Route 66 national monument?
Some of the best news I’ve heard in a very long time, from the Riverside Press-Enterprise:
Preservationists worried about military expansion and renewable energy development in the California desert are pitching a plan to create a vast national monument east of Twentynine Palms and protect 70 miles of historic Route 66.
The groups have been meeting with government leaders in recent weeks to enlist support for their far-reaching plan, which would:
• Designate “Mother Road National Monument,” which could be twice as big as Joshua Tree National Park.
• Preserve an off-road vehicle area southeast of Barstow that has been threatened by expansion of a military training base.
• Protect more than a half-million acres of scattered desert land donated to the federal government as open space but now subject to energy development.
The PE has a map of the proposed Monument, which literally made me gasp:
If a National Monument is established with those boundaries, that’ll establish a nearly unbroken stretch of protected lands from Nipton — just fifty miles south of Las Vegas — to the environs of Palm Springs. The Monument would be the final large missing puzzle piece in a chain of National Parks, Monuments and Conservation Areas running from urban Southern California to Moab, Utah.
Comments
Interesting idea which I doubt will pick up enough steam to go anywhere. Would love to see it happen though, more for reasons of history than for simply containing the growth the the 29 Palms Marine Waste, err, I mean base. Had the pleasure of doing a mile based travel guide at http:://www.themotherroad.com about 8 years ago ( looks like the Daily Presses servers have been hacked and they don’t know it yet ), got to talk to alot of people at the Mojave River Valley Museum, Goffs, and and the Needles Regional Museum. There are a lot of stories along this route, alot of history, not only of Route 66 but also of early California prior to 66. Is well worth preserving what is left of it.
Wish this wasn’t necessary though. I tend to side with the citizens of the East Mojave when it comes to restrictions on public land, the government should stay out. Unfortunately it seems these days the only way to protect yourself from one agency is to align yourself with another. What’s worse? Restricting land so nobody can get on it—filling the quite desert nights with bomb blasts, interrupting bighorn sheep migrations with acres of solar panels—blotting out beautiful quite vista with power lines, hauling in billions of tons of LA crap to dump in a beautiful serene environment, or putting up placards, gates, and drawing in another 100,000 casual tourist, half of whom will want to run their freaking OHV’s all over everything. They all suck, but I’ll take the last above any of the others.
Nice to hear some good news. Thanks.
I have somewhat mixed feelings about this: I like the idea of preserving Route 66, have spent much interesting time working along and near it, and I don’t think the military needs any more land at all anywhere. I don’t like the idea of stopping solar or wind power, however.
Wow…the Old Woman and Turtle Mountains; Pisgah lava flow…there’s some nice desert in there. Fingers crossed!
This is indeed something I can get behind. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
As one of the people involved in this project, there are many of us. I can tell you we are NOT against solar and wind sources of energy. Nor are we against the military. As usual the news article did not fully express what we are doing or how we really feel.
Our concerns are that we do not need to rape the land to achieve the goals set for the construction of solar/wind farms. I would be happy to communicate or sit down to talk about this with any grass roots groups, land owners, government agencies, special interest groups or the solar/wind industries.
In fact I did meet for breakfast with one of the land owners of property on Route 66.
We fully understand that all stake holders need to be involved and have their voices heard on this project. For working together we can overcome most issues.
By the way this is a great forum and web site.
Thanks
Jim, thanks! Delighted to have you stop by. If there’s any way this site could be helpful in advancing the establishment of the Monument, I want to know.
Silver Fox, I’m pro-solar, but there’s solar and then there’s solar. The current land rush to build concentrating solar in the deserts has much less to do with providing carbon-neutral energy than it does with the prospect of making a few speculators very wealthy. I’ve written extensively on the topic of solar in desert wilderness before, with some example posts linked below.
Solar Rush
Could green kill the desert?
There’s no such thing as desertification
Compare and contrast
Is a fish more important than a tortoise?
Ivanpah Solar Project
689,910 Acres
Stop the Sunrise Powerlink: Call Now
Brilliant!!! Great thinking! Even those who may not get behind for purely environmental reasons could be persuaded with the historical angle! Kudos Jim and others in your team. Wish your effort all the success!
It seems there are some very passionate people on this group so I am going to ask each of you to put your thinking caps on and add your input to this project. How, other then all the normal ways, you might ask? Well we are going to be putting a special edition of The Route 66 Pulse, www.route66pulse.com a newspaper I do for the road. This issue will deal with the desert, the Mother Road National Monument, the solar and wind and the military.
We are looking for writers/photographers, I have already talked to Chris who is on board. The subjects are of course all things pertaining to the desert such as wildlife, water, conservation, mining, flora, people, etc.
If you have any talents or know someone that does please get in touch with me. This newspaper will be distributed at Route 66 locations from Chicago to Santa Monica as well as internationally. As well as featured on our new web site.
I look forward to hearing from each of you.
Thanks
Jim Conkle
Friends, are you aware of the California Desert District Advisory Council Meeting that is being held tomorrow in Barstow? Well rather in Lenwood at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites from 8 am till 4 pm.
I plan on attending the entire days meetings, never know what is going to happen. Yes they have an ageanda but at some of these kinds of meetings you just never know what you will learn.One item on the agenda is a Colonel Weston on the proposed 29 Palms Marine base acquisition.
Anyway if you are able to attend please look me up. I am never hard to find as I always have a Route 66 hat and shirt on. Hope to see some of you there.
Jim
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