Kathleen:

In your Blog, I would like it if you could announce the formation of a Public Interest Political Effort to prevent the Strike Fighter basing from using the Big Sur MOA without many more restrictions and mitigation measures included in the EIS, including allowing blocks of days and times, say Friday noon to Monday noon to allow the unfettered use of the Coast as a recreational and wilderness experience which would be a “non-military” civilian use period exclusively. We also want to see the low flight corridor reoriented so it is primarily on the Base, not in the Ventana Wilderness. There are many other questions as well. The Strike Fighter is of undemonstrated reliability as I am sure you are aware from recent groundings and publicity. It also flys at speeds that will make 150 Decibel noise over Big Sur routine, on the order of 15 sorties, up to three planes per sortied, for over 250 days a year, at a minimum. You may, for the time being, use my email address as the contact point, until a website can be developed. For ease of my internal work load, please use the following reference email: stevecraig@wildblue.net. There is a certain irony there as well.

We will also be seeking more information about the testing and use of drones over the Wilderness and Monterey District, and private lands adjacent.

We are also seeking the formation documents for this Big Sur (Hunter Liggett) MOA, which appear to be tied to the Cambodian Secret Bombing by Nixon according to work done some years ago now by the UCLA Environmental Law program. Lemoore Naval Air Station, which manages the allocation of uses in this MOA, claims not to have the formation documents (if they even exist) or any other analysiis. I am beginning the process of contacting the NAA which has a role in the managing the MOA, albeit a limited one.

Legal assistance, and a meeting with Sam Farr and several members of the County Board of Supervisors, are going to be among the first steps to take. We will be approaching public interest groups with legal expertise at UC Berkeley and several other institutions.

Our request to discuss the MOA formation and use, and its land use incompatibilities, effects on the Marine Reserver, etc., went unanswered in the EIS, Thus far, and this is a first, the present Strike Fighter Commander has indicated an unwillingness to have an open, wide ranging discussion of how to reconcile public use and the military hardware issues, both for testing and training. We will be continuing to try to arrange such a meeting, but have had no success over the past six months.

A record of decision has been filed or is immediately pending for Strike Fighter training over the Big Sur MOA at a low elevation of 200 feet above the ground, up to 15 sorties a day, from dawn to 10:30 PM at night,

Also, the agreements between the Secretary of the Navy and Sam Farr regarding live ordinance bombing in Stoney Valley have been disrespected and ignored, the flight levels of military aircraft are not aligned to minimize Wilderness Impacts, and the 250,000 acre base is often not respected relative to NAA restrictions, particularly for special forces training and helicopter activity. The recent fire you made reference to was started by a live ammunition exercise according to information gathered from the Base Fire Department, and resulted from the firing of a hellfire missile in extreme drought conditions into Stony Valley, a place with many remarkable rock formations and Salinan archaeological and sacred sites.

I have found it near impossible to set a meeting date with the present squad commander. Prior commanders have always made time to meet with citizens, who are the funding entity and tax base that develops these extremely loud, disruptive military systems, such as the Strike Fighter.

The Lemoore Base staff has no information, or claims not to, about the formation of this MOA [Military Operations Agreement] over Big Sur, or any information about the NEPA review it may or may not have entailed. The MOA is routinely used and abused, as it was over the past three weeks of helicopter fighter aircraft flights.

When researched by the UCLA Environmental Law program several years ago, the principal findings were that this MOA was formed secretly during the Nixon bombing of Cambodia, deemed an illegal action by the US Supreme Court.

The use of live ammunition from aircraft was specifically prohibited in an arrangement managed into existence by Sam Farr when the Dont’ Bomb Big Sur campaign was underway some several years ago now. The recent five day fire in the region was caused precisely by such live use of Hellfire Missiles, shot from low flying attack helicopters. What has happened to the agreement made by Sam Farr and the Secretary of the Navy? One gets the impression the military does whatever it may want to do, including flying these attack helicopters down our valley at eye level with our houses, well below the scheduled NAA flight levels, at less than 100 feet from the ground surface. We experienced these flights for three full weeks.

I have requests out to numerous parties to see what if ANY documentation of the formation of the Big Sur even MOA exists.

Thus far, of course as expected, the military, particularly the Lemoore NAS Base which schedules the use of the MOA, has been of no assistance at all.

They have referred me to the Pentagon for information about the formation of the MOA. Not exactly a transparent source of information.

The present lowest flight zone passes right over Rancho Salsipuedes and into the Ventana wilderness. Given the availability of over 250,000 acres of Base land for this type of exercise, why public and private lands are used for this purpose is simply, well, mysterious. We intend to find out why the low fly corridors cannot be revised under an NAA program to alter the present flight corridor to make more concessions to the multi-use nature of Big Sur. And certainly, military uses are, among most of the public who visit this area for recreation and refreshment, of lowest priority for this exceptional and lovely wilderness and landscape.

Steve Craig
Citizen Planning Alliance,
South Monterey County

I have a tracking file on all mis-use of the Military Operations Area (MOA) so please send me your name and address and email so I can enter the time and date into my data base.

Steve Craig (stevecraig@wildblue.net)