Statement of Michael Hardiman, Legislative Director

American Land Rights Association

Before the House of Representatives, Committee on Resources

Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands

HR 704, Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act

Thursday, October 16, 2003

The American Land Rights Association was founded in 1977 by private property inholders in California, and now has membership in all fifty states concerned with both private property rights and public lands multiple use and access. I have been an inholder in Imperial County since 1990.

I have submitted letters from thirty-four Los Angeles area residents, including property owners and recreational users in and near the proposed study region. All of these very strongly oppose HR 704.

Mr. Chairman, there is a remarkable difference between the claims made by supporters of this bill, versus the reality of National Park Service (NPS) actions in this and other nearby park units under the same regional management.

Recreation:

HR 704's sponsor Congressman Adam Schiff has said Los Angeles has "one of the lowest ratios of park and recreation lands per thousand population of any area in the country." However, a Park Service regional takeover under HR 704 will most likely reduce recreational access.

Page 2

John Williams from San Bernardino, a former Park Service employee, writes to the committee, "I am currently finishing a historic interpretive sign project on the Old Ridge Route, the original highway that ran from Bakersfield to Los Angeles." Williams predicts that "the Park Service's excuse for shutting down this Route will be that it doesn't meet federal highway standards and is a liability risk. That is what the Park Service did here in 1991 when they took over an old Boy Scout camp - shut down a road open since 1932, thus eliminating public access to that part of the recreation area."

Ed Waldheim from Glendale, President of the California Off Road Vehicle Association, writes that "The National Park Service is anti-access and should not have an expanded role in Southern California, in particular considering its lack of maintenance of existing facilities."

The term "recreation" does not even appear in the bill as a need or purpose for HR 704.

Dealings with property owners:

Pat Tiller of the Park Service testified in March 2003 that the Santa Monica National Recreation Area "has become a model of collaboration" with "many private property owners."

Former Santa Monica Mountains resident Donald Scott may disagree. The reason I say "former" is because Donald Scott is dead. After Scott refused to sell his land to the Park Service, the NPS trumped up marijuana growing charges against him, and led a raid on his home in October of 1992. Scott was shot and killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff, who had joined the Park Service on the raid.

Eight years later, in 2000, the Park Service and the Sheriff's Department finally reached a multimillion dollar wrongful death settlement with Scott's widow, Frances. No drugs were ever found.

Page 3

Unfortunately, this disgraceful episode is not unique. On one of the Channel Islands just off the coast of Los Angeles, the Gherini family was running a successful recreation business of just the type that NPS claims it wants to see, including kayaking, mountain biking, hiking and bow hunting as part of a bed and breakfast operation. The NPS wanted the entire place to themselves, and saw that the Gherini's, who had lived on the island since 1869, were not going to leave voluntarily. So they took things into their own hands.

In January of 1997, the Park Service landed two helicopters with twenty armed agents on the island. As in the Scott case, once again trumped up charges were used to justify the raid, which included misdemeanors such as an expired work permit and operating a stove without a license.

This time, no one was killed. But the Gherini's business was ruined because tourists were petrified to go to the island anymore.

It's only a study:

Joe Edmiston of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy claimed in Senate testimony earlier this year that "this bill does not presuppose an outcome, it merely directs a study."

Well, consider this. When the Park Service began a study of the nearby Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County in 1999, they promised openness, but that is not what happened. Here is a confidential statement written by NPS study director Ray Murray just after the study began:

"We can shield sensitive info in several ways from Freedom of Information Requests and subpoenas. I'll clarify and layout our options. Often we can mark documents and materials as "Pre-Decisional."

Letters dating back as far as 1994 demonstrated that the Park Service was pushing for a park unit for the area, many years before the study began.

Page 4

This study was slated for three years, but it is behind schedule and over budget, and will take approximately five years to complete. This leaves property owners with a regulatory cloud on their land, and with many plans on hold for all that time.

In conclusion, HR 704 has significant regional opposition from property owners and public access community leaders. Up to this point, they have had no idea what the NPS and the Conservancy have in had in store. Supporters should go back to the drawing board and this time around, begin an inclusive discussion process.