California: Long live the Mineral King Wilds!

I tell people again and again: If you want to save a forest landscape
you have to be relentless; you have to digest and disseminate as much
information about the landscape as you you able able to get; and you
have to let everyone know as often as possible about all of that
information; Layer upon layer, you have to build a fortress of
information / argumentation that defends the land! –Editor, Forest
Policy Research


The establishment of this organization was sparked, in part, by a
lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club in 1969, challenging a ski resort
proposed for a valley in the Sierra Nevada called Mineral King. The
club had no objection to skiing per se, but this was to be a humongous
affair that would have completely overwhelmed the valley and its
wildlife and largely wrecked it for hiking, camping, and backpacking.
The club filed suit in federal court. The government argued that the
club had no right to bring the case at all, that it lacked “standing
to sue.” The club prevailed in the district court, lost in the appeals
court, and lost again at the Supreme Court. But, in a famous footnote,
the high court also said that if the club amended its suit to show how
it and its members would be hurt by the resort, the organization could
come back to court and try again.

The club did; the resort was blocked
again, and Disney threw in the towel. A few years later, Mineral King
was added to Sequoia National Park (which surrounds it on three
sides). Encouraged by the result, volunteer lawyers on the club’s
Legal Committee decided that a full-time legal capability would
achieve great things and they created the Sierra Club Legal Defense
Fund. The name was changed to Earthjustice in 1997. Now, Mineral King
is poised to be added to the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Mineral King was left out of Sequoia National Park when the park was
created in 1990 because of all the industrial detritus left behind by
a failed mining boomlet. It is a testament to the healing powers of
natureā€”and the vision of the people who fought to defend the valley
from overdevelopmentā€”that this lovely little gem will be forever
preserved and protected.
http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/2009/01/mineral-king-to-become-a-wilderness-again.html

— Posted to http://forestpolicyresearch.com via gmail to posterous and
also to forestpolicyresearch@yahoogroups.com

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