APPENDIX C

LAWS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS

I. WALLACE STEGNER’S WILDERNESS LETTER

Los Altos, Calif.

December 3, 1960

David E. Pesonen

Wildland Research Center

Agricultural Experiment Station

243 Mulford Hall

University of California

Berkeley 4, Calif.

Dear Mr. Pesonen:

I believe that you are working on the wilderness portion of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission’s report. If I may, I should like to urge some arguments for wilderness preservation that involve recreation, as it is ordinarily conceived, hardly at all. Hunting, fishing, hiking, mountain-climbing, camping, photography, and the enjoyment of natural scenery will all, surely, figure in your report. So will the wilderness as a genetic reserve, a scientific yardstick by which we may measure the world in its natural balance against the world in its man-made imbalance. What I want to speak for is not so much the wilderness uses, valuable as those are, but the wilderness idea, which is a resource in itself. Being an intangible and spiritual resource, it will seem mystical to the practical minded—but then anything that cannot be moved by a bulldozer is likely to seem mystical to them. I want to speak for the wilderness idea as something that has helped form our character and that has certainly shaped our history as a people. It has no more to do with recreation than churches have to do with recreation, or than the strenuousness and optimism and expansiveness of what the historians call the “American Dream” have to do with recreation. Nevertheless, since it is only in this recreation survey that the values of wilderness are being compiled, I hope you will permit me to insert this idea between the leaves, as it were, of the recreation report. Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the other animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. Without any remaining wilderness we are committed wholly, without chance for even momentary reflection and rest, to a headlong drive into our technological termite-life, the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled environment. We need wilderness preserved—as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds—because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed. The reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health even if we never once in ten years set foot in it. It is good for us when we are young, because of the incomparable sanity it can bring briefly, as vacation and rest, into our insane lives. It is important to us when we are old simply because it is there—important, that is, simply as an idea.

We are a wild species, as Darwin pointed out. Nobody ever tamed or domesticated or scientifically bred us. But for at least three millennia we have been engaged in a cumulative and ambitious race to modify and gain control of our environment, and in the process we have come close to domesticating ourselves. Not many people are likely, any more, to look upon what we call “progress” as an unmixed blessing. Just as surely as it has brought us increased comfort and more material goods, it has brought us spiritual losses, and it threatens now to become the Frankenstein that will destroy us. One means of sanity is to retain a hold on the natural world, to remain, insofar as we can, good animals. Americans still have that chance, more than many peoples; for while we were demonstrating ourselves the most efficient and ruthless environment-busters in history, and slashing and burning and cutting our way through a wilderness continent, the wilderness was working on us. It remains in us as surely as Indian names remain on the land. If the abstract dream of human liberty and human dignity became, in America, something more than an abstract dream, mark it down at least partially to the fact that we were in subdued ways subdued by what we conquered. The Connecticut Yankee, sending likely candidates from King Arthur’s unjust kingdom to his Man Factory for rehabilitation, was over-optimistic, as he later admitted. These things cannot be forced, they have to grow. To make such a man, such a democrat, such a believer in human individual dignity, as Mark Twain himself, the frontier was necessary, Hannibal and the Mississippi and Virginia City, and reaching out from those the wilderness; the wilderness as opportunity and idea, the thing that has helped to make an American different from and, until we forget it in the roar of our industrial cities, more fortunate than other men. For an American, insofar as he is new and different at all, is a civilized man who has renewed himself in the wild. The American experience has been the confrontation by old peoples and cultures of a world as new as if it had just risen from the sea. That gave us our hope and our excitement, and the hope and excitement can be passed on to newer Americans, Americans who never saw any phase of the frontier. But only so long as we keep the remainder of our wild as a reserve and a promise—a sort of wilderness bank. As a novelist, I may perhaps be forgiven for taking literature as a reflection, indirect but profoundly true, of our national consciousness. And our literature, as perhaps you are aware, is sick, embittered, losing its mind, losing its faith. Our novelists are the declared enemies of their society. There has hardly been a serious or important novel in this century that did not repudiate in part or in whole American technological culture for its commercialism, its vulgarity, and the way in which it has dirtied a clean continent and a clean dream. I do not expect that the preservation of our remaining wilderness is going to cure this condition. But the mere example that we can as a nation apply some other criteria than commercial and exploitative considerations would be heartening to many Americans, novelists or otherwise. We need to demonstrate our acceptance of the natural world, including ourselves; we need the spiritual refreshment that being natural can produce. And one of the best places for us to get that is in the wilderness where the fun houses, the bulldozers, and the pavement of our civilization are shut out.

Sherwood Anderson, in a letter to Waldo Frank in the 1920s, said it better than I can. “Is it not likely that when the country was new and men were often alone in the fields and the forest they got a sense of bigness outside themselves that has now in some way been lost. . . . Mystery whispered in the grass, played in the branches of trees overhead, was caught up and blown across the American line in clouds of dust at evening on the prairies. . . . I am old enough to remember tales that strengthen my belief in a deep semi-religious influence that was formerly at work among our people. The flavor of it hangs over the best work of Mark Twain. . . . I can remember old fellows in my home town speaking feelingly of an evening spent on the big empty plains. It had taken the shrillness out of them. They had learned the trick of quiet. . . .”

We could learn it too, even yet; even our children and grandchildren could learn it. But only if we save, for just such absolutely non-recreational, impractical, and mystical uses as this, all the wild that still remains to us. It seems to me significant that the distinct downturn in our literature from hope to bitterness took place almost at the precise time when the frontier officially came to an end, in 1890, and when the American way of life had begun to turn strongly urban and industrial. The more urban it has become, and the more frantic with technological change, the sicker and more embittered our literature, and I believe our people, have become. For myself, I grew up on the empty plains of Saskatchewan and Montana and in the mountains of Utah, and I put a very high valuation on what those places gave me. And if I had not been able periodically to renew myself in the mountains and deserts of western America I would be very nearly bug-house. Even when I can’t get to the back country, the thought of the colored deserts of southern Utah, or the reassurance that there are still stretches of prairies where the world can be instantaneously perceived as disk and bowl, and where the little but intensely important human being is exposed to the five directions of the thirty-six winds, is a positive consolation. The idea alone can sustain me. But as the wilderness areas are progressively exploited or “improve,” as the jeeps and bulldozers of uranium prospectors scar up the deserts and the roads are cut into the alpine timberlands, and as the remnants of the unspoiled and natural world are progressively eroded, every such loss is a little death in me. In us.

