Adler Ranch Acquisition Petition

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• Must be ever vigilant...and you are, Kate, which is great for everyone.

• Kate- Thank you for spreading the word and helping to educate folks on why this particular acquisition is a potential loaded gun pointed at the Palo community. Butch

  • You are welcome, Butch. Mike sent me the info, and I pared it down, not as much as CPOA, but still enough to get people reading and interested, I hope. I agree, it is a critical issue for this community.

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• I either submitted several petitions or none at all because after filling in all the required info, I clicked "Submit" and nothing seemed to happen to indicate it flew—perhaps it did.

  • Connie, I just looked and don't find your name on the list of those who have signed, so apparently not 3 but 0 submittals. If you can't get the submit button to work after filling in all required fields (red asterisk) please post here with the kind of phone or computer you used and the web browser you used and any other details that come to mind so I can try to fix the problem. Thank you for trying. Fortunately, no other reports like yours so far.

    • Thanks, Mike for trying to help Connie. She has been on the South Coast of Big Sur longer than I have, although she leaves occasionally to go teach for a year over seas.

• Thanks Counselor Kate

  Honestly I think the USFS has more than enough land that already it is totally incapable of taking care of due to budget cuts and indifference of the Department of Agriculture towards the value of public land for public use instead of being sold off for private profit. Maintenance of the forest and its trails is at the lowest level ever (to be fair the problem is not only due to bureaucracy but also to climate change, overuse, visitor fires and so on) I always had great respect for and good relations with the people working locally in Big Sur for the USFS, but further up the feeding chain it is today a totally different Kettle of Bureaucrats. Maybe a private owner or a preservation/conservation group would make it into a reserve of some sort with limited access to Grade One Visitors. I am not a big fan of petitions but I will give Jimmy a call once I have analyzed the information you have presented. As I mentioned before I knew his dad Leon pretty well and knew Sam Farr whose office I called for help insuring Tassajara (just inside the eastern border of the Big Sur Nation) was adequately protected during the last fire...

• (psst. Check for the small typo in the title of post.)

  • I see no typos in the title. Alder is correct, Ranch is correct, Acquisition is correct, Petition is correct. What am I missing?

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• On the other hand, Adler Ranch under public ownership would be a sure thing, as opposed to the uncertainty of some as yet-unknown private buyer. Provisions could be made to ensure the maintenance (or at least existence) of the Mescal Ridge/Bixby Mountain fire break. The portion of the Big Box depicted on this map as "not used during Basin Fire" involves steep cliffs surrounding a narrow river gorge. It was likely left unopened because it's nearly indefensible & with the Gallery Fire already burning up the coast, construction would have put hand crews at grave risk (most of it is impassable to dozers). Broad, grassy Bixby Mountain is a far superior natural barrier. This is a complex, nuanced argument & simply petitioning against transferring the ranch to public ownership misses the point; but don't take my word for it, get out & visit the landscape for yourself.

  • I feel you are simply mislead or ill informed on this one. You may know the ground and the terrain, but you are not accurately reflecting the difficulty facing and with the USFS and the policies and views and lack of resources that are the reality here and throughout the nation.

• I support this petition. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. If you want a perfect recent example of how the political class/government neglects "public" lands at great cost in dollars and otherwise look no further than the post Soberanes Fire storms and Andrew Molera State Park. Debris flows are common but always greater after a fire. As debris built up in Molera on the Big Sur River there was no action on the part of those personnel paid and entrusted with overseeing the park. The build up dammed the river, re-routed it, and did tremendous damage to the camp area and more. The park was then closed for months and the cost of restoration work ran into six figures. In a local community on private land in contrast, the vigilant interested parties (private owners) simply removed the growing pile of tree limbs and debris at two bridges on a creek. A road, pedestrian, and vehicle bridge were spared. The same is true for fire protection efforts on land under government control. If you have spent any time in the Ventana 40 years ago and go back there today you can see the total neglect. These state, county, and federal entities do little or no work in the back country and make it difficult for volunteers to do any. Sad really. I really wonder if it is not intentional. I am not sure they even want any of the true owners (public) to use it.

  • Thank you, Larry. For those of us who has watched this benign neglect for decades, you have summed it up beautifully.

    https://bigsurkate.blog

• Kate, I gave BigSurLandTrust a buzz on this petition - we will see if they have any clout to make a genuine offer. I am unaware of its past projects and resident relations maybe someone could get me up to par on its reputation.

• Please, no, don't do it. Do not give the Forest Service responsibility for this land. They are understaffed and underfunded, especially in Region 5. Their preference will be to allow it to return to its natural state. They fight fires, but they don't prevent them. Ask the people in Montana and Wyoming, or consider my problem: As chief of a volunteer fire department, I pump from the creek to the truck and into 6 fire water storage tanks. This year the biologist told me to cease and desist - - after 55 years of doing it. Why? Despite the heavy winter and surplus water, I will harm the biota. Your fire break is anathema to their new policies. Life and property be damned.

• Without having to read through a pile of related literature, a simplistic background and next steps would be helpful. Why is the Alder Ranch for sale? Any thumbnail history on Alder's and how the land was used...or not. Apparently no part of the property is pledged to any of the bigger pocket non-profits. Does the USFS have eminent domain rights in acquiring the property? Is the ranch in a family trust? A thumbnail on the slightly bigger picture would be helpful here. There are many who are interested...me for one, but need a "nutshell" on what is going on here. Thanks again to Kate for being at the helm when the storms come in.

  • Note: this is a request for a THUMBNAIL. Now is a good time to learn how to be concise, Mike.

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