Obama’s Vanity Land Grab Threatens to Shut Down Mt. Baldy & Burro Canyon Shooting Park

Just when you thought he couldn’t do any more damage to our country, he pops up like a spectre out of a Jack-In-The-Box frightening children.

President Obama is traveling this week to California this week, having finally found the one Democrat that wants him around. On Friday, October 10th, Obama will reportedly visit a Bonelli Park in San Dimas, where he is widely expected to announce that by executive action, he’s taken control of 620,000 acres encompassing the entire San Gabriel Mountain range and parts of the San Bernardino’s from Santa Clarita on the east to San Bernardino on the west.

Congresswoman Judy Chu, the author of HR4858, has met strong resistance in Congress to her plan, which is now stalled in a committee. She has attempted to railroad this massive Federal Land grab past the people in the communities affected by holding pseudo public hearings, where she bused in hundreds of residents from another city, most of whom didn’t speak English, by promising them they’d get to meet Michelle Obama. No questions were allowed at the Q & A, and no real information was given on the impact of the plan.

Congressional candidate Arturo Alas, a Republican businessman running for the 32nd District seat against Grace Napolitano attended the meeting. Since he speaks spanish, he was able to explain the truth about the purpose of the meeting, and the attendees left angry that they had been duped, and many expressed outrage at the proposed takeover of the San Gabriel Mountains. These tactics have begun to backfire on Congresswoman Judy Chu, so getting the President to sign off on this extremely unpopular action is plan B.

Currently the public lands of the San Gabriel Mountain range are under the control and supervision of the US Forest Service, which has done a fairly good job over the years. Millions of Southern California residents enjoy biking, hiking, shooting and horseback and off-road riding in the spring, summer and fall, and skiing and snowboarding in the winter at a number of locations throughout the expansive ranges. All that will now be at risk.

If you grew up going to Mt. Baldy to ski and snowboard, you might not be able to share that same experience with your children or grandchildren if Obama acts to declare this region a National Monument.

If you like hiking or biking or horseback riding, access to many trails and areas could be cut off forever.

If you are a shooting enthusiast, forget about taking the family to Burro Canyon Shooting Park; it will likely be shut down, lease terminated in order to return the land to nature.

If you love skiing or snowboarding, Mt. Baldy and other resorts will most likely lost their leases, closing down permanently businesses that have employed Southern Californians for decades and been landmarks that families visit year after year as part of their family tradition.

Judy Chu claims that her proposal will increase access and preserve the wilderness, but the opposite is true.

The dirty little secret is, by making this declaration, the Federal Gov’t—through the Antiquities Act—can restrict access, raise fees, terminate leases, water and mineral rights, shut down access, take adjacent private property by eminent domain. When Chu claims that the proposal will increase access for low-income residents, that claim is patently false; when the Fed Gov’t restricts access in the name of some critter, all humans will have less access, and when the gov’t raises the fees, low-income residents may be priced out of recreating altogether.

There was a protest on Monday outside of Congresswoman Chu’s field office with over 200 people. There will be another, larger protest rally when President Obama comes on Friday to Bonelli Park in San Dimas, presumably to announce that he’s making the San Gabriel’s into a National Monument, where the public will no longer be welcomed on public land.

If you care about keeping the wilderness open for future generations to enjoy, take action to STOP OBAMA’s Federal Land Grab that could shut down Mt. Baldy, the Burro Canyon Shooting Park, hiking, biking and off-roading in the San Gabriel Mtns.

For more information, Like and follow this page: https://www.facebook.com/saveourmountains

Protest:  Bonelli Park, 120 Via Verde, San Dimas CA 91773