I am not moved by the argument that those wilderness areas which have already been exposed to grazing or mining are already deflowered, and so might as well be “harvested.” For mining I cannot say much good except that its operations are generally short-lived. The extractable wealth is taken and the shafts, the tailings, and the ruins left, and in a dry country such as the American West the wounds men make in the earth do not quickly heal. Still, they are only wounds; they aren’t absolutely mortal. Better a wounded wilderness than none at all. And as for grazing, if it is strictly controlled so that it does not destroy the ground cover, damage the ecology, or compete with the wildlife it is in itself nothing that need conflict with the wilderness feeling or the validity of the wilderness experience. I have known enough range cattle to recognize them as wild animals; and the people who herd them have, in the wilderness context, the dignity of rareness; they belong on the frontier, moreover, and have a look of rightness. The invasion they make on the virgin country is a sort of invasion that is as old as Neolithic man, and they can, in moderation, even emphasize a man’s feeling of belonging to the natural world. Under surveillance, they can belong; under control, they need not deface or mar. I do not believe that in wilderness areas where grazing has never been permitted, it should be permitted; but I do not believe either that an otherwise untouched wilderness should be eliminated from the preservation plan because of limited existing uses such as grazing which are in consonance with the frontier condition and image.

Let me say something on the subject of the kinds of wilderness worth preserving. Most of those areas contemplated are in the national forests and in high mountain country. For all the usual recreational purposes, the alpine and the forest wildernesses are obviously the most important, both as genetic banks and as beauty spots. But for the spiritual renewal, the recognition of identity, the birth of awe, other kinds will serve every bit as well. Perhaps, because they are less friendly to life, more abstractly nonhuman, they will serve even better. On our Saskatchewan prairie, the nearest neighbor was four miles away, and at night we saw only two lights on all the dark rounding earth. The earth was full of animals—field mice, ground squirrels, weasels, ferrets, badgers, coyotes, burrowing owls, snakes. I knew them as my little brothers, as fellow creatures, and I have never been able to look upon animals in any other way since. The sky in that country came clear down to the ground on every side, and it was full of great weathers, and clouds, and winds, and hawks. I hope I learned something from looking a long way, from looking up, from being much alone. A prairie like that, one big enough to carry the eye clear to the sinking, rounding horizon, can be as lonely and grand and simple in its forms as the sea. It is as good a place as any for the wilderness experience to happen; the vanishing prairie is as worth preserving for the wilderness idea as the alpine forest. So are great reaches of our western deserts, scarred somewhat by prospectors but otherwise open, beautiful, waiting, close to whatever God you want to see in them. Just as a sample, let me suggest the Robbers’ Roost country in Wayne County, Utah, near the Capitol Reef National Monument. In that desert climate the dozer and jeep tracks will not soon melt back into the earth, but the country has a way of making the scars insignificant. It is a lovely and terrible wilderness, such wilderness as Christ and the prophets went out into; harshly and beautifully colored, broken and worn until its bones are exposed, its great sky without a smudge of taint from Technocracy, and in hidden corners and pockets under its cliffs the sudden poetry of springs. Save a piece of country like that intact, and it does not matter in the slightest that only a few people every year will go into it. That is precisely its value. Roads would be a desecration, crowds would ruin it. But those who haven’t the strength or youth to go into it and live can simply sit and look. They can look two hundred miles, clear into Colorado: and looking down over the cliffs and canyons of the San Rafael Swell and the Robbers’ Roost they can also look as deeply into themselves as anywhere I know. And if they can’t even get to the places on the Aquarius Plateau where the present roads will carry them, they can simply contemplate the idea, take pleasure in the fact that such a timeless and uncontrolled part of earth is still there.

These are some of the things wilderness can do for us. That is the reason we need to put into effect, for its preservation, some other principle than the principles of exploitation or “usefulness” or even recreation. We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.

Very sincerely yours,

Wallace Stegner

 

II. THE 1962 POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE ACT

Public Law 87-657

87th Congress, 2nd Session

September 13, 1962

AN ACT

To establish the Point Reyes National Seashore in the State of California, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That in order to preserve, for purposes of public recreation, benefit, and inspiration, a portion of the diminishing seashore of the United States that remains undeveloped, the Secretary of the Interior (hereinafter referred to as the “Secretary”) is hereby authorized to take appropriate action in the public interest toward the establishment of the national seashore set forth in section 2 of this Act.

Sec. 2. (a) The area comprising that portion of the land and waters located on Point Reyes Peninsula, Marin County, California, which shall be known as the Point Reyes National Seashore, is described as follows by reference to that certain boundary map, designated NS-PR-7001, dated June 1, 1960, on file with the Director, National Park Service, Washington, District of Columbia.

Beginning at a point, not monumented, where the boundary line common to Rancho Punta de los Reyes (Sobrante) and Rancho Las Baulines meets the average high tide line of the Pacific Ocean as shown on said boundary map;

Thence southwesterly from said point 1,320 feet offshore on a prolongation of said boundary line common to Rancho Punta de los Reyes (Sobrante) and Rancho Las Baulines;

Thence in a northerly and westerly direction paralleling the average high tide line of the shore of the Pacific Ocean; along Drakes Bay, and around Point Reyes;

Thence generally northerly and around Tomales Point, offshore a distance of 1,320 feet from average high tide line;

Thence southeasterly along a line 1,320 feet offshore and parallel to the average high tide line along the west shore of Bodega Bay and Tomales Bay to the intersection of this line with a prolongation of the most northerly tangent of the boundary of Tomales Bay State Park;

Thence south 54 degrees 32 minutes west 1,320 feet along the prolongation of said tangent of Tomales Bay State Park boundary to the average high tide line on the shore of Tomales Bay;

Thence following the boundary of Tomales Bay State Park in a southerly direction to a point lying 105.4 feet north 41 degrees east of an unimproved road heading westerly and northerly from Pierce Point Road;

Thence south 41 degrees west 105.4 feet to a point on the north right-of-way of said unimproved road;

Thence southeasterly along the north right-of-way of said unimproved road and Pierce Point Road to a point at the southwest corner of Tomales Bay State Park at the junction of the Pierce Point Road and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard;

