News and Events
This page is a starting point to learning about the main issues we are currently focused on at Friends of the Inyo.
Furnace Creek
Furnace Creek is a beautiful perennial stream draining the arid eastside of the White Mountains. This slow moving creek creates rare desert wetlands and nurtures a mature forest of gigantic cottonwoods and water birch thickets. According to the FS, the old "road" up Furnace Creek washed out sometime in the early 80's and has not been considered a system road since. Both the Inyo National Forest and BLM Ridgecrest Field Office have found that the damage caused by recreational vehicles to Furnace Creek is legally unacceptable and have put in place interim emergency closures to protect the unique values of this rare desert wetland. This is a very important issue to all who care about use and abuse of our public lands. Please click here to learn more, and for many resources for information on Furnace Creek.
Write Buck McKeon to help preserve our beloved natural areas.
some suggested talking points, or call Darren at our office at 760-873-6500.
Inyo County/Death Valley RS2477 Lawsuit
Many of you who live in the Eastern Sierra may have seen the local press coverage on Inyo County's attack on Death Valley National Park. Admittedly acting on philosophy rather than real need, the County filed suit against America's largest continental National Park in an attempt to rest ownership of roadless canyons and wild valleys away from the American people and build new, unneeded roads in designated wilderness. After much discussion, the Board of Friends of the Inyo voted to step up and join the move to defend Death Valley, one of Inyo County's largest economic engines and a potent symbol of the America's wild heritage. For more information and to view photos of one of the County's claims, please click here.
National Forest Road Inventory
Over 55 years (1946 to 2000), the number of visitors to the National Forest System increased by 18 times its previous figure; in 2002, the number of visitors reached 214 million. It is predicted that the U.S. population will double by 2100, leading to an even further increase to the number of visitors to national forests. It is expected growth in population and number of visitors will be accompanied by pressures on undeveloped natural land for recreational purposes. The U.S. Forest Service acknowledges that "rising use may trigger the need for increased management to protect natural resources (http://www.fs.fed.us/ projects/four-threats/key-messages/unmanaged-recreation.shtml)."
With a team of interns FOI was able to do extensive route mapping and inventorying the summer of 2005. We maintain this information as a separate site, which can be found here.
Eastern Sierra Wilderness Proposals
The Eastern Sierra contains 1/4 of the unprotected Wilderness acreage left in California. Over the last few years, Friends of the Inyo has worked with local volunteers and other citizens to map and develop Wilderness proposals for some of our most spectacular publicly-owned wild lands. To learn more please click here.
Public lands Stewardship and the Eastern Sierra Stewardship corps
To combat the perfect storm brewing in the Eastern Sierra with increasing visitor demand coupled with decreasing Forest Service management capacity, Friends of the Inyo, through a generous matching grant from the National Forest Foundation, has established the Eastern Sierra Wilderness Stewardship Corps as an ongoing program to develop projects and recruit volunteers for work in Wilderness Areas on the Inyo National Forest. To learn more about the ESSC please click here.