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Conservation Groups Tour the Proposed Royal Gorge Development Site

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Conservation Groups Take a field trip to the site of the Proposed Royal Gorge Development

Soda Springs, CA

June 7, 2007

Representatives of Sierra Watch, the Sierra Club, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), the North Fork of the American River Alliance (NFARA), the Serene Lakes Property Owner Association (SLPOA) and other interested groups toured the development site with several legal, scientific and planning experts. The field trip was facilitated by Tom Mooers, executive director of Sierra Watch and Ted Beedy.

The tour viewed all four areas in Royal Gorge LLC's proposed plans. This allowed the interested parties and their experts to view the area and discuss as a group the impact of the development on the Donner Summit area. Tom Mooers commented that "I was struck by how far flung the proposed development is, and, most important, how incredible the landscape is in its current state." Jason Rainey, executive directory of SYRCL said "It was so exciting to hear everyone say this is a crazy project that can be stopped." Bill Oudegeest, board president of SLPOA, said that, while viewing the sites, "we were able to listen to experts in things like biology, land use planning, and hydrology." Peter Van Zant, field director of Sierra Watch, summed up the tour with "By the end of the tour, there was a shared sense of shock at the scope and scale of the proposed development- and of the landscape at risk."

To learn more about Royal Gorge LLC's proposed development, and the opposition to it, please visit www.saveserenelakes.org, www.savedonnersummit.org, www.savethesummit.com. For more information about Sierra Watch, please visit www.sierrawatch.org. For information about SYRCL, visit www.syrcl.org.

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