Thence due south to a point on the south right-of-way of said Sir Francis Drake Boulevard;

Thence southeasterly along said south right-of-way approximately 3,100 feet to a point;

Thence approximately south 19 degrees west approximately 300 feet;

Thence south approximately 400 feet;

Thence southwest to the most northerly corner of the Inverness watershed area;

Thence southerly and easterly along the west property line of the Inverness watershed area approximately 9,040 feet to a point near the intersection of this property line with an unimproved road as shown on said boundary map;

Thence southerly along existing property lines that roughly follow said unimproved road to its intersection with Drakes Summit Road and to a point on the north right-of-way of Drakes Summit Road;

Thence easterly approximately 100 feet along the north right-of-way of said Drakes Summit Road to a point which is a property line corner at the intersection with an unimproved road to the south;

Thence southerly and easterly and then northerly, as shown approximately on said boundary map, along existing property lines to a point on the south right-of-way of the Bear Valley Road, approximately 1,500 feet southeast of its intersection with Sir Francis Drake Boulevard;

Thence easterly and southerly along said south right-of-way of Bear Valley Road to a point on a property line approximately 1,000 feet west of the intersection of Bear Valley Road and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in the village of Olema;

Thence south approximately 1,700 feet to the northwest corner of property now owned by Helen U. and Mary S. Shafter;

Thence southwest and southeast along the west boundary of said Shafter property to the southwest corner of said Shafter property;

Thence approximately south 30 degrees east on a course approximately 1,700 feet to a point;

Thence approximately south 10 degrees east on a course to the centerline of Olema Creek;

Thence generally southeasterly up the centerline of Olema Creek to a point on the west right-of-way line of State Route Numbered 1;

Thence southeasterly along westerly right-of-way line to State Highway Numbered 1 to a point where a prolongation of the boundary line common to Rancho Punta de los Reyes (Sobrante) and Rancho Las Baulines would intersect right-of-way line of State Highway Numbered 1;

Thence southwesterly to and along said south boundary line of Rancho Punta de los Reyes (Sobrante) approximately 2,900 feet to a property corner;

Thence approximately south 38 degrees east approximately 1,500 feet to the centerline of Pine Gulch Creek;

Thence down the centerline of Pine Gulch Creek approximately 400 feet to the intersection with a side creek flowing from the west;

Thence up said side creek to its intersection with said south boundary line of Rancho Punta de los Reyes (Sobrante);

Thence southwest along said south boundary line of Rancho Punta de los Reyes to the point of beginning, containing approximately 53,000 acres. Notwithstanding the foregoing description, the Secretary is authorized to include within the Point Reyes National Seashore the entire tract of land owned by the Vedanta Society of Northern California west of the centerline of Olema Creek, in order to avoid a severance of said tract.

(b) The area referred to in subsection (a) shall include also a right-of-way, to be selected by the Secretary, of not more than 400 feet in width to the aforesaid tract from the intersection of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Haggerty Gulch.

Sec. 3. (a) Except as provided in section 4, the Secretary is authorized to acquire, and it is the intent of Congress that he shall acquire as rapidly as appropriated funds become available for this purpose or as such acquisition can be accomplished by donation or with donated funds or by transfer, exchange, or otherwise the lands, waters, and other property, and improvements thereon and any interest therein, within the areas described in section 2 of this Act or which lie within the boundaries of the seashore as established under section 5 of this Act (hereinafter referred to as “such area”). Any property, or interest therein, owned by a State or political subdivision thereof may be acquired only with the concurrence of such owner. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any Federal property located within such area may, with the concurrence of the agency having custody thereof, be transferred without consideration to the administrative jurisdiction of the Secretary for use by him in carrying out the provisions of this Act. In exercising his authority to acquire property in accordance with the provisions of this subsection, the Secretary may enter into contracts requiring the expenditure, when appropriated, of funds authorized by section 8 of this Act, but the liability of the United States under any such contract shall be contingent on the appropriation of funds sufficient to fulfill the obligations thereby incurred.

(b) The Secretary is authorized to pay for any acquisitions which he makes by purchase under this Act their fair market value, as determined by the Secretary, who may in his discretion base his determination on an independent appraisal obtained by him.

(c) In exercising his authority to acquire property by exchange, the Secretary may accept title to any non-Federal property located within such area and convey to the grantor of such property any federally owned property under the jurisdiction of the Secretary within California and adjacent States, notwithstanding any other provision of law. The properties so exchanged shall be approximately equal in fair market value, provided that the Secretary may accept cash from or pay cash to the grantor in such an exchange in order to equalize the values of the properties exchanged.

Sec. 4. No parcel of more than five hundred acres within the zone of approximately twenty-six thousand acres depicted on map numbered NS-PR-7002, dated August 15, 1961, on file with the director, National Park Service, Washington, District of Columbia, exclusive of that land required to provide access for purposes of the national seashore, shall be acquired without the consent of the owner so long as it remains in its natural state, or is used exclusively for ranching and dairying purposes including housing directly incident thereto. The term “ranching and dairying purposes,” as used herein, means such ranching and dairying, primarily for the production of food, as is presently practiced in the area.

In acquiring access roads within the pastoral zone, the Secretary shall give due consideration to existing ranching and dairying uses and shall not unnecessarily interfere with or damage such use.

Sec. 5. (a) As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act and following the acquisition by the Secretary of an acreage in the area described in section 2 of this Act, that is in the opinion of the Secretary efficiently administrable to carry out the purposes of this Act, the Secretary shall establish Point Reyes National Seashore by the publication of notice thereof in the Federal Register.

(b) Such notice referred to in subsection (a) of this section shall contain a detailed description of the boundaries of the seashore which shall encompass an area as nearly as practicable identical to the area described in section 2 of this Act. The Secretary shall forthwith after the date of publication of such notice in the Federal Register (1) send a copy of such notice, together with a map showing such boundaries, by registered or certified mail to the Governor of the State and to the governing body of each of the political subdivisions involved; (2) cause a copy of such notice and map to be published in one or more newspapers which circulate in each of the localities; and (3) cause a certified copy of such notice, a copy of such map, and a copy of this Act to be recorded at the registry of deeds for the county involved.

