Have Yolo County’s “Big Picture” land use issues been abdicated to Tuleyome? It seems that Tuleyome has virtually become the unelected and unaccountable land use planner for this region.

With HR 5455, the Blue Ridge Mountain Range coursing through Solano, Yolo, Lake, Napa, Colusa and Glenn counties will be renamed the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area. Why?  Tuleyome says, “The Berryessa Snow Mountain region is threatened by encroaching development.”

That is not true.

The majority of the land is already under the Federal Bureau of Land Management, Department of Fish and Game, wilderness areas, the state and various reserves.  

So why is this legislation even being developed and considered by our federal legislators when our nation is broke? As is California!

Could it be that it’s more about Tuleyome somehow assuming the role of reidentifying this region and then perhaps connecting it to foreign, global environmental controllers?

Could the designation of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area sweep our entire region into a murky global arena?

Agenda 21 and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) might do just that.

West Sacramento and Davis are members of ICLEI. For those who don’t know about Agenda 21 and ICLEI, information can be found on Google. Investigate both sides for yourself to see if this designation is something that might be in the best interest of our region and nation.

Both imaginative programs have been around for years, promising utopian environmental outcomes, but are ICLEI members positioning onto boards of directors of conservation areas, conservation easements, and general plans to be later cobbled together into a grand global plan? Will Yolo County’s future funding for its starved municipalities have strong strings attached to ICLEI?

If passed, will the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area become just another global environmental derivative, like the mortgage derivatives, and be churned into something bigger with no local voice in being able to identify, understand or control the management policies and programs of our region?

Vicki Murphy lives in Brooks, Calif.