Civic Engagement and Elections

Imagine over 600,000 acres of wilderness.  You are surrounded by blue sky, mountains, rock formations and a cornucopia of plants including creosote, palo verde, cacti, and ocotillo. As you walk around, you have the opportunity to see bighorn sheep, mountain lions, kit foxes, mule deer, coyotes, greater roadrunners, golden eagles, black-tailed jackrabbits, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, quail, prairie falcons, desert iguanas, chuckwallas, and red diamond rattlesnakes.

Last month, the Comité Lost Hills En Accion, a group of community members that I work with to advocate for public health and community wellbeing measures in Lost Hills, invited representatives from Caltrans to do a presentation on the expansion of Highway 46. Highway 46, which runs through the Lost Hills community, is also known as a "Blood Alley" for the high number of motor-related deaths that take place on it. The current Caltrans proposal is to expand the highway from 2 lanes to 4 lanes.

Last week we organized to oppose President Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Interior. David Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist and lawyer with extensive conflicts of interest, has used his position at DOI to harm America’s public lands, waters and wildlife and gut some of the nation’s landmark conservation victories at the behest of corporate special interests.