LA Mayor Visits Owens Valley, No Environment Committment Yet - LA Times

[hatrack]

BISHOP, Calif. — Against a backdrop of angry gray clouds gathering over massive alpine peaks, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn ended a two-day tour of the Owens Valley on Friday that revealed wide disagreements over how to protect the still-unspoiled valley from development.

Less than a month ago, aides to the mayor had talked of hammering out plans by the end of this year to restrict development here. By the tour's end, Hahn disappointed environmentalists by saying he had no preferred plan and that the process would take "as long as it takes." The trip was billed as a "listening tour" to help Hahn forge a blueprint for eliminating the possibility of subdivisions and industry on the 320,000 acres of eastern Sierra Nevada watershed that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has owned for a century.

EDIT

The tour got off to a rocky start Thursday afternoon, when the mayor met with a dozen conservationists at Crowley Lake Park. As they sat down to lunch with the mayor, half a dozen DWP employees, including DWP Board President Dominick Rubalcava, stood a few feet away, unwelcome guests. "We made every effort to have a civil conversation while surrounded by hired guns," said Mark Schlenz, an Owens Valley author and a director of the nonprofit Eastern Sierra Land Trust. "Any question or issue of real substance that we raised was preempted or commandeered by Rubalcava."

At the barbecue, held at a ranch about six miles north of Bishop, Hahn encountered the opposite side of the debate. One of the many ranchers clad in white Stetson hats, bluejeans, western shirts with pearl buttons and cowboy boots gazed skyward and made the sign of the cross after hearing that environmentalists hope to place a conservation easement on the land. "To try to tie this land up forever is a ridiculous concept," said John Smith, 82, a local rancher for 56 years and a member of the influential Cattlemen's Assn. "Bringing the state and environmentalists into the equation would be against the best interests of this valley."

EDIT

[Xithras]

1. Are developers even looking at it yet?

I've been through there a couple of times, and have rarely seen such uninviting desolation. Why would anybody WANT to build there?

[hatrack]

2. It's not quite as bad as in the 1980s

Since the Mono Diversion was limited, some water is now being released back into the valley and into the old rivercourse. Not too hell of a lot, but enough to allow a small-scale replica of what once was to return, at least along the Owens proper.

[NNadir]

3. If they could get their water back, which I suspect they can't, it

wouldn't be uninviting desolation, would it?

[pmbryant]

4. I really hope this can be worked out eventually

Owens Valley is one of my favorite places.

I doubt it will ever be intensely developed, given that LA owns virtually all the water rights. But getting something in writing about its long-term protection that is suitable to the local residents would be a fantastic achievement. Win-win for all involved, I would think.

It will happen eventually, I'm sure of it. :-)

Peter