Sec. 6. (a) Any owner or owners (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as “owner”) of improved property on the date of its acquisition by the Secretary may, as a condition to such acquisition, retain the right of use and occupancy of the improved property for noncommercial residential purposes for a term of fifty years. The Secretary shall pay to the owner the fair market value of the property on the date of such acquisition less the fair market value on such date of the right retained by the owner.

(b) As used in this Act, the term “improved property” shall mean a private noncommercial dwelling, including the land on which it is situated, whose construction was begun before September 1, 1959, and structures accessory thereto (hereinafter in this subsection referred to as “dwelling”), together with such amount and locus of the property adjoining and in the same ownership as such dwelling as the Secretary designates to be reasonably necessary for the enjoyment of such dwelling for the sole purpose of noncommercial residential use and occupancy. In making such designation the Secretary shall take into account the manner of noncommercial residential use and occupancy in which the dwelling and such adjoining property has usually been enjoyed by its owner or occupant.

Sec. 7. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the property acquired by the Secretary under this Act shall be administered by the Secretary, subject to the provisions of the Act entitled “An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for other purposes,” approved August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535), as amended and supplemented, and in accordance with other laws of general application relating to the national park system as defined by the Act of August 8, 1953 (67 Stat. 496), except that authority otherwise available to the Secretary for the conservation and management of natural resources may be utilized to the extent he finds such authority will further the purposes of this Act.

(b) The Secretary may permit hunting and fishing on lands and waters under his jurisdiction within the seashore in such areas and under such regulations as he may prescribe during open seasons prescribed by applicable local, State, and Federal law. The Secretary shall consult with officials of the State of California and any political subdivision thereof who have jurisdiction of hunting and fishing prior to the issuance of any such regulations, and the Secretary is authorized to enter into cooperative agreements with such officials regarding such hunting and fishing as he may deem desirable.

Sec. 8. There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act, except that no more than $14,000,000 shall be appropriated for the acquisition of land and waters and improvements thereon, and interests therein, and incidental costs relating thereto, in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

Approved September 13, 1962.

 

III. THE 1964 WILDERNESS ACT

Public Law 88-577 (16 U.S. C. 1131-1136)

88th Congress, Second Session

September 3, 1964

AN ACT

To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.

SHORT TITLE

Sec. 1. This Act may be cited as the “Wilderness Act”.

WILDERNESS SYSTEM ESTABLISHED—STATEMENT OF POLICY

Sec. 2. (a) In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by the Congress as “wilderness areas,” and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness; and no Federal lands shall be designated as “wilderness areas” except as provided for in this Act or by a subsequent Act.

(b) The inclusion of an area in the National Wilderness Preservation System notwithstanding, the area shall continue to be managed by the Department and agency having jurisdiction thereover immediately before its inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System unless otherwise provided by Act of Congress. No appropriation shall be available for the payment of expenses or salaries for the administration of the National Wilderness Preservation System as a separate unit nor shall any appropriations be available for additional personnel stated as being required solely for the purpose of managing or administering areas solely because they are included within the National Wilderness Preservation System.

DEFINITION OF WILDERNESS

(c) A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM—EXTENT OF SYSTEM

Sec. 3. (a) All areas within the national forests classified at least 30 days before September 30, 1964, by the Secretary of Agriculture or the Chief of the Forest Service as “wilderness,” “wild,” or “canoe” are hereby designated as wilderness areas. The Secretary of Agriculture shall:

(1) Within one year after September 30, 1964, file a map and legal description of each wilderness area with the Interior and Insular Affairs Committees of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, and such descriptions shall have the same force and effect as if included in this Act: Provided, however, That correction of clerical and typographical errors in such legal descriptions and maps may be made.

(2) Maintain, available to the public, records pertaining to said wilderness areas, including maps and legal descriptions, copies of regulations governing them, copies of public notices of, and reports submitted to Congress regarding pending additions, eliminations, or modifications. Maps, legal descriptions, and regulations pertaining to wilderness areas within their respective jurisdictions also shall be available to the public in the offices of regional foresters, national forest supervisors, and forest rangers.

(b) The Secretary of Agriculture shall, within ten years after September 30, 1964, review, as to its suitability or nonsuitability for preservation as wilderness, each area in the national forests classified on September 3, 1964, by the Secretary of Agriculture or the Chief of the Forest Service as “primitive” and report his findings to the President. The President shall advise the United States Senate and House of Representatives of his recommendations with respect to the designation as “wilderness” or other reclassification of each area on which review has been completed, together with maps and a definition of boundaries. Such advice shall be given with respect to not less than one-third of all the areas now classified as “primitive” within three years after September 3, 1964, not less than two-thirds within seven years after September 3, 1964, and the remaining areas within ten years after September 3, 1964. Each recommendation of the President for designation as “wilderness” shall become effective only if so provided by an Act of Congress. Areas classified as “primitive” on September 3, 1964, shall continue to be administered under the rules and regulations affecting such areas on September 3, 1964, until Congress has determined otherwise. Any such area may be increased in size by the President at the time he submits his recommendation to the Congress by not more than five thousand acres with no more than one thousand two hundred and eighty acres of such increase in any one compact unit; if it is proposed to increase the size of any such area by more than five thousand acres or by more than one thousand two hundred and eighty acres in any one compact unit the increase in size shall not become effective until acted upon by Congress. Nothing herein contained shall limit the President in proposing, as part of his recommendations to Congress, the alteration of existing boundaries of primitive areas or recommending the addition of any contiguous area of national forest lands predominantly of wilderness value. Not withstanding any other provisions of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture may complete his review and delete such area as may be necessary, but not to exceed seven thousand acres, from the southern tip of the Gore Range-Eagles Nest Primitive Area, Colorado, if the Secretary determines that such action is in the public interest.

(c) Within ten years after September 3, 1964, the Secretary of the Interior shall review every roadless area of five thousand contiguous acres or more in the national parks, monuments and other units of the national park system and every such area of, and every roadless island within, the national wildlife refuges and game ranges, under his jurisdiction on September 3, 1964, and shall report to the President his recommendation as to the suitability or nonsuitability of each such area or island for preservation as wilderness. The President shall advise the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of his recommendation with respect to the designation as wilderness of each such area or island on which review has been completed, together with a map thereof and a definition of its boundaries. Such advice shall be given with respect to not less than one-third of the areas and islands to be reviewed under this subsection within three years after September 3, 1964, not less than two-thirds within seven years of September 3, 1964, and the remainder within ten years of September 3, 1964. A recommendation of the President for designation as wilderness shall become effective only if so provided by an Act of Congress. Nothing contained herein shall, by implication or otherwise, be construed to lessen the present statutory authority of the Secretary of the Interior with respect to the maintenance of roadless areas within units of the national park system.

