted: 25 Jan 2012 11:06 AM PST CNN Special: Law Enforcement is Intimidated by #Anonymous Twitter @OccupyCalParks  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feds confiscating the 1st Amendment: #OccupyDC Posted: 04 Dec 2011 12:03 PM PST Park Service truck they're tossing #occupydc protestor belongings into, just a table, food and signs so far http://pic.twitter.com/I4wujIsa  @yospynJoshua Yospyn Washington: U.S. Park Service truck used to confiscate protesters private property pic.twitter.com/I4wujIsa
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2011 08:46 PM PST @OccupyCalParks VIDEO! LAPD Raids OccupyLA 11.30.11 See it here #ows #occupyla #occupyfreedomla  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 27 Nov 2011 09:38 PM PST
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| Posted: 27 Nov 2011 05:33 AM PST
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