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STATUS REPORT OF circa June 1, 2007

SHARSMITH PEAK NAMING PROPOSAL—STATUS REPORT 

This email gives the status of the proposal to name a mountain peak at the joint border of Yosemite National Park and Inyo National Forest for naturalist Dr. Carl W. Sharsmith. This email is sent from the Name4Carl Committee in the belief you wish to receive it. If you do not wish to receive emails from the committee, inform the committee at email 

You may be aware of this Sharsmith Peak naming proposal from other communications the Name4Carl Committee has sent and with the website on the proposal at www.name4carl.org. Please go to that website if you wish background on the proposal. 

Your committee's present purpose is twofold: 1) to bring you up to date on the status of the proposal, and 2) to solicit further input to the government naming body, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which will decide on the proposal within a few months. 

The board has published in its quarterly review list 392 released June 27, 2006 a proposal relating to this name presented by George W. Durkee. Go to this link for that proposal and scroll down to the California section where you will find the Sharsmith Peak entry: http://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/dockets/reviewlist392.pdf. 

Your Name4Carl Committee transmitted its proposal form to the board on January 9, 2007, including supporting statements from many individuals and organizations. You can see your committee's proposal form and its transmitting letter by going to www.name4carl.org/n4cprop.htm. Also there is the letter from the board dated January 12, 2007, acknowledging receipt of your committee's proposal and a letter to the board from your committee responding to some points the board raised. 

The board’s January 12, 2007 letter acknowledging receipt of the committee's proposal is copied below: 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RECEIPT OF PROPOSAL FORM BY BOARD

This will acknowledge receipt of your proposal to name a feature in California, Sharsmith Peak. We shall begin processing the proposal, which will require approximately eight months to process.  As you are no doubt aware, the most important policy is local use and acceptance, so we shall seek the recommendations of the county governments as well as that of the California State Names Authority, the land management agencies, and any other interested parties.  You seem to be aware of the Board's Wilderness Area Policy, and have addressed that policy's requirements.  We shall also be awaiting the documents of endorsement mentioned.  You indicate that the office of the park superintendent has "in the past" supported the proposal.  Does this mean that the office does not now do so?  Actually, it is not really relevant because a park superintendent or forest superintendent cannot (by internal agency requirements) commit to support or lack of support on names issues without first consulting with that agencies member to the U. S. Board on Geographic Names (copied on this response) except, of course, as a private citizen. We shall keep you informed of the progress, and let you know the decision of the Board.  Please let us know if you have questions.

For Louis A. Yost
Executive Secretary,
U.S. Board on Geographic Names
703.648.4552
(January 12, 2007)

In the board's letter, note this statement: "the most important policy is local use and acceptance, so we shall seek the recommendations of the county governments as well as that of the California State Names Authority, the land management agencies, and any other interested parties."  Although your committee has made the entities the board listed aware of the proposal, to our knowledge only one (the Inyo County Board of Supervisors) has taken action to endorse the proposal. Your committee has had no further communications from or with the board, and is hopeful that the entities the board is seeking recommendations from already have or will express their support to the board. Thus, if you support the naming proposal and have contacts with any of the entities the board mentions, it is important--even vital--that you ensure these entities are aware of the proposal’s merits and that they take supporting action. The website www.name4carl.org can help you do this.

Even if you have already sent a supporting statement to the board, it would be useful for them to hear from you again. If you sent a copy of your statement to your committee, it is posted on the Name4Carl website at www.name4carl.org/n4csupp.htm; it has been transmitted to the board and can be used to formulate a new statement. If you know of others who might wish to send in supporting statements to the board, it is not too late to encourage them to do so. Send supporting statements to the board at:
Mr. Louis A. Yost
Executive Secretary
U.S. Board on Geographic Names
U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, MS 523
Reston, VA 20192-0523.

Your committee would appreciate copies of any statements forwarded to the board. Send them to email or to your committee’s address at the bottom of this email.

Why does your continued involvement matter? There are some opposed to this naming for personal reasons and some who believe the proposal does not meet the board's criteria for naming. The board will likely be hearing opposition to our naming proposal and will weigh this in its decision. To the extent judgment areas are gray, strong support for the naming may tip the balance in favor. In time the board will meet to consider our naming proposal, and it would be well to have a supporter or supporters present in person to testify. Your committee will attempt to send out an invitation to be there for any who can.

Yours for Carl,

Name 4 Carl Committee: Bill Jones (lead member), Bob Barbee, Bryan Harry, Len McKenzie, Wayne Merry, Jack Morehead, Owen Hoffman, Bob Fry, Douglass Hubbard, Allen Berrey, Jim Sano, and Bill Wendt. 

Bill Jones
Name4Carl Committee
0637 Blue Ridge Road
Silverthorne, CO 08498-8927

Email: email
Website: http://www.name4carl.org

 Status Reports for Sharsmith Peak naming

 This "Status Report of circa June 1, 2007" page last modified 11/01/2008: \name4carl\n4cstat1.htm.

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