(d) (1) The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall, prior to submitting any recommendations to the President with respect to the suitability of any area for preservation as wilderness:

(A) give such public notice of the proposed action as they deem appropriate, including publication in the Federal Register and in a newspaper having general circulation in the area or areas in the vicinity of the affected land;

(B) hold a public hearing or hearings at a location or locations convenient to the area affected. The hearings shall be announced through such means as the respective Secretaries involved deem appropriate, including notices in the Federal Register and in newspapers of general circulation in the area: Provided, That if the lands involved are located in more than one State, at least one hearing shall be held in each State in which a portion of the land lies;

(C) at least thirty days before the date of a hearing advise the Governor of each State and the governing board of each county, or in Alaska the borough, in which the lands are located, and Federal departments and agencies concerned, and invite such officials and Federal agencies to submit their views on the proposed action at the hearing or by not later than thirty days following the date of the hearing.

(2) Any views submitted to the appropriate Secretary under the provisions of (1) of this subsection with respect to any area shall be included with any recommendations to the President and to Congress with respect to such area.

(e) Any modification or adjustment of boundaries of any wilderness area shall be recommended by the appropriate Secretary after public notice of such proposal and public hearing or hearings as provided on subsection (d) of this section. The proposed modification or adjustment shall then be recommended with map and description thereof to the President. The President shall advise the United States Senate and the House of Representatives of his recommendations with respect to such modification or adjustment and such recommendations shall become effective only on the same manner as provided for in subsections (b) and (c) of this section.

USE OF WILDERNESS AREAS

Sec. 4. (a) The purposes of this Act are hereby declared to be within and supplemental to the purposes for which national forests and units of the national park and national wildlife refuge systems are established and administered and:

(1) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to be in interference with the purpose for which national forests are established as set forth in the Act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat. 11), and the Multiple Use Sustained-Yield Act of June 12, 1960 (74 Stat. 215).

(2) Nothing in this Act shall modify the restrictions and provisions of the Shipstead-Nolan Act (Public Law 539, Seventy-first Congress, July 10, 1930; 46 Stat. 1020), the Thye-Blatnik Act (Public Law 733, Eightieth Congress, June 22, 1948; 62 Stat. 568), and the Humphrey-Thye-Blatnik-Andersen Act (Public Law 607, Eighty-fourth Congress, June 22.1965; 70 Stat. 326), as applying to the Superior National Forest or the regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture.

(3) Nothing in this Act shall modify the statutory authority under which units of the national park system are created. Further, the designation of any area of any park, monument, or other unit of the national park system as a wilderness area pursuant to this Act shall in no manner lower the standards evolved for the use and preservation of such park, monument, or other unit of the national park system in accordance with the Act of August 25, 1916, the statutory authority under which the area was created, or any other Act of Congress which might pertain to or affect such area, including, but not limited to, the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225; 16 U.S.C. 432 et seq.); section 3(2) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796 (2)); and the Act of August 21, 1935 (49 Stat. 666; 16 U.S.C. 461 et seq.).

(b) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, each agency administering any area designated as wilderness shall be responsible for preserving the wilderness character of the area and shall so administer such area for such other purposes for which it may have been established as also to preserve its wilderness character. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, wilderness areas shall be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use.

PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN USES

(c) Except as specifically provided for in this Act, and subject to existing private rights, there shall be no commercial enterprise and no permanent road within any wilderness area designated by this Act and, except as necessary to meet minimum requirements for the administration of the area for the purpose of this Act (including measures required in emergencies involving the health and safety of persons within the area), there shall be no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area.

SPECIAL PROVISIONS

(d) The following special provisions are hereby made:

(1) Within wilderness areas designated by this Act the use of aircraft or motorboats, where these uses have already become established, may be permitted to continue subject to such restrictions as the Secretary of Agriculture deems desirable. In addition, such measures may be taken as may be necessary in the control of fire, insects, and diseases, subject to such conditions as the Secretary deems desirable.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall prevent within national forest wilderness areas any activity, including prospecting, for the purpose of gathering information about mineral or other resources, if such activity is carried on in a manner compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment. Furthermore, in accordance with such program as the Secretary of the Interior shall develop and conduct in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, such areas shall be surveyed on a planned, recurring basis consistent with the concept of wilderness preservation by the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines to determine the mineral values, if any, that may be present; and the results of such surveys shall be made available to the public and submitted to the President and Congress.

(3) Not withstanding any other provisions of this Act, until midnight December 31, 1983, the United States mining laws and all laws pertaining to mineral leasing shall, to the extent as applicable prior to September 3, 1964, extend to those national forest lands designated by this Act as “wilderness areas”; subject, however, to such reasonable regulations governing ingress and egress as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture consistent with the use of the land for mineral location and development and exploration, drilling, and production, and use of land for transmission lines, waterlines, telephone lines, or facilities necessary in exploring, drilling, producing, mining, and processing operations, including where essential the use of mechanized ground or air equipment and restoration as near as practicable of the surface of the land disturbed in performing prospecting, location, and, in oil and gas leasing, discovery work, exploration, drilling, and production, as soon as they have served their purpose. Mining locations lying within the boundaries of said wilderness areas shall be held and used solely for mining or processing operations and uses reasonably incident thereto; and hereafter, subject to valid existing rights, all patents issued under the mining laws of the United States affecting national forest lands designated by this Act as wilderness areas shall convey title to the mineral deposits within the claim, together with the right to cut and use so much of the mature timber therefrom as may be needed in the extraction, removal, and beneficiation of the mineral deposits, if needed timber is not otherwise reasonably available, and if the timber is cut under sound principles of forest management as defined by the national forest rules and regulations, but each such patent shall reserve to the United States all title in or to the surface of the lands and products thereof, and no use of the surface of the claim or the resources therefrom not reasonably required for carrying on mining or prospecting shall be allowed except as otherwise expressly provided in this Act: Provided, That, unless hereafter specifically authorized, no patent within wilderness areas designated by this Act shall issue after December 31, 1983, except for the valid claims existing on or before December 31, 1983. Mining claims located after September 3, 1964, within the boundaries of wilderness areas designated by this Act shall create no rights in excess of those rights which may be patented under the provisions of this subsection. Mineral leases, permits, and licenses covering lands within national forest wilderness areas designated by this Act shall contain such reasonable stipulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture for the protection of the wilderness character of the land consistent with the use of the land for the purposes for which they are leased, permitted, or licensed. Subject to valid rights then existing, effective January 1, 1984, the minerals in lands designated by this Act as wilderness areas are withdrawn from all forms of appropriation under the mining laws and from disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral leasing and all amendments thereto.

