IN OTHER DESERT NEWS
Posted March 13, 2008
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Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Larry Blaine, right, outdoor recreation planner for the Barstow office of the Bureau of Land Management, guides brothers Mike Pfeifer, not pictured, of Crestline and Dan Pfeifer of Newport Beach as they explore “Spooky Cave” in Afton Canyon Natural Area. Congress is considering a national landscape conservation system similar to the national parks system that would protect 26 million acres across the West. But most of the sweeping 11-million-acre California Desert Conservation Area is not included, puzzling environmentalists and public land managers in the state. Afton Canyon, considered the “Grand Canyon of the Mojave,” is about 45 minutes east of Barstow. |
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The proposed National Landscape Conservation Act would unify management and funding of designated areas. But it requires 'national' in the area name, excluding some of the state's sensitive areas.
By Janet Wilson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2008
Congress is considering permanent protection for 26 million acres of beautiful and historic landscapes in the American West, but has quietly excluded millions of acres of California desert.
In a system that would rival the national parks and forests, the National Landscape Conservation Act would unify the management and funding for areas such as the original Pony Express National Historic Trail, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, a million acres of Alaskan caribou calving grounds, 38 wild rivers, Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and a tiny ghost town near the Mexican border.
Read the full article:
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-landscape13mar13,1,5344414.story
Posted March 13, 2008
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Thrill-seeking off-roaders left these deep scars in the desert. |
Washington, DC – The U.S. Congress will hold its first hearing on the growing toll exacted from public lands, visitors and budgets by irresponsible off road vehicle (ORV) traffic tomorrow afternoon. The hearing takes place almost one year after a “near riot” at Little Sahara Recreation Area in Utah where inebriated gangs of ORV riders terrorized thousands of campers, resulting in 300 arrests and 37 injuries, according to agency reports obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
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Dust from off-roading at Ocotillo Wells pollutes the Imperial Valley. |
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The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, chaired by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), will hold a groundbreaking oversight hearing entitled “The Impacts of Unmanaged Off-Road Vehicles on Federal Land” on March 13. Providing testimony will be upset property owners, angry Indian tribal representatives, frustrated federal officials and concerned law enforcers, including Jack Gregory, who retired as the Forest Service law enforcement agent in charge of the southern region.
Gregory will be testifying for Rangers for Responsible Recreation, a network of former state, federal and local law enforcement rangers and land managers organized by PEER. In his testimony, Gregory will provide the subcommittee with a blunt assessment of the gravity of the current state of affairs:
“Irresponsible off-roading has become such a menace that it is now the single greatest threat to American landscapes.”
Besides rapidly escalating damage to forest streams, wetlands, ravines and meadows, Gregory details ORV-generated law enforcement problems that are spinning out of control, including:
- Forest fires sparked by red-hot engines touching off dry grasses;
- Drug smuggling and trafficking in illegal aliens; and
- Mounting injuries, particularly to young, untrained riders.
In the face of rising ORV lawlessness, the Forest Service is dramatically cutting back on its ranger force. Gregory predicts that the current Forest Service attempt to designate ORV routes will fail due to, among other failures, inability to keep thrill-seeking off-roaders on designated trails.“
While we are glad Congress is finally beginning to look at the havoc wreaked by irresponsible ORV use on our public lands, the hard work is just beginning,” stated Southwest PEER Director Daniel Patterson, who organized Rangers for Responsible Recreation. “We need much tougher penalties for ORV abuse, such as vehicle forfeiture, provided there are enough boots on the ground to enforce basic protections.”
Taxpayer costs from ORVs will be another hearing topic. Statistics gathered and surveys conducted by PEER show that ORVs are now overwhelmingly the top law enforcement drain on public lands. To document long-term costs, Rep. Grijalva has requested an investigation by the Government Accountability Office into the amount of damage being inflicted on our public lands by ORV traffic.
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Read the testimony of Jack Gregory on behalf of Rangers for Responsible Recreation
View the subcommittee hearing lineup
Revisit the Little Sahara 2007 Easter weekend
See surveys and statistics outlining the extent of ORV problems
Meet the Rangers for Responsible Recreation
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Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
U.S. Border Patrol agents on small ATVs stop to talk with another agent in a Hummer in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. It's a 24-hour-a-day enforcement effort to keep smugglers from crossing the unfenced desert borderline. |
Los Angeles Times:
Their mingling with off-roaders spurs controversial calls to close part of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.
By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 2, 2008
IMPERIAL SAND DUNES RECREATION AREA, CALIF. -- The dirt bikes and dune buggies swarm the sandy slopes by the thousands, turning these giant dunes at California's southeast border into anthills of frenetic activity.
Smugglers in nearby Mexico can't resist trying to blend into the crowd.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dunes2mar02,0,4925540.story?page=
Congresswoman Mary Bono’s California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives, this time with a companion bill in the Senate sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer. The new bill also features expanded desert wilderness areas. According to Ryan Henson of the California Wilderness Coalition, the new version has 55% more wilderness than the previous version, including four new desert areas: the new Pinto Mountains Wilderness and additions to the Palen-McCoy, Chuckwalla and Orocopia Wilderness Areas. You can read about the bill in the North County Times and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, but you’ll need to keep the saltshaker handy to wade through the “balanced coverage” these publications provide. Contrary to the concerns expressed by off-road vehicle representatives to the North County Times, Henson says that no vehicle routes that are legally open to the public on BLM, USFS or NPS lands will be closed by the bill. And those concerned with fire safety should be assuaged by the explicit language in the bill ensuring that the California Dept. of Forestry and other agencies have no restrictions on their ability to fight fires in wilderness areas. The fact that wilderness does not bar firefighting was proven during the Pechanga Fire of 2000, when bulldozers were immediately sent in to the Agua Tibia Wilderness, with no red tape involved.
Read more >>
BY DARIN FENGER, SUN STAFF WRITER
October 4, 2007 - 11:02PM
The Quechan Tribal Council has pushed back a public vote about controversial plans to build a casino on land considered sacred by a group of elders who are planning a weekend protest calling for a boycott of the vote.
http://www.yumasun.com/articles/vote_36924___article.html/people_smith.html
County Supervisors passed a law restricting off-roading in and around private property and wilderness areas in 2006. So far the law seems to be having a positive effect. DPC testified on behalf of the ordinance when the Supervisors considered it in April. Read more >>
www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2007/02/21/news/news2.txt |
r Recreation Partners” section consists almost entirely of OHV groups, leaving the impression that off-roaders are the main users of our park system. The omission of such groups as Backcountry Horsemen, the Pacfic Crest Trail Association, and the International Mountain Biking Association, all of whom conduct regular trail work in state parks, is just the most recent of many cases in which the OHV Division seems to have the upper hand – or at least the most aggressive self-promotion – in our Parks Department. If you’re involved with these or other outdoor recreation groups that partner with state parks, you might consider asking your Park or District Superintendent to take the steps needed to include your group in future editions. 
Our funding of the Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute’s distance learning and tent camp programs got a nice mention in this article in San Diego Magazine. 
