Posted on 04/12/2003 2:57:18 PM PDT by concentric circles
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed its biological opinion on the much-awaited recreation management plan for the Imperial Sand Dunes, one of the country’s most popular off-road areas in eastern Imperial County.
The opinion does not require temporary environmental closures stay closed but requires more monitoring and analysis of the endangered desert tortoise and the purple-flowered Peirson’s milk-vetch.
Environmentalists say the opinion and the soon-to-be-released management plan will be challenged in court.
“It’s really a sad day for anyone that believes in balanced land management or using good science,” Center for Biological Diversity Desert Ecologist Daniel Patterson said.
“Here we have an extreme decision to open the protected area, that is not supported by any good science. These are the types of decisions we are seeing with the Bush administration,” Patterson said.
A draft version of the management plan was the focus last year of six lively public hearings in Southern California and Arizona hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the dunes.
Conservation, off-road and business groups attending the hearings debated how to manage recreation while preserving economic opportunities and protecting endangered species.
The biological opinion influences the management plan because endangered and sensitive species live in the recreation area.
BLM El Centro Resources Branch Chief Lynette Elser said the bureau will have to adjust its management plan and environmental impact study based on the opinion.
The BLM will have to figure out internally how to put the biological opinion in place. Then the plan will be sent to government officials who have requested briefings, Elser said.
And the opinion comes with a cost, up to $322,000 a year for additional monitoring, mapping and analysis, according to service documents.
Continued and expanded habitat degradation is likely over the next four years under the proposed management plan, the opinion states. However, monitoring has been established that will restart the consultation process between BLM and Fish and Wildlife if the Peirson’s milk-vetch population drops to a certain threshold.
“The Peirson’s milk-vetch is expected to persist in all management areas for the next four years” while the BLM collects more information, the opinion states. The BLM is required to reconsult with the service after four years.
American Sand Association President Jerry Seaver said the group is concerned reconsulting after four years will hurt economic opportunities. Certainly having that type of uncertainty would be a concern for economic planning, Seaver said.
The opinion states the management plan “is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the desert tortoise” because the recreation area is on the periphery of the species’ range.
Good news for the off-road community is Fish and Wildlife’s reference to a study paid by the ASA on Peirson’s milk-vetch numbers by Arthur Phillips III. Phillips counted more than 72,000 milk-vetch in the dunes in 2001.
Seaver said he is not surprised the service referenced Phillips’ work.
Phillips is a scientist and his work is valid. He even met with service staff to go over his work, he said.
Patterson said the service’s use of Phillips’ work is a failure to use the best available science for the biological opinion.
“And it will be challenged,” he said.
Fish and Wildlife is requiring the BLM to increase public awareness about the desert tortoise within the recreation area. The BLM must develop a means for individual sightings to be recorded and report tortoise deaths on an annual basis.
The BLM also must install and maintain a means for trash disposal to minimize tortoise predators such as coyotes and ravens. The BLM must minimize the potential for accidental tortoise death due to recreation, construction and maintenance, the opinion states.
The service recommends two closures: a large central closure to protect species and a small southern closure to provide access for hikers and educational opportunities. The service also suggests smaller, voluntary closures around milk-vetch populations.
The opinion recommends the large central closure be designated as an area of critical environmental concern. The closed area would protect Peirson’s milk-vetch and other sensitive species such as the dunes sunflower.
A portion of the dunes’ existing southern closure, also known as the Buttercup closure south of Interstate 8, could be used as an interpretive area and for educational opportunities, the opinion states. The northern boundary of the southern closure is easily accessible by vehicle.
The BLM should establish a pilot program to determine the effectiveness of smaller-scale, voluntary closures around clusters of milk-vetch populations, the opinion states. The closures should be monitored to determine the effectiveness of voluntary compliance.
Elser said the suggested small, voluntary closures would be expensive and could hurt other species as riders form paths, or sand highways, around the boundaries.
I noticed that stories on this subject from the big city papers were smooth, easy to read, and ridden with bias. This story reflects a more even hand.
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Currently, he is eating me out of house and home with trips to the market for fresh greens.
ps...Loves Kale!!!!!!!!!
The department told Congress on Friday that it intended to halt all reviews of its Western land holdings for new wilderness protection and to withdraw that protected status from about three million acres in Utah.
Suspending wilderness reviews would limit the amount of land held by the bureau eligible for wilderness protection at 22.8 million acres.
Ms. Norton said Congress had given the Interior Department 15 years in 1976 to inventory wilderness areas, and only those areas identified by 1991 as having wilderness characteristics qualified for protection.
Ms. Norton's announcement means that the department will disregard the results of Mr. Babbitt's 1996 reinventory. That inventory identified 5.9 million acres of Utah land that qualified for wilderness protection, 3 million acres more than found in the original inventory in the Reagan administration.... NY Times, 4/13
yitbos
This map gives some idea of the trend in recent years. I believe in the preservation of unique habitats but not to the exclusion of long existing human activity. There is a middle ground where both preservation and use are served.
Can turtles get fat?
waited a winter wondering.... Until 4 days ago.
I'm glad the kids in the neighborhood took him off the road last fall.
They know where there is a great home for him.
The kids know...they are starting to stop by an see.
All the kids knew the safest place was here!!!!!
I wish I could find out who did it. I'd drill a hole in............
Keep in mind one common thread of all these communist land grabs: socialists hate private property.
Ever notice how community has replaced city, town, neighborhood? Refuse to acknowledge the PC substitution.
yitbos
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