(4) Within wilderness areas in the national forests designated by this Act, (1) the President may, within a specific area and in accordance with such regulations as he may deem desirable, authorize prospecting for water resources, the establishment and maintenance of reservoirs, water-conservation works, power projects, transmission lines, and other facilities needed in the public interest, including the road construction and maintenance essential to development and use thereof, upon his determination that such use or uses in the specific area will better serve the interests of the United States and the people thereof than will its denial; and (2) the grazing of livestock, where established prior to September 3, 1964, shall be permitted to continue subject to such reasonable regulations as are deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture.

(5) Other provisions of this Act to the contrary notwithstanding, the management of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, formerly designated as the Superior, Little Indian Sioux, and Caribou Roadless Areas, in the Superior National Forest, Minnesota, shall be in accordance with the general purpose of maintaining, without unnecessary restrictions on other uses, including that of timber, the primitive character of the area, particularly in the vicinity of lakes, streams, and portages: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall preclude the continuance within the area of any already established use of motorboats.

(6) Commercial services may be performed within the wilderness areas designated by this Act to the extent necessary for activities which are proper for realizing the recreational or other wilderness purposes of the areas.

(7) Nothing in this Act shall constitute an express or implied claim or denial on the part of the Federal Government as to exemption from State water laws.

(8) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as affecting the jurisdiction or responsibilities of the several States with respect to wildlife and fish in the national forests.

STATE AND PRIVATE LANDS WITHIN WILDERNESS AREAS

Sec. 5. (a) In any case where State-owned or privately owned land is completely surrounded by national forest lands within areas designated by this Act as wilderness, such State or private owner shall be given such rights as may be necessary to assure adequate access to such State-owned or privately owned land by such State or private owner and their successors in interest, or the State-owned land or privately owned land shall be exchanged for federally owned land in the same State of approximately equal value under authorities available to the Secretary of Agriculture: Provided, however, That the United States shall not transfer to a state or private owner any mineral interests unless the State or private owner relinquishes or causes to be relinquished to the United States the mineral interest in the surrounded land.

(b) In any case where valid mining claims or other valid occupancies are wholly within a designated national forest wilderness area, the Secretary of Agriculture shall, by reasonable regulations consistent with the preservation of the area as wilderness, permit ingress and egress to such surrounded areas by means which have been or are being customarily enjoyed with respect to other such areas similarly situated.

(c) Subject to the appropriation of funds by Congress, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to acquire privately owned land within the perimeter of any area designated by this Act as wilderness if (1) the owner concurs in such acquisition or (2) the acquisition is specifically authorized by Congress.

GIFTS, BEQUESTS, AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Sec. 6. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture may accept gifts or bequests of land within wilderness areas designated by this Act for preservation as wilderness. The Secretary of Agriculture may also accept gifts or bequests of land adjacent to wilderness areas designated by this Act for preservation as wilderness if he has given sixty days advance notice thereof to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Land accepted by the Secretary of Agriculture under this section shall become part of the wilderness area involved. Regulations with regard to any such land may be in accordance with such agreements, consistent with the policy of this Act, as are made at the time of such gift, or such conditions, consistent with such policy, as may be included in, and accepted with, such bequest.

(b) The Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to accept private contributions and gifts to be used to further the purpose of this Act.

ANNUAL REPORTS

Sec. 7. At the opening of each session of Congress, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior shall jointly report to the President for transmission to Congress on the status of the wilderness system, including a list and descriptions of the areas in the system, regulations in effect, and other pertinent information, together with any recommendations they may care to make.

Approved September 3, 1964.

_____________________

 

IV. THE 1976 POINT REYES WILDERNESS ACT

Public Law 94-544

94th Congress

October 18, 1976

AN ACT

To designate certain lands in the Point Reyes National Seashore, California, as wilderness. amending the Act of September 13. 1962 (76 Stat. 538). as amended 16 U.S.C. 459e-6a). and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in furtherance of the purposes of the Point Reyes National Seashore Act (76 Stat. 538 16 U.S.C. 459c), and of the Wilderness Act (78 Stat. 890: 16 U.S.C. 1131-36), and in accordance with section 3(c) of the Wilderness Act, the following lands within the Point Reyes National Seashore are hereby designated as wilderness, and shall be administered by the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Wilderness Act: those lands comprising twenty-five thousand three hundred and seventy acres, and potential wilderness additions comprising eight thousand and three acres, depicted on a map entitled “Wilderness Plan. Point Reyes National Seashore,” numbered 612 90,000-B and dated September 1976, to be known as the Point Reyes Wilderness.

Sec. 2. As soon as practicable after this Act takes effect, the Secretary of the Interior shall file a map of the wilderness area and a description of its boundaries with the Interior and Insular Affairs Committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and such map and descriptions shall have the same force and effect as if included in this Act; Provided, however, That correction of clerical and typographical errors in such map and descriptions may be made.

Sec. 3. The area designated by this Act as wilderness shall be administered by the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Wilderness Act governing areas designated by that Act as wilderness areas, except that any reference in such provisions to the effective date of this Act, and, where appropriate, any reference to the Secretary of Agriculture, shall be deemed to be a reference to the Secretary of the Interior.

Sec. 4. (a) Amend the Act of September 13, 1962 (76 Stat. 538), as amended (16 U.S.C. 459c-6a), as follows:

In section 6(a) insert immediately after the words “shall be administered by the Secretary,” the words “without impairment of its natural values, in a manner which provides for such recreational, educational, historic preservation, interpretation, and scientific research opportunities as are consistent with, based upon and supportive of the maximum protection, restoration, and preservation of the natural environment within the area,”.

