March 20, 2024
Tule Lake is under threat AGAIN. Despite more than a decade of strong opposition from camp survivors and descendants, the Federal Aviation Administration and Modoc County are renewing their attempts to construct a massive 3 mile long, 8-10 foot high security fence on the land where more than 27,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WWII at the Tule Lake concentration camp and Segregation Center.
The rationale given for building the Tulelake airfield fence is to prevent two- and four-legged mammals from collisions with cropdusting aircraft. But, the major source of airport collisions — 98% according to the FAA — is avian wildlife.
Join our friends at the Tule Lake Committee and email the FAA and Modoc County before April 1, and tell them the only way to mitigate damage to the concentration camp site is by NOT building the fence. Ask for a feasibility study that will examine moving an airfield that is an inherently destructive and incompatible use for a concentration camp, an irreplaceable historic civil rights site that cannot be moved.
Email Mitch Crosby, Modoc County Road Department: nhpatulelakeairport@co.modoc.ca.us
And CC the Tule Lake Committee: savetulelake@gmail.com
Sample Letter:
Please customize your own message by adding on to this email template.
Commissioner Crosby,
Once again, the Tule Lake concentration camp site in Northern California—a site sacred to thousands of Americans—is at risk of desecration. We urge you to have the FAA conduct a feasibility study on moving the Tulelake airfield off the concentration camp site.
For the FAA to truly mitigate harm and negative impacts to an irreplaceable civil rights site and Traditional Cultural Property, the only reasonable alternative is moving the Tulelake airfield from the concentration camp site. President Biden promised to protect and preserve Japanese American historic sites; constructing and extending a fence would desecrate a place of significant American history.
We implore you to stop the destruction of this historic site. An airfield can be moved; a historic site of over a thousand acres cannot. You have the power to protect and preserve this crucial portion of history for generations to come.
[Your name]