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http://wildcalifornia.org It's Time to Rein in Caltrans
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is a behemoth road-building agency that is pushing forward with their big-truck and big-highway agenda in some of the most sensitive environments in Northwest California, including:
The Ancient Redwoods of Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County.
The Wetlands and Headwaters to the Eel River in the Willits Valley of Mendocino County.
The Wild and Scenic Smith River in Del Norte County.
The agency seems intent on overwhelming the capacity of organized resistance to their highway development plans and has been deaf to community efforts to engage with the agency.
Taking on Caltrans is truly a David vs. Goliath struggle--and we need your financial donation to carry forth with this work!
With your help, we can take on Caltrans in court, and gain the legal and political leverage necessary to reform the agency.
Just last week, EPIC joined with partners to challenge the $26 million Caltrans "Safe STAA Access Project" on Highways 197 and 199 along the treasured Smith River in remote Del Norte County. This is a sister project to the Richardson Grove highway widening project, but the agency has refused to analyze the cumulative impacts of the series of projects that will facilitateunfettered oversize truck access to the North Coast region. These efforts by Caltrans to skirt environmental review cannot go unanswered.
EPIC is also a partner in the plaintiff group that is challenging the $210 million, four-lane Willits By Pass Project. Caltrans has relied on heavy-handed tactics to force the start of construction on this destructive and unnecessary freeway project, resulting in an unprecedented level of political and social conflict. Oral hearings on the case will take place on June 14, 2013 in Federal Court in San Francisco.
EPIC’s 'Rein in Caltrans' campaign is designed to force Caltrans to abandon or alter some of their more egregious construction projects, and to publicize and reform the flawed decision-making and environmental review process that allows wasteful and destructive projects to move forward.
These legal and political efforts to take on Caltrans demand significant resources, and we need your help to be successful! I write to you now to ask for your immediate support for our strategic legal and grassroots political organizing effort to 'Rein In Caltrans.'
Your support and involvement is what has made our efforts successful in the past. It was more than five years ago that EPIC began work to defend the ancient redwoods of Richardson Grove State Park from Caltrans. The iconic grove of redwoods at Richardson Grove on Highway 101 was granted an important reprieve last year because of our resounding victory in federal court that sent Caltrans back to the drawing board to rethink and redesign their project.
We were able to secure this crucial legal victory, successfully defending Richardson Grove, because of the support that our membership and activist base offered to our legal work--your participation has been crucial in protecting the ancient redwoods of Richardson Grove!
Your support and involvement is what has made our efforts successful in the past, and we know that it is your support that will make us successful tomorrow. Support EPIC today, and together we can 'Rein In Caltrans'! |
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