Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009

A Senate vote of 77-20 on Thursday pushed the latest incarnation of the controversial Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 one step closer to final approval. Story here .

This bill was passed in the House today and is on its way to the President's desk. Friends of the Inyo will be leading hikes in many of the new wilderness areas this spring and summer--stay tuned!

I believe this act warrants closer inspection before a celebration. Resident ranchers in Bridgeport were rallying against it last July.

30,000 wild horses are in pens destined for slaughter despite the BLM act which protected them...Montana wants to build a horse slaughter plant....as they say, always read the fine print.

Another land grab. See what LADWP started?

There's over 1200 pages to this bill (PDF)! Leave it up to the Feds to make it almost impossible for most people to keep tabs on what is going on in Washington.

Sigh. I don't want to start a huge argument, but I'd like to offer a different point of view. This is a great thing for the public lands of the Eastern Sierra. Not a land grab--these are public lands, used for recreation already, that belong to all Americans. And it turns out that more of us support wilderness and other protective designations than don't.

If you enjoy hiking in the Sierra, you might at least appreciate the fact that the local (for Whitney, local) bill included in the Omnibus includes some amazing places that are for the most part managed as wilderness already.

I know there are lots of opinions, many of which include disdain for government agencies and rules in general,and fear that access to favorite places will be limited. I won't try to challenge the former, but as for the latter,
I challenge you to notice that, in the Sierra at least, little if nothing will change because of this legislation. And that's exactly the point.

For those who don't think the new wilderness areas are "wilderness quality," and for those who just might want to see some cool places, I invite you to join Friends of the Inyo on some hikes into these places this spring and summer. Check our website for details--we're just now planning the hikes.

No doubt, it's hard to read the giant Omnibus text and to follow parliamentary procedure. To learn more about our local bill, go to Rep. McKeon's site.

I vote to keep this political discussion off the climbing forum.
Both sides are passionate about the issues and do their best to bring out the positive views only. It is the only way to keep from an argument in this wonderful mountaineering forum.

The USFS is currently in the process of trying to limit public access and use of land around Lake Isabella, south of the Whitney area. This is public land that has historically been used for all types of recreation, fishing, hiking, off-roading, etc. A lot of the area is not wilderness and the government has mandated that a "management plan" be established. A big part of their plan is to exclude the public from land that has been open for decades.

Hopefully, this is not the beginning of a similar plan for the Eastern Sierra.

Tom, I totally agree with you! Sorry I had to throw my two cents in there. I'm done.
This forum is all about sharing information and stories about places we love and things we do there.

There is enough protected land, sufficiently protected. These laws just serve to make use of America's public lands harder for average Americans. If you don't own horses, are in marathon runner shape, or are rich you are already locked out of millions of acres that only 20 years ago you could drive into.

I knew that, sooner or later, the bastards would force the marathon runnners and rich people out of the wilderness.