Hahn Visits Owens Valley to Listen

BISHOP, Calif. —  Against a backdrop of angry gray clouds gathering over massive alpine peaks, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn ended a two-day tour of the Owens Valley on Friday that revealed wide disagreements over how to protect the still-unspoiled valley from development.

Less than a month ago, aides to the mayor had talked of hammering out plans by the end of this year to restrict development here. By the tour’s end, Hahn disappointed environmentalists by saying he had no preferred plan and that the process would take “as long as it takes.”

The trip was billed as a “listening tour” to help Hahn forge a blueprint for eliminating the possibility of subdivisions and industry on the 320,000 acres of eastern Sierra Nevada watershed that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has owned for a century.

Hahn heard comments at a luncheon with environmentalists in a park overlooking Crowley Lake, at a country barbecue with cattle ranchers under stately elms, at a private session with Inyo County officials and at a meeting with Paiute and Shoshone Indian leaders. Hahn also fished for trophy trout with spinning tackle borrowed from an avid advocate of open access to the Owens River.

All expressed a desire to leave the majestic 110-mile corridor of lakes, streams, meadows, desert plains, volcanic fields, rural towns and cattle ranches in its current state. But their differences, in terms of motivations and clashing agendas, seemed as deep as the valley itself.

“I’m only here to listen,” Hahn said over and over. “I have no predetermined plans.”

The tour got off to a rocky start Thursday afternoon, when the mayor met with a dozen conservationists at Crowley Lake Park. As they sat down to lunch with the mayor, half a dozen DWP employees, including DWP Board President Dominick Rubalcava, stood a few feet away, unwelcome guests.

“We made every effort to have a civil conversation while surrounded by hired guns,” said Mark Schlenz, an Owens Valley author and a director of the nonprofit Eastern Sierra Land Trust. “Any question or issue of real substance that we raised was preempted or commandeered by Rubalcava.”

At the barbecue, held at a ranch about six miles north of Bishop, Hahn encountered the opposite side of the debate. One of the many ranchers clad in white Stetson hats, bluejeans, western shirts with pearl buttons and cowboy boots gazed skyward and made the sign of the cross after hearing that environmentalists hope to place a conservation easement on the land.

“To try to tie this land up forever is a ridiculous concept,” said John Smith, 82, a local rancher for 56 years and a member of the influential Cattlemen’s Assn. “Bringing the state and environmentalists into the equation would be against the best interests of this valley.”

In downtown Bishop, Inyo County officials -- the local authorities in land decisions -- said they felt left out of the discussions that could greatly affect the region’s property tax base. With no apparent threat of development on the horizon, the big question they had for Hahn was, “What’s the rush?”

Environmentalists want to see an easement -- a legally enforceable contract -- that would bar the DWP from ever developing its landholdings in the valley. That idea has divided not only residents but Hahn’s own entourage, which was led by Rubalcava and Deputy Mayor Doane Liu. Just three weeks ago, Liu enthusiastically predicted that the mayor was only months away from creating a final proposal for permanently protecting the valley from development.

At the time, Rubalcava made clear that he opposed the idea.

In an interview Friday, Hahn called Liu’s scenario “a little ambitious.”

“Seeing how beautiful all this is, you can see how some people want to preserve this land from development,” Hahn said as he stood by the banks of the Owens River. “At the same time, there are people who earn a living here, ranchers, businesspeople ... some who go back three and four generations, which shows a deep attachment to this place.”

Rubalcava, who stayed close to Hahn throughout the tour, agreed. Weeks before Hahn’s helicopter touched down at Mammoth Lakes Airport on Thursday, Rubalcava had been actively lobbying local business owners and cattle ranchers to reject the concept of an easement and support his own proposal: a promise by the DWP not to develop the land for 50 to 100 years.

In interviews, several ranchers who lease thousands of acres in the Owens Valley from the DWP endorsed the plan pitched by Rubalcava, who is also their landlord.

“Our proposal is no proposal at all,” said Scott Kemp, a spokesman for the region’s 26 members of the Cattlemen’s Assn. “We don’t want an easement. We don’t want anything. This is one of the prettiest valleys in the state, and we have the DWP to thank for that.”

At a meeting in the northern end of the valley with members of the Mono County Board of Supervisors, Rubalcava objected to talk of an easement that would permanently bar development.

“ ‘Permanency’ and ‘forever’ are words that have consequences,” he said. “At first look, such a thing sounds simple, but it may not be that easy.”

Mono County Planning Commissioner Rick Kattelmann disagreed. “It doesn’t have to be hard. It can be done in a straightforward manner.”

Hahn was even lobbied while taking a fishing lesson.

Handing Hahn a fishing rod, Dick Noles, a local activist and fisherman, said, “I guarantee there’s fish in there. I can’t guarantee you’ll catch one.”

Then Noles told Hahn what else was on his mind.

“I told the mayor that the problem with a conservation easement is that it hands control of the valley over to a handful of environmentalists who will have say over what goes on,” Noles said later. “Not a good deal.”

Before leaving Bishop, Hahn summarized his findings to reporters and a handful of residents who gathered around a picnic table in the shade of a gazebo at a downtown park.

“I don’t think any solution about protecting DWP lands should be made without involvement of the stakeholders who live and work and have roots here,” Hahn said. “That would be arrogant in the extreme.”

Asked if he was still seriously considering a conservation easement, Hahn said, “I’d hate for people to think there is a predetermined outcome here. That would be upsetting to a lot of people.... We heard loud and clear that people don’t want this to be something decided down in Los Angeles City Hall.”

Environmentalists found his remarks disappointing. “It’s not over,” Schlenz said as the mayor’s caravan of vehicles headed to the airport. “And we’re not going to forget there is a conservation easement proposal that was once claimed by this mayor and is now shelved.”