Based in Bishop, California, conservation group Friends of the Inyo (FOI) works to protect the Eastern Sierra’s unique landscape. The “Inyo,” a Paiute word meaning dwelling place of the Great Spirit, encompasses 13,140 square miles of land in eastern California’s Inyo & Mono Counties. Ninety-four percent of this area is publicly owned: from the top of 14,495 ft. Mt. Whitney, through the sagebrush Great Basin, to 282 ft. below sea level at Badwater (Death Valley). Basically, in this little corner of California, FOI works in every type of ecosystem found from Barstow, California to Barrow, Alaska.
FOI was created by a handful of local activists who got together to comment on the Inyo National Forest plan draft in 1986. The organization was incorporated soon thereafter and hired its first staff in 2000. Since that time, they’ve worked to preserve and restore the beauty and diversity of public lands in the Eastern Sierra, for the people who visit and the wildlife that inhabit it.
Executive Director Paul McFarland says conserving the Inyo has national implications, and demonstrates our nation’s commitment to preserving our wild heritage. All land has intrinsic ecological value, but the Inyo is home to species as isolated and diverse as desert pupfish and Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep, as well as over 35% of California’s native plant species. Basically, the Inyo provides room to roam for critters on two legs, four legs or no legs.
Economically, the area is driven by tourism, which depends on wild, open spaces. Unfortunately, the Inyo is the backyard of the nation’s most populous state, California, and within three hours of Reno and Las Vegas — the nation’s fastest growing cities. The result is too many visitors.
To protect the Inyo, FOI does not rely on one strategy; instead they claim to suffer from what McFarland calls a rare form of “Conservation Attention Deficit Disorder.” They feel that promoting sustainable use of places is as important as getting a species listed under the EndanHand-gered Species Act, because people generally will protect what they know and care about. Paul thinks that the narrow focus that defines some modern conservation work may have decreased the movement’s overall effectiveness.
“I look to the early Sierra Club as the model. They did it all, from recreation to preservation. For them, getting people out into the wilderness was key to preserving places. I am particularly concerned about people being part of the land, not apart from it.”
To get citizens involved on the ground FOI created the Eastern Sierra Stewardship Corps — a program that works to reconnect people with public lands through hands-on projects. From maintaining trails to restoring OHV abuse to monitoring water quality, they bridge the gap between the intentions laid out in law and regulation, and the reality on the ground. Their program has been extremely successful, with more than 1,500 volunteers contributing nearly 10,000 hours of labor for our public lands, in the last three years alone.
The bulk of FOI’s advocacy and coordination is done by staff, with support from their Board of Directors and volunteers from other local conservation organizations. “Having a Board that is part of our local community has been key to our success,” Paul says.
Volunteers provide the many hands that help FOI complete on the ground projects. However, as their stewardship work has grown, they’ve realized that they also need paid staff to provide continuity in things like route monitoring, restoration and construction projects.
Paul says that by far, the largest threat to the cultural, recreational and ecological integrity of the Eastside comes from unmanaged recreation, most of it motorized.
“Our desert and alpine areas provide few geologic or vegetative barriers to cross-country travel, and with the recreational pressure from local and regional population centers places are getting hammered. In addition to these external pressures, the lack of sufficient agency funding, coupled with a pervasive sense of professional ennui, enables small problems to get out of hand.”
To combat the damage, FOI has worked for the last 8 years to generate support for the Eastern Sierra Citizens’ Wilderness Proposals, encompassing over 550,000 acres of proposed Wilderness and three Wild & Scenic Rivers. They are working to defend the integrity of these areas until they can gain permanent protection, but, unfortunately, legislation takes time. The loudest opponents are strident off-road vehicle riders.
“In reality, we probably agree on the same basic things — we want to be outside and enjoy the land. What divides us is that we have a different definition of “loss.” For them, loss is the perceived loss of motorized access or their ability to overgraze. For us, loss is a meadow needlessly trashed by tires or hooves, or the loss of wildness that comes from thoughtless use.”
Paul said he was lucky enough to take part in some of the regional field meetings Wildlands CPR sponsored in the early days of the Inyo’s travel planning. “They were able to pull lots of folks together with a significant agency presence.” He thinks those early discussions are going to prove critical to seeing that process through.
Paul believes everyone who lives near the Inyo loves the Eastside. “I think we all want these lands to look the same when we pass them off to our kids. We have great local support; you can see that in our membership and the number of volunteers we’ve enlisted. Some folks don’t like us for all the typical wise-use reasons, but we back up our words with real deeds and support our advocacy with the best possible data — data we make available to the public so facts can cut through the paranoia. This has garnered us grudging respect from those who may not like wilderness or coyotes.”
When Paul isn’t out defending the beautiful Inyo, he and his staff enjoy it all: birding, skiing, climbing, hiking, fishing, taking too many photographs, wandering aimlessly through groves of Jeffrey Pine, chasing butterflies, and even finding quiet places to drink beer. Just getting outside, and dragging others with them, is what they’re all about.