By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
The Lake Arrowhead Communities Chamber of Commerce held a free business seminar for its members to inform them of the tourism aspects of the proposal to sell off some areas of the forest by the federal government.
This Public Lands workshop, presented by Maricela Rosales of the Conservation Lands Foundation, was informational and not political as it explained the economic aspects of the proposal to sell off parts of the local forest. These sales are proposed for commercial use to extract minerals for commercial purposes, and for commercial developments, since the Forest Service is not currently properly funded to manage all their massive federal lands. At the end they did encourage everyone to contact their federal senators to let them know their opinions on these massive land sales of both BLM and Forest Service lands.
The local areas designated for sale are the inventoried roadless lands on the south side of Highway 18 between Highway 18 from San Bernardino to Highway 330, and another two sections of forested lands east of Highway 330 to Highway 38 where last year’s Line Fire burned some of that wilderness area. It also includes the Deep Creek watershed area north of Lake Arrowhead into the currently roadless areas of the forest. Please see the attached map.
During the meeting, held on Zoom due to the snow, an excellent PowerPoint presentation was shown, with live commentary by Rosales. Questions and answers between the audience and the presenter were lively and informational, with about 15 attending. Each audience member was also invited to introduce themselves; they were representing many of the local environmental groups and local business owners who would like to see the natural environment maintained as it is a significant tourist draw. Those who attended were small business owners, members of the chamber of commerce in the hospitality, recreation, lodging and retail fields.
During the workshop Rosales explained how the sales of the local forest lands (and 250 million other acres across 11 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) would have affected local businesses if it had occurred on local lands. It would have means loss of tourism, since the national forest is the major draw to the mountain area for skiing, hiking, boating, fishing and scenery, and the irreparable impact on the environment, through possibly removing or damaging the trees, the soils and lakes.
Of the 11 million acres in California forest lands that are up for sale, these lands were described as vital not only to the human communities in and around them but also to vulnerable wildlife struggling to survive in an increasingly developed world. Since the San Bernardino Mountain area is but a miniscule part of the whole land sale, residents must make a big noise to get these forest lands excluded from this massive land sale. U.S. senators are the ones who are voting on this land sale and can modify the boundaries of what lands are to be sold. California’s state U.S. senators are Senator Alex Padilla and Senator Adam Schiff.
Scott Rindenow, president of the Lake Arrowhead Communities Chamber of Commerce board, encouraged local business owners and residents to express their opinions on this land sale to the senators as soon as possible to let them know of their opinions before the bill cannot be modified anymore.
The Lake Arrowhead Communities Chamber of Commerce offers many business seminars to its members in many areas including increasing sales and revenues and advertising the area. For more information, contact the chamber office located in Lake Arrowhead Village, Suite 01-270, on the second floor. Call them at (909) 336-1547.
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