BLM Shows Blatant Bias with One-Sided Dunes Advisory Team
Only off-road industry reps and supporters chosen for technical team;
greens not welcome
NEWS RELEASE: for immediate release Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Contact:
Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist, Center 520.623.5252 x 306 or 520.906.2159
Karen Schambach, California Director, PEER 530.333.1106
Keith Hammond, California Wilderness Coalition 530.758.0380
Terry Weiner, Desert Protective Council 619.543.0757
Cynthia Wilkerson, California Species Associate, Defenders of
Wildlife 916.313.5810
EL CENTRO CA -- Public-interest conservation organizations have
called for an intervention from Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM)
Desert District Director Linda Hansen regarding the one-sided
composition of a special advisory group on the Algodones (Imperial)
Dunes. They are also calling on Congressmen Bob Filner and Raul
Grijalva, who both represent the dunes region, to intervene and push
BLM to balance interests on the dunes Technical Review Team (TRT).
BLM El Centro Field Office manager Greg Thomsen recently set up the
TRT to provide input to BLM on how to spend recreation fees and on
setting priorities for implementation of the Imperial Sand Dunes
Recreation Area Management Plan. The conservation groups say the
problem with the Dunes TRT is that the only people appointed to
participate are members of the off-road industry and their supporters
from the Imperial Valley Chamber of Commerce and Yuma County.
“Rather than create a group that can work collaboratively on
solutions, the one-sided makeup of the TRT is certain to further
polarize interests. What in the worldis BLM thinking?” said Karen
Schambach, California Director for PEER.
At least three qualified conservationists submitted applications for
the TRT, but were passed up by Thomsen. One of the applicants was an
Imperial Valley teacher, another a graduate student who had
participated for several years in the rare plant surveys in the
dunes, and the third a PhD scientist from the Desert Protective
Council, a conservation and education group that has been involved in
dunes management plans for over twenty years.
“The one-sided TRT is the latest example that BLM managers could care
less about protection of the dunes environment and diversifying
public visitation,” said Daniel R. Patterson, a Desert Ecologist with
the Center for Biological Diversity, who used to work with BLM.
“Despite national controversy over big-time environmental damage, and
sincere offers to help from qualified citizen conservationists, BLM
picks a group that speaks with only one selfish and destructive
voice. This TRT and the El Centro BLM office have no credibility.”
Located in the Sonoran desert of southeastern California’s Imperial
County, the Algodones Dunes are the largest dune ecosystem in the
U.S. They harbor at least 160 different animal and plant species,
many of which are endemic. The dunes also are heavily impacted by as
many as 240,000 off-roaders on some weekends. This intensive use
destroys vegetation and wildlife habitat, pollutes the air, and
creates criminal problems that stress law enforcement. BLM closed
49,300 acres to ORVs in Nov. 2000 to protect endangered species, but
68,000 acres have always remained open to ORVs an area twice the
size of the city of San Francisco.
“BLM needs to wake up and smell the gas fumes,” said Keith Hammond,
spokesman for the California Wilderness Coalition. “Here's one of our
state’s greatest wild areas, getting thrashed by off-road vehicles,
yet the federal land managers won’t allow any conservation group to
the table, only off-road vehicle advocates? It’s just blatantly
biased, and it’s our land and wildlife that are going to lose.”
“The Algodones Dunes have been an official federal ‘National Natural
Landmark’ since the 60’s and are part of our natural heritage. BLM
managers, despite a lot of input from the public for more protection
of the dunes, refuses to even listen to citizens interested in
balanced multiple-use management and more sustainable dunes
recreation. BLM continues to manage the dunes as a single-use off
road vehicle area,” said Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective
Council.
“The BLM must realize that the only way to move forward with dunes
management is to allow balanced input from concerned members of the
public. The exclusion of an environmental voice is not only absurd,
it's self-destructive,” said Cynthia Wilkerson of Defenders of
Wildlife.
The Bush administration faces a strong legal challenge from citizens
to its plan to open 49,300 acres of endangered species habitat on the
Algodones Dunes to intensive off-road vehicle use. Conservation
groups representing over 2 million members filed a legal challenge
earlier this year on the administration’s plan for the dunes,
detailing how the one-sided off-road plan violates the National
Environmental Policy Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act,
Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, National Historic Preservation
Act, National Natural Landmarks Program, California Endangered
Species Act, Four Presidential Executive Orders, and BLM policy and
regulations. Two federally listed endangered species would be hurt
by the Bush plan, including the Peirson’s milkvetch and desert
tortoise. The Bush plan would also increase air pollution in one of
California’s most polluted, highest asthma areas. Last month, a
federal judge put the Bush dunes plan on hold.
“One way to assure that a judge makes the final decision is to not
listen to all sides during the initial decisions,” said Elden Hughes,
longtime desert champion and Chair of the Sierra Club Desert
Committee.
Contact BLM’s Greg Thomsen for comment at 760.337.4410, or his boss
Linda Hansen at 909.697.5214.
Founded in 1976, the California Wilderness Coalition defends
the pristine landscapes that make California unique, provide a home to our wildlife,
and preserve a place for spiritual renewal.
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
