Honor for Brower may be contested

California’s U.S. senators have introduced a bill to rename the state’s third-highest peak after David Brower, the fiery environmental activist who whipped the Sierra Club into a national force.

Under the proposal, 14,242-foot North Palisade would become Brower Palisade, a tribute to the California native who was one of the environmental movement’s most prominent flag-bearers.

But the homage planned for Fresno County’s highest point has left the local congressman flat.

“I most likely wouldn’t support it,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Visalia) said Thursday. “If you look at a lot of these radical groups that were formed, they’ve cost my district thousands of jobs. Take the timber industry: We let our forests burn up and meanwhile buy all our wood from Canada -- it’s kind of a sad deal.”

Nunes said most of the people he represents in his Central Valley district probably feel the same way. However, he said, his mind isn’t made up since he has yet to confer with Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the Democratic senators behind the legislation.

-- Steve Chawkins