(b) Add the following new section 7 and redesignate the existing section 7 as section 8:

“Sec. 7. The Secretary shall designate the principal environmental education center within the seashore as ‘The Clem Miller Environmental Education Center,’ in commemoration of the vision and leadership which the late Representative Clem Miller gave to the creation and protection of Point Reyes National Seashore.”

Approved October 18, 1976.

 

V. SOLICITOR’S LETTER REGARDING WILDERNESS DESIGNATION IN DRAKES ESTERO

United States Department of the Interior

Office of the Solicitor

San Francisco Field Office

1111 Jackson Street, Suite 735

Oakland, California 94607

February 26, 2004

To:		Superintendent
		Point Reyes National Seashore
From:		Field Solicitor
		San Francisco Field Office
Re:		Point Reyes Wilderness Act

As requested, this memorandum opinion reviews the Point Reyes wilderness situation as it related to the Johnson Oyster Company 40-year Reservation of Use and Occupancy which expires in 2011 [sic], or might be terminated sooner for cause or other process. The Wilderness Act of 1964, and the Point Reyes Wilderness Act of 1976, provide the guidance for implementation of wilderness within the Seashore and are the basis for NPS’s obligations to manage the subject land and waters toward conversion of the potential wilderness areas to wilderness status.

In conjunction with the Seashore authorization act of 1962, the State of California, by 1965 legislation (copy attached), conveyed to the United States all of the right, title and interest of the State in lands one-quarter mile seaward of the mean high tide. More precisely the State granted “all the tide and submerged lands or other lands beneath navigable waters situated within the boundaries of the Point Reyes National Seashore . . .” to the United States. Excepted from this grant and reserved to the State were the “right to fish upon, and all oil, gas and other hydrocardons in the lands . . . together with the right to explore or prospect . . .” within the tidal and submerged lands. However, these reserved rights were not to be “exercised in such manner as to cause . . . unnecessary pollution of the coastal waters,” and no “well or drilling operations of any kind shall be conducted upon the surface of such lands.”

On October 18, 1976, the Point Reyes Wilderness Act designated 25,370 acres as wilderness and 8,003 acres as potential wilderness. Public Law 94-544, Oct. 18, 1976. The area designated as potential wilderness (2,811 acres) for area 2 of three areas included the waters of Drakes Estero and the adjoining inter-tidal land and upon which Johnson Oyster Farm operates a commercial oyster business. (map attached)

This Congressional designation of the wilderness and potential wilderness (see the House and State discussions of the legislation in the Congressional Record—copy attached) was made notwithstanding a September 8, 1976 letter written by John Kyl, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, to James A. Haley, Chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs wherein he stated the Department’s position on the Point Reyes Wilderness Act. While DOI was largely supportive of the Act, Mr. Kyl’s letter said that the Department did not recommend the inclusion of the tidelands extending one quarter mile offshore within the boundaries of Point Reyes, as granted by the State of California as potential wilderness. According to the Kyl’s letter [sic], the State’s retention of mineral and fishing rights rendered this area “inconsistent with wilderness.” This letter is the only record in the legislative history that raises this point in the area’s wilderness and potential wilderness designation. After review of the 1965 State Act, the Wilderness Act, Point Reyes Wilderness Act, case law and present day NPS Directors’ orders and Management Policies, it is the view of this office that the remarks in the Kyl letter are not only inaccurate but overridden by the Congressional action, as explained below.

The 1965 State Act is very limited in its two reservations of rights, i.e., public right to fish and severely restricted in mineral exploration access, i.e. no surface disturbance of any kind. Both reservations would not conflict with the Secretary converting the potential water area and shore land wilderness acres into designated wilderness. Further, notwithstanding the Department’s letter, the Congress ultimately designated 25,370 wilderness and 8,000 potential wilderness acres which exceeded the acreage recommended by the Administration. This reflects that Congress did not heed Mr. Kyl’s recommendation and conclusions and enacted its preferred wilderness act.

Addressing the potential wilderness lands and water, the House Report 94-1680, accompanying the eventually enacted Bill (RR 8002) states that it was its intent that there be “effort to steadily continue to remove all obstacles to the eventual conversion of these lands and waters to wilderness status.” (copy attached) The designations are implemented by the Park Service’s 2001 Management Policies on wilderness which state that “[I]n the process of determining suitability, lands will not be excluded solely because of existing rights or privileges (e.g., mineral exploration and development, commercial operations . . .”). Further, the Park Service’s Management Policies clearly state that the Park Service must make decisions regarding the management of potential wilderness even though some activities may temporarily detract from its wilderness character. The Park Service is to manage potential wilderness as wilderness to the extent that existing non-conforming conditions allow. The Park Service is also required to actively seek to remove from potential wilderness the temporary, nonconforming conditions that preclude wilderness designation. 6.3.1. Wilderness Resource Management, General Policy. (selected excerpts attached)

Hence, the Park Service is mandated by the Wilderness Act, the Point Reyes Wilderness Act and its Management Policies to convert potential wilderness, i.e. the Johnson Oyster Company tract and the adjoining Estero, to wilderness status as soon as the non-conforming use can be eliminated.

Ralph G. Mihan

 

VI. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR KEN SALAZAR’S DECISION OF NOVEMBER 29, 2012

November 29, 2012

To:		Director, National Park Service
Through:		Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks
From:		Secretary Ken Salazar
CC:		Regional Director, Pacific West Region, NPS Superintendent, Point Reyes National Seashore
Subject:		Point Reyes National Seashore—Drakes Bay Oyster Company

After giving due consideration to the request of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company (“DBOC”) to conduct commercial operations within Point Reyes National Seashore in the State of California (“Point Reyes”), I have directed the National Park Service (NPS) to allow the permit to expire at the end of its current term. This decision is based on matters of law and policy including:

The explicit terms of the 1972 conveyance from the Johnson Oyster Company to the United States of America. The Johnson Oyster Company received $79,200 for the property. The Johnson Oyster Company also reserved a 40-year right of use and occupancy expiring November 30, 2012. Under these terms and considerations paid, the United States purchased all the fee interest that housed the oyster operation. In 2004, DBOC acquired the business from Johnson Oyster Company, including the remaining term of the reservation of use and occupancy and was explicitly informed “no new permit will be issued” after the 2012 expiration date.

