News.bytes Extra, issue 448 

BLM Director Bob Abbey visits California

Director Bob Abbey toured Northern California this week, meeting with diverse groups and visiting landscapes stretching from the Pacific coastline to the high desert rangelands of Lassen County.  This weekend he'll travel to Southern California.  A few photos follow, and in this and the next issue of News.bytes, we'll chronicle his travels.  

The Director visited the Lost Coast in Humboldt County, where he took part in the celebration of 40th Anniversary of the King Range National Conservation Area and viewed mountain bike trails built on BLM-managed lands.

One of the youngest volunteers at the California Wilderness Coalition's anniversary projects trims a tree on the new Hidden Valley Trail.

BLM Director Bob Abbey visits with Coalition sponsors who worked on the trails. 

Work on the new Paradise Royale mountain bike trail  was completed just in time for the Director's visit.

The California Conservation Corps pitched into help on the projects.

The trail includes bike ramps for the daring.

The Director and local staff tour the renowned Black Sands Beach along the King Range.

A mountain "visitor" named "Dead-smelling Dave" (a local actor and supporter) tells how the King Range NCA came into being as BLM Arcata Field Office Manager Lynda Roush looks on.

Director Bob Abbey addresses the anniversary event, with a theme of "Partners Make it Happen."

Abbey then moved east to Lassen County and started the day meeting with local officials at breakfast, then visited with Eagle Lake Field Office employees.

Out at the BLM's Litchfield Wild Horse and Burro Corrals, he inspected some of the horses coming in from the site of the Twin Peaks Roundup, now in its fifth week.

In his visit to the BLM Litchfield Corrals, Abbey, right, chatted with local veterinarian Richard Meinert, left, BLM Northern California District Manager Nancy Haug and Acting California State Director Jim Abbott.

9/15/10

BLM-California News.bytes, issue 448