BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

Marine Corps Announces Public Meetings for Proposed 29Palms Training Land/Airspace Acquisition Project

The US Marine Corps (USMC) has announced that they will be holding three Open House Scoping Meetings in early December. The meetings are on the Navy's Proposed Action to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed acquisition of approximately 366,000 acres of public land, including approximately 189,000 acres of Johnson Valley OHV Area, from the Bureau of Land Management.

As most of you already know, the transfer of these public lands would be devastating to the OHV community and recreating public. It's time to step up and let them know where you stand. Please try to attend one of these meetings. See the USMC invitation with the dates and locations of each meeting below.

Thanks in advance for your involvement,
Ric Foster
Public Lands Department Manager
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 107

________________________________________________________________________

Proposed 29Palms Training Land/Airspace Acquisition Project

Proposed Action
The Department of the Navy is in the initial stages of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed acquisition of lands and establishment of airspace contiguous to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California.

The EIS will consider a range of reasonable alternatives for the proposed action sufficient to meet Marine Expeditionary Brigade training requirements.

The U.S. Marine Corps invites you to participate in the
Proposed 29Palms Training Land/Airspace Acquisition Project

Attend an open house scoping meeting to let the Marine Corps know what issues and interests you have for consideration in the development of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Representative from the Marine Corps will be available to provide information about the proposed action. Your comments are welcome.

The U.S. Marine Corps wants your input!

Oral and written comments will be accepted at the open houses.

Written comments may also be submitted to:
MAGTFTC, MCAGCC
ATTN: Land Acquisition Program Manager
Box 788104, Building 1554, Room 138
Twentynine Palms, CA 92278-8104
E-mail: SMBPLMSWEBPAO|removethispart|@usmc.mil

Comments must be received by Jan 3l, 2009, for consideration in the Draft EIS.

For more information, visit http://www29palms.usmc.mil/las

Open House Scoping Meetings

Twentynine Palms:
December 3, 2008,               5 to 9 p.m.
Twentynine Palms Junior High, Hays Gym
5798 Utah Trail
Twentynine Palms, CA  92277

Victorville:
December 4, 2008,                5 to 9 p.m.
Hilton Garden Inn
12603 Mariposa Road
Victorville, CA 92395

Ontario:
December 5, 2008                 5 to 9 p.m.
Ontario Convention Center
2000 E. Convention Ctr. Way
Ontario, CA  91764

Those open meetings didn't go so well, according to the local news.  They have three other directions they could possibly go with their expansion, but Johnson Valley seems to be the area they like best (terrain, accessibility, etc.).  When I got out of the Marines, one of the reasons I chose to live in this area was for the great off-roading.  It'll be a sad day for local wheelers (and there are A LOT of us) should that area be closed to public ORV use.

Anyone thats good with them-thar words should write up a good letter for us dummies to copy/paste to their  e-mail (SMBPLMSWEBPAO|removethispart||removethispart|@usmc.mil) I'll write one up myself but if anyone has real good convincing letter writing skills that'd be better.  Plus flooding their inbox with a crap-ton of the exact same e-mail shows some degree of group involvement.  Just a thought.