The continuation of the DBOC operation would violate the policies of NPS concerning commercial use within a unit of the National Park System and nonconforming uses within potential or designated wilderness, as well as specific wilderness legislation for Point Reyes National Seashore.

The area within Point Reyes that Congress identified as potential wilderness includes a biologically rich estuary known as Drakes Estero, consisting of several tidal inlets tributary to Drakes bay, on the southern side of the Point Reyes peninsula. Drakes Estero encompasses approximately 2,500 acres of tideland and submerged lands and is home to one of the largest harbor seal populations in California. In 1999 the eastern portion of Drakes Estero, known as the Estero de Limantour, was converted from potential to designated wilderness, becoming the first (and still the only) marine wilderness on the Pacific coast of the United States outside of Alaska. DBOC’s commercial mariculture operation is the only use in the remaining portion of Drakes Estero preventing its conversion from potential to designated wilderness.

Therefore, I direct you to:

Notify DBOC that both the Reservation of Use and Occupancy (“RUO”) and the Special Use Permit (“SUP”) held by DBOC expire according to their terms on November 30, 2012.

Allow DBOC a period of 90 days after November 30, 2012, to remove its personal property, including shellfish and racks, from the lands and waters covered by the RUO and SUP in order for DBOC to minimize the loss of its personal property and meet its obligations to vacate and restore all areas covered by the RUO and SUP. No commercial activities may take place in the waters of Drakes Estero after November 30, 2012.

Effectuate the conversion of Drakes Estero from potential to designated wilderness.

Because of the importance of sustainable agriculture on the pastoral lands within Point Reyes, I direct that you pursue extending permits for the ranchers within those pastoral lands to 20-year terms.

Finally, I direct you to use all existing legal authorizations at your disposal to help DBOC workers who might be affected by this decision, including assisting with relocation, employment opportunities, and training.

I have taken this matter very seriously. I have personally traveled to Point Reyes National Seashore, visited DBOC, met with a wide variety of interested parties on all sides of this issue, and considered many letters, scientific reports, and other documents. The purpose of this memorandum is to document the reasons for my decision and to direct you to take all necessary and appropriate steps to implement it.

[Author’s note: “I. Factual and Legal Background” and “II. Discussion” have been omitted from the reproduction of this memorandum because the information has previously been supplied in these pages and appendices. The full text is available from www.doi.gov.]

III. Implementation

Based on the foregoing, I hereby direct that you expeditiously take all necessary and appropriate steps to implement my decision. My decision means that, after November 30, 2012, DBOC no longer will be legally authorized to conduct commercial operations within Point Reyes. Accordingly, I direct that the NPS publish in the Federal Register the notice announcing the conversion of Drakes Estero from potential to designated wilderness. I direct that the NPS allow DBOC a period of 90 days after November 30, 2012, to remove its personal property, including shellfish and racks, from the lands and waters covered by the RUO and SUP in order for DBOC to minimize the loss of its personal property and to meet its obligations to vacate and restore all areas covered by the RUO and SUP. No commercial activities may take place in the waters of Drakes Estero after November 30, 2012. During this 90-day period, DBOC may conduct limited commercial activities onshore to the extent authorized in writing by NPS.

I am aware that allowing DBOC’s existing authorizations to expire by their terms will result in dislocation of DBOC’s business and may result in the loss of jobs for approximately 30 people currently employed by DBOC. I therefore direct that you use existing legal authorities to ameliorate to the extent possible the economic and other impacts on DBOC’s employees, including providing information and other assistance to those employees to the full extent authorized under the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. 4601-4655. Additionally, I direct you to develop a plan for training and to work with the local community to identify job opportunities for DBOC employees.

Finally, the Department of the Interior and the NPS support the continued presence of dairy and beef ranching operations in Point Reyes’ pastoral zone. I recognize that ranching has a long and important history on the Point Reyes peninsula, which began after centuries-old Coast Miwok traditions were replaced by Spanish mission culture at the beginning of the 19th century. Long-term preservation of ranching was a central concern of local interests and members of Congress as they considered legislation to establish the Point Reyes National Seashore in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In establishing the pastoral zone (Point Reyes enabling legislation PL 87-657, Section 4) Congress limited the Government’s power of eminent domain and recognized “the value to the Government and the public of continuation of ranching activities, as presently practiced, in preserving the beauty of the area.” (House Report No. 1628 at pages 2503-04.) Congress amended the Point Reyes enabling legislation in 1978 to authorize the NPS to lease agriculture property that has been used for ranching or dairying purposes. (Section 318, Public Law 95-625, 92 Stat. 3487, 1978.) The House Report explained that the “use of agricultural lease-backs is encouraged to maintain this compatible activity, and the Secretary is encouraged to utilize this authority to the fullest extent possible.” (House Report 95-1165, page 344.)

Accordingly, I direct that the Superintendent work with the operators of the cattle and dairy ranches within the pastoral zone to reaffirm my intention that, consistent with applicable laws and planning processes, recognition of the role of ranching be maintained and to pursue extending permits to 20-year terms for the dairy and cattle ranches within that pastoral zone. In addition, the values of multi-generational ranching and farming at Point Reyes should be fully considered in future planning efforts. These working ranches are a vibrant and compatible part of Point Reyes National Seashore, and both now and in the future represent an important contribution to the Point Reyes superlative natural and cultural resources.

IV. My decision honors Congress’s direction to “steadily continue to remove all obstacles to the eventual conversion of these lands and waters to wilderness status” and this ensures that these precious resources are preserved for the enjoyment of future generations of the American public, for whom Point Reyes National Seashore was created. As President Lyndon Johnson said on signing the Wilderness Act in 1964, “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”

Oct. 18, 1976

Document contains footnote: “It is noted that the State continued to issue to Johnson Oyster Company commercial allotments in Drakes Estero which seem to be in conflict with the 1965 State legislative grant and 1976 Congressional mandate to convert the bays of the Estero into wilderness status. On the other hand, the continued public fishing in the Estero is consistent with the State legislative grant and the conversion to wilderness status. Further, since the United States owns the tide and submerged lands in Drakes Estero, it clearly follows that permission of NPS is appropriate for commercial activities taking place on those granted lands.”

Document contains footnote: “See the District Court ruling that past commercial activities, in this case timber harvesting, do not preclude an area’s wilderness designation. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group v. Butz 401 F. Supp. 1276, 1329 (1975).”