A New Lease on Preservation
BLM's new leases are a huge shift, plus, new state parks, open campgrounds, trash in rivers, robot legs, and fortune telling feet.
The Big Story
Something to talk about
Interior’s New Rules
Anyone who’s visited BLM land before that’s ‘Bureau of Land Management’) knows that particular group inside the Department of the Interior may exemplify the “Land of Many Uses” motto. You can find sweeping wildflower meadows, exemplary—and often uncrowded—backcountry campgrounds, huge swaths of preserved desert … and functional oil and gas extraction sites.
Last year, the department leased over 23 million acres to oil and gas leases, with Wyoming, New Mexico, California, and Utah having the most leases. Overall, both the number of leases and the total acreage affected has been trending downward since peaking in 2008. There are lots of reasons for that, but I’d guess if you’re an outdoor recreationist, it’s all good by you—it’s kind of a weird experience to be out on a desert plateau in New Mexico and see flaming gas vents shooting off on the horizon while you’re trying to stargaze.
A new Department of Interior rule finalized and released last week instituted a massive change in the way these leases are doled out, because now for the very first time, the Bureau of Land Management can offer up “restoration leases” and
“recreation leases” to agencies and organizations with plans to preserve and restore public lands instead of extracting from them. This would allow local agencies to buffer existing parks, restore watersheds, and perhaps build out infrastructure for new parks and preserves as well.
The rules also now allow “mitigation leases,” which may be required to offset when an extractive industry or rancher leases other land for production. And the finalized rules also direct the BLM to prioritize landscape health for the very first time, as well as incorporate indigenous knowledge in its decision-making.
It is worth noting that Bureau rules and policies are dictated by the Secretary of the Interior, and not through the legislative process—so if a different administration takes office, you can probably expect all this to go back to the previous policies … which included impromptu office moves resulting in 87% of staff resigning or retiring.
Related: Hey, are you following Forgotten Lands California yet? You should be.
Your Parks
Your Places
Head to the High Sierra Camps!
After five years of closures, (most of) Yosemite National Park’s famous High Sierra Camps will re-open to the public this summer. The High Sierra Camps are well-known (and well-loved) as an introduction to a backcountry experience. They’re not necessarily glamping, per se, but they are several steps above your usual backcountry campsite, with a range of cabins, bedding, some food services, and even some very nice solar outhouses and showers. The camps are understandably very popular, and reservations are doled out through a lottery system … so, good luck!
A few years ago I had the distinct pleasure of backpacking into Glen Aulin and it was truly one of the most magical campsites I’ve ever spent a night at. Well worth the effort!
Related: Vogelsang and Lyell Canyon trail guide.
New State Park in California
California’s San Joaquin Valley is getting a brand-new state park this summer—the first new addition to the state park system in a decade. Dos Rios State Park will sit at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne Rivers, just outside the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge west of Modesto. Visitors will be able to hike and picnic, with swimming and boating access planned for the future. The new 1600-acre property was secured and restored in partnership with the nonprofit River Partners over ten years using public and private funding sources.
Speaking of Rivers
Another river that could use a bit of help right now is one of my current hometown rivers, Oregon’s Willamette. The river, which runs 187 miles from the Coast and Cascade Ranges to meet the Columbia River in Portland, has mostly been on the up-and-up. Portland established its first public swimming beach on the river in 2017, and on hot summer days it has been an invaluable way to cool off (and have fun). But now it looks like two major stretches of the river are experiencing a big-time trash problem.
The nonprofit Willamette Riverkeeper has been tracking the levels of trash in the river over the past five years during their cleanups, and they’ve pulled enough trash to fill between 50 and 173 flatbed trucks depending on the year. They’ve reported this to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, which is required to report to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. As a result, the Willamette may become the third body of water to be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act for trash content—the other two being the Potomac and Los Angeles Rivers.
The two stretches with the worst trash levels are between Portland and the Columbia River and further upstream between Corvallis and Eugene, and the Riverkeeper Executive Director said most of the trash was debris left behind by encampments.
This is a major bummer, and I hope the state can get the river in decent swimming shape before the summer months roll around. Given my experience with the finger-pointing in local government around here, I also wouldn’t be mad if the feds stepped into get these projects moving.
RELATED: For you data nerds out there, you can dig into the Oregon DEQ’s draft integrated report, as well as leave public comment.
The state will hold webinars on the findings on May 1st and May 7th.
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
Hike Like a Cyborg
Let’s be real: there have definitely been times when you’d wish you had a pair of cool robot legs to help you up a very steep incline, right? Well, the future isn’t too far off, according to a review of the Dnsys X1 Exoskeleton on Gear Junkie. This 3.5 pound system straps to your legs and can generate about 1.2 horsepower of force over 15.5 miles on a single charge, claiming to reduce body and gear weight by 81 pounds at its maximum setting.
The Gear Junkie reviewer found it did actually help on some steep staircase climbs on the trail, but found the hardware a little unwieldy. The device is currently on Kickstarter and seems a little more geared toward folks with mobility issues and injuries or those whose work requires lots of stamina like trail crews, construction workers, etc.
Leafing Out
Plants!
Be a Lazy Gardener
Now here’s advice you can take to heart. Washington Post columnist Michael Coren takes another critical look at most suburban and urban gardens, which tend to be cleared of debris and sheltering vegetation and can even use more insecticide per acre than commercial farms. Instead, he writes, inviting more insects into your garden can encourage self-regulating ecosystems. And we’re not just talking about honeybees here (most of which are European and considered by some to be invasive), we’re talking about native bees, moths, spiders, wasps, and birds that will do most of your pest control work for you if you plant native plants, leave fallen leaves, build some log and rock piles, and ensure that bare ground is accessible to burrowing bees.
Y’all know I’m a big proponent of native gardening. Last season, I built out a shade garden with a bunch of small nurse logs, left the fallen maple leaves from the autumn, and installed a little carpenter bee house, too. We’ll see how that one pans out, but I can tell you when I’m sitting on my porch near the more established front-yard garden, the birds are super chatty, and I’m rarely bothered by the insects popping into all the flowers. And as my neighbors can attest, I’m also very happy to stop and chat about what’s blooming instead of working.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
During my many, many years in Los Angeles, one of my favorite weird local customs was the HaFoSaFo Sign. On a stretch of Sunset Boulevard between Echo Park and Silver Lake, a rotating sign for a strip mall foot clinic featured a sad, injured foot on one side and a happy foot on the other side. According to local legend, whichever side you saw first while passing the building served as a fortune for your day.
As is often the case, the building fell victim to gentrification, but the beloved sign was saved and moved to the Y Que Trading Post in Los Feliz (where I also got my Los Angeles River and Griffith Park tee shirts!). A few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times 404 did a short video piece on the Sign, which also has a new online fortune telling component for anyone who misses this little slice of Weird LA (or just weird in general).
May your feet ever be happy.
Until next time,
Happy Trails.
