San Luis Obispo County and the nation have lost a champion of the Carrizo Plain and all that makes it one of the planet's most unique and sacred places. Marlene Braun, a long-time Bureau of Land Management employee who embraced an all-too-uncommon approach to responsible public land management, served as the manager of the Carrizo Plain National Monument (CPNM) from 2001 until she took her life on May 2. The void she has left "both in our hearts and on the land" will be very hard to fill.

Marlene felt deeply about, and fought tenaciously for, thoughtful management and meaningful conservation of the Carrizo Plain. Her appointment in 2001 as manager of the then recently-designated National Monument opened a new chapter in the cooperative management of the area by the BLM, The Nature Conservancy, and the California Department of Fish and Game. Marlene embraced, nourished, and encouraged the partnership, and her dedication and commitment to the Carrizo inspired those who were honored to work with her.

The Carrizo Plain National Monument is California's best-kept secret -- more than 250,000 acres of solitude and isolation in a spectacular setting. Ringed by mountains, the Monument contains the last significant remnant of intact San Joaquin Valley grasslands and is home to the highest concentration of endangered and threatened species in the nation. Long-time Carrizophiles all agree that the area has never looked better than it does right now, largely thanks to Marlene's efforts and her leadership of the partners management decisions. Marlene fought long and hard to ensure that the CPNM Resource Management Plan (RMP) -- the document for guiding future management decisions on the Carrizo -- would not be rooted in BLM's traditional paradigm of managing public lands, first and foremost, for economic return rather than for conservation.

That fight continues. The BLM will soon release a controversial draft of the RMP. Will that plan open the door for more cattle grazing, oil exploration, and other exploitive uses, even at the cost of the very resources the National Monument was designated to protect? Marlene relentlessly fought the good fight over the development of the RMP. She lost that fight when the powers that be at BLM lined up in opposition to her, rewriting the plan and gutting her efforts.

The Santa Lucia and Kern-Kaweah Chapters of the Sierra Club have made the Carrizo RMP a high priority and will be rallying the troops when the public review draft is released. It will be up to the public to continue Marlene's efforts. Please be involved when the time comes.

Marlene Braun died protecting this land. We will see to it that her efforts were not in vain and that her spirit will one day be able to rest in peace.

From the official newsletter of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club
San Luis Obispo County, California
June/July 2005
Volume 42, No. 6

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