Rim of the Valley is back AGAIN

It is urgent that you call your Congressman plus the three special Congressmen listed below. You may also call Members of the Natural Resources Committee.

It is critical that you call your Congressman today to oppose HR 1835. Any Congressman may be called at (202) 225-3121.

It is especially important to call Reps. Elton Gallegly, Buck McKeon and David Dreier. A major portion of the Rim of the Valley will affect their constituents.

The only way for local groups to fight local issues when threatened by Federal proposals is to band together nationwide and support each other. You, by calling today, will save people who will be there tomorrow to help you when you are personally threatened if you are not now.

Rim of the Valley is a giant new National Park being slipped by Congress as a supposed addition to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

It will include and threaten 158,000 private parcels in Los Angeles County and 11,000 in Ventura County.

It will be the most expensive Park Service area in history with a cost well in excess of 2 billion dollars threatening many other parks with a funds shortfall.

> > > > > Action Items listed below: (Natural Resources Committee Fax and email

addresses listed below). It is especially important to call or write if your Congressman is on the list.

Background:

HR 1835 (Rim of the Valley) would surround the:

parts of the Santa Monica Mountains;

the Santa Susanna Mountains;

the San Gabriel Mountains;

the Verdugo Mountains;

the San Rafael Hills;

and adjacent connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino National

Forests.

In California with a huge New National Park area. HR 1835 and the Rim of the Valley will cost over $2 billion making it the most expensive park in American history. That is the way Santa Monica Mountains NRA started out. It was only supposed to cost $155 million in 1978. Today it is over $1 billion and continuing skyward.

HR 1835 is called the Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act and would study expanding the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area by adding a corridor of all the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley, La Crescenta Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Simi Valley and Conejo Valley. Don’t be confused when they call it a study. If this bill passes, Congress will ask the giant Park Service bureaucracy if they want more land, more money, more power and more people. What do you think any self respecting bureaucracy is

going to say? Of course they want it. They always want more. The Rim of the Valley consists of parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susanna Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Verdugo Mountains, the San Rafael Hills, and adjacent connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests according to Congressman Adam Schiff.

The study area will encompass 491,518 acres. That is nearly three and a half times the size of the existing Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area that is 153,750 acres and over two thirds the size of Yosemite. All that in an urban area.

This map was originally produced by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. They have deliberately tried to hide the full impact of HR 1835 by how they have

shaded the areas in the map. They call it a corridor but it actually surrounds and includes huge areas of land. The Park Service does not like private land within

their boundaries. They will try to buy it all. This is part of the giant plan promoted by the Park Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Wildlands Project for a nationwide series of corridors

linking all the parks and forests in the United States. This has the potential for a massive takeover of National Forest and other Federal lands by the Park Service.

Don’t dismiss this because it is in California.

HR 1835 will put a circle of Park Service control around tens of thousands of

landowners. Anyone familiar with how the Park Service works knows that is

the beginning of ratcheting down the regulatory controls and land

acquisition. They want it all eventually.

Action Items:

A.  You need to call, fax and e-mail your Congress in opposition to HR 1835 immediately. Every Congressman can be reached at (202) 225-3121.

 

B.  Just write a short letter to the Chairman and Ranking Minority member of the Subcommittee with your opposition. Put on it testimony. You can actually send up to 10 pages. It must arrive within 10 working days after the hearing (2 weeks). It is better to send it sooner than later. The e-mails for the Committee Members are listed below.

 

C.  Send a copy of your testimony to your own Congressman.

 

D.  Ask your Congressman to attend the hearing and oppose HR 1835. Ask him or her to get you a copy of the map of the proposed area. Virtually no Congressman has seen a map. When they do, they should realize how crazy this idea is. You need to get your Congressman to look at the map.

 

E.  Be sure to go to www.landrights.org for a copy of the map of the Rim of the Valley. You can enlarge it to make it more readable. It is especially important to send e-mails or faxes to these three reps. They have many constituents in the Rim of the Valley boundary but are not on the Parks Subcommittee. Their voices are very important.

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Elton Gallegly (R-CA) – FAX -- (202) 225-1100 – e-mail: Elton Gallegly % of this Legislative Director Brain Feintech at brian.feintech@mail.house.gov

House National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. All can be called at the Capital Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. You can fax the committee office at (202) 226-7736

Minority Members (Republicans)

Ranking Minority Member: Rob Bishop (R-UT) Fax: (202) 225-5857 e-mail: casey.hammond@mail.house.gov

John Duncan (R-TN) – FAX (202) 225-6440 -- e-mail: scott.fischer@mail.house.gov

Chris Cannon (R-UT) – FAX (202) 225-5629 – e-mail: matthew.landoli@mail.house.gov

Tom Tancredo (R-CO) – FAX (202) 226-4623 – e-mail: Macarthur.Zimmerman@mail.house.gov

Jeff Flake (R-AZ) – FAX -- (202) 226-4386 – e-mail: chandler.morse@mail.house.gov

Rick Renzi (R-AZ) – FAX – (202) 226-9739 – e-mail: jim.lester@mail.house.gov

Steve Pearce (R-NM) – FAX – (202) 225-9599 – e-mail: tim.charters@mail.house.gov

Henry Brown (R-SC) – FAX – (202) 225-3407 – e-mail: chris.berardini@mail.house.gov.