News.bytes Extra, issue 416

Deputy Director Marcilynn Burke Visits California for Listening Session with Native Americans and Field Tour

Marcilynn Burke, the new Deputy Director for Policy and Programs for the Bureau of Land Management visited Southern California last Thursday and Friday (Jan. 14-15) to hear the concerns of California's Native Americans and to tour renewable energy sites and the new Sand to Snow National Monument proposed in Congress. (text continues below)

Greg Hill, BLM Big Morongo Canyon Preserve Manager, (center right)
briefs Burke on Preserve issues during a trail walk.

Deputy Director Burke heard a number of concerns from tribal leaders during the BLM's Listening Session, the last of several held throughout the country, in Palm Springs.  Among the concerns was a higher level of consultation, more accountability, and more time for the Tribes to have input into public land decisionmaking.

She also toured wind energy sites near Palm Springs, the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, as well as Big Morongo Canyon Area of Critical Environmental Concern and the Whitewater Canyon Preserve, both part of the proposed Sand to Snow National Monument in the pending California Desert Protection Act 2010 (S. 2921) pending Congressional review.  The new Monument, if designated, would include U.S. Forest Service lands as well as BLM public lands, such as the Big Morongo.

  Buford Crites, Friends of the Desert Mountains vice president, briefs
Burke on native plant species found throughout the Santa Rosa/San Jacinto
Mountains National Monument

Holly Roberts, BLM Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office associate
field office manager (right) briefs Burke on renewable energy projects in
the Palm Springs resource area while Rebecca Lasell (center), BLM
California Desert District associate district manager, looks on.

Burke crosses a stone bridge at Whitewater Canyon Preserve.

BLM-California News.bytes, issue 416