Keep Trying on Owens Valley Plan

The idea was bold and visionary: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power would give up for all time the right to develop its more than 300,000 acres in the Owens Valley, creating an Eastern Sierra preserve featuring some of the nation’s most dramatic alpine landscapes. The city would get $25 million for its conservation easement and retain full control of its water rights, the reason it bought all that land in the first place. However, the proposal, drawn up by the Wildlands Conservancy and DWP General Manager S. David Freeman, was withdrawn last week after it ran into resistance both in the Owens Valley and Los Angeles City Hall.

The conservancy, in bowing out in reaction to the opposition, said a proposal of such magnitude should be promoted by public officials rather than by a nonprofit organization. That may be true, but we hope the conservancy, and others, will remain active on this issue. Public officials in Los Angeles and Inyo and Mono counties should seize the opportunity to keep the concept alive.

The Los Angeles opposition was led by Mayor Richard Riordan, who questioned the proposal’s benefits to the city. He also was upset because Freeman had not consulted him, a frustration echoed by some DWP board members. A major concern was the sanctity of city water rights, but that problem could be easily resolved in future negotiations.

The opposition in the valley grew out of suspicion of any plan endorsed by the DWP and a Southern California environmental group. The valley has chafed for decades as a virtual colony of Los Angeles. Even so, among many residents there is sentiment that the city’s villainy of the past has turned into a good thing. When the proposal was announced, Inyo County Supervisor Julie Bear declared: “We’ll be frozen in time in the best of ways. To allow the Eastern Sierra to remain in its pristine state in perpetuity is almost unimaginable.”

The valley runs some 100 miles up U.S. 395 from south of Lone Pine nearly to Mammoth Lakes, Mono Lake and the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. In places, the Eastern Sierra escarpment looms majestically nearly 11,000 feet above the valley floor.

The largest town in the sparsely settled region, Bishop, population some 4,000, has become an outdoor recreation mecca and one of the nation’s hottest rock-climbing centers. Manzanar, the site of the World War II internment camp, is being developed as a National Park Service memorial.

Preservation of the valley needs to be pursued and planned carefully with full participation by Owens Valley interests. The result could be a landmark conservation achievement that attracts appreciative visitors from throughout the nation and world.