Beth Painter, Jane Baxter and I bit off quite a bit when we started the California office, but for good reason. We have a tradition to uphold. Western Watersheds Project has never been shy about taking on many issues simultaneously - thorny ones especially - in furthering the conservation cause. Beth Painter, Jane Baxter are of the same mind. We intend to apply WWP's progressive principles and approach in a state where great impacts can be achieved.

And let's face it: The opening of an office in California couldn't have come at a more important time. A WWP presence in this state is absolutely essential if California's valuable natural resources on public lands are to survive the relentless assault of the Bush Administration. To that end, Beth, Jane and I have just completed a 42-page appeal of the Giant Sequoia National Monument Management Plan FEIS and Record of Decision. We hope that our collective experience in range science and management will produce a compelling appeal.

I am finalizing an extensive FOIA that I will submit shortly to the regional Forest Service office concerning willow flycatchers, as well as meadow assessment and meadow monitoring issues. We have already started work on an appeal of the regional U.S. Forest Service decision to amend California national forest plans, a change that would incorporate less-protective standards and guidelines for livestock grazing.

Field director Jane Baxter is preparing an upcoming Sequoia National Forest NEPA review of approximately 10 grazing allotments. Her WWP efforts are a great fit with her work for Range Watch, which has been featured on the McNeil Lehrer News Hour and in the PBS special "Sierra In Peril."

Biodiversity director Elizabeth Painter, a co-founder of the Sierra Nevada Alliance and a board director from 1993 to 1999, is developing a distinctly WWP response to current management approaches toward invasive exotic grasses on federal public lands here.

Collaboratively, we are also starting a region-wide monitoring project concerning the willow flycatcher and grazing-related NEPA reviews on Forest Service lands.

Our agenda is large. But so is California, and the state can ill-afford to maintain the status quo on public lands issues. While we are sympathetic with public lands ranchers who face economic difficulties due to conflicts with threatened native plants and wildlife, we will not hesitate to challenge the ranching lobby and its agency allies whenever their operations and plans wreak havoc on California's endangered natural heritage. I hope we'll be able to work with broad-minded public lands ranchers in the state to push forward the voluntary grazing permit buyout bills recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

If California intends to preserve its image as the Golden State, especially where public lands are concerned, we must effect a sea change with concerted, collaborative and decisive conservation action. Beth, Jane and I promise that WWP will be there to lead the way.

Todd Shuman is California director of WWP. He lives in Tehachapi, California.