New damage to desert pavement in the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area — SCS Engineering photo

Off–road vehicle (ORV) use continues to damage both cultural and natural resources in the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area (DCPA), according to a report [PDF]released today by the Desert Protective Council. Despite assurances from the California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) that it would ensure adequate patrolling and signage to deter inappropriate vehicle use, the agency has done little to protect the area from increasing ORV damage.

The report, by the engineering firm SCS Engineers, compares aerial photos of the DCPA taken in December 2007 and again in March 2009. Comparing the two sets of photos, SCS found evidence that ORV damage to the DCPA has increased dramatically. The photographs show that since December 2007 off-roaders have carved new cross-country trails and spun “donuts” on delicate “desert pavement” that takes tens of thousand of years to form. Vehicles have crushed desert plants and petrified wood, and created new “hill climbs” — vertical tracks up hillsides that result in extreme erosion. Since acquiring the lands, DPR has failed to maintain even minimal staffing or signage educating users as to the fragility of the landscape.

DPR acquired 4,000 acres in the 23 square miles of mostly state-owned fragile desert land, located between Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Salton Sea, in a controversial acquisition three years ago. In 2006 conservation groups, which had attempted to buy the area as an addition to Anza Borrego State Park, urged the area be closed to vehicular use until resource surveys could be conducted and a sound management plan created. DPR maintained that existing staff and policies were sufficient to protect the land until a management plan could be put in place.

“DPR decided not to close Desert Cahuilla to ORVs, and the land has paid the price,” said Terry Weiner, Conservation Coordinator for the Desert Protective Council. “As a compromise we suggested they restrict ORV use to the southern portion of the Desert Cahuilla area and State Parks declined to do even that much. This report shows that DPR isn’t able to manage the existing use, and needs to suspend ORV use in Desert Cahuilla until resources surveys are completed and a management plan has been crafted that can stop the destruction.”

“The tragedy of this out-of-control off-roading which has destroyed plants, animals, cultural sites and other irreplaceable resources was predictable and preventable,” said Ileene Anderson, biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “This report unequivocally compels State Parks to act responsibly and immediately safeguard the public’s treasured resources before even more damage is done.”

In addition to being home to the endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, rare plant species, golden eagles, prairie falcons and desert horned lizards, the DCPA hosts a fossil record of seven million years of geological and ecological change in present-day Imperial County. Petrified wood, remains of some of the largest known mammoths, and remnant landforms detailing many millions of years of California geological history are found here. In addition, DCPA contains a fragile archaeological record of thousands of years of human occupation.

The SCS report can be downloaded at http://dpcinc.org/files/2009/DCPA.pdf. An executive summary is available at http://dpcinc.org/files/2009/DCPAExSum.pdf.

Passing along an appeal from our colleagues at the California State Parks Foundation:

Dear Friend,

Yesterday the Governor signed a revised Fiscal Year 2009-2010 state budget, based on the package of bills sent to him by the Legislature on July 24. In using his blue-pencil veto authority the Governor exacted an additional $6.2 million cut to the state park system, bringing the total General Fund cut to $14.2 million. It is expected that this will result in the closure of more than 100 of California’s 279 state parks, more than 1/3 of the state park system!

Take action now to help stop these closures!

The Department of Parks and Recreation has not yet released a list of which parks will be included on this closure list or when exactly park closures will start taking place. We will provide you with updates as details are released.

The news of park closures is not only devastating to park users, but also to local economies. Please take a moment to send a message to your legislators urging them to take action to stop these closures. Our state parks need your support now more than ever before!

Thank you for your efforts to help us Save Our State Parks!

Sincerely,
Traci Verardo-Torres
Vice President, Government Affairs

The US Fish and Wildlife Service released a study this week that examined the benefit to the US economy from birding, indicating that the popular hobby contributes $36 billion annually to the nation’s economy. The report was issued as an addendum to a November 2007 agency study of wildlife-related activities and their economic impact, and reading the coverage of today’s addendum, I became a little curious as to whether the earlier study might shed some light on the continuing issue of whether to cut finding to California’s wildlife-rich state parks.

That earlier study, the “2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Associated Recreation,” surveyed members of the public to determine how many of us were hunters, anglers, and/or wildlife watchers in 2006. It then went on to measure how much cash we’d all shelled out in our pursuit, lethal or non-lethal, of the nation’s wildlife.

The FWS thoughtfully divided up the data into state-by-state reports, and you can read California’s here (PDF).

The upshot of California’s data: closing the state’s parks is likely to have an economic impact that extends well beyond the loss of salaries of park staff.

Of the three kinds of wildlife-related activities, wildlife watching is the only one whose impact and influence grew between 1996 and 2006. Away-from-home wildlife watching showed marked growth in that period, with the number of Californians engaging in wildlife observation more than a mile from home growing by 23 percent, and the total amount of time spent engaging in said observation growing by a stunning 83 percent. The total time spent hunting and fishing dropped by around half in that same period, with the number of hunters and anglers dropping between 35-45 percent.

According to the study, 6,270,000 Californians spent time observing wildlife in 2006, 46% of them more than a mile from home. Twenty-eight percent of participants were engaged in wildlife photography, and 10% in feeding wildlife, primarily by way of bird-feeders, though planting of wildlife food plants was a very popular near-home activity. Forty-four percent of participants restricted their activities to observation. Visits to zoos, aquaria, wild animal parks and like locations were excluded from consideration for purposes of the study.

All told, wildlife-watching Californians spent $4.18 billion on their pastime in 2006, about half of it in travel expenses and the remainder on equipment from binoculars and hiking boots, to photographic equipment, to bird feeders, to big-ticket items such as campers and watercraft. $1.9 billion dollars was spent by wildlife watchers on excursion-related food and lodging alone, an immense boon to park gateway communities and wildlife-rich rural economies.

The average Californian wildlife-watcher spent 641 dollars on her hobby in 2006. Nearly nine-tenths of wildlife watchers neither fished nor hunted in 2006.

While wildlife in California is in no way restricted to State Parks — the BLM, USFS and National Park Service together administer about 50 million acres of wildlife-watching land in California, for example — the State Parks system does include unique wildlife areas from Anza-Borrego’s namesake bighorn sheep to Año Nuevo’s elephant seal rookeries. Cutting nearby communities off from the wildlife watching economic pipeline could seriously damage whatever recovery is in store for California.

Occasionally we need to take a break from activism and get out and smell the flowers. Last Saturday, I took a hike from Grapevine Canyon, up Grapevine Mountain and back down Bitter Creek. Brittle bush was probably the most abundant bloomer, but the chuparosa in Bitter Creek were also spectacular. Lots of phacelia as well. And I found the fish hook cactus (right) to be the most charismatic of the bunch.

A full set of photos and a map from the outing are available on my Flickr page.

The Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute’s website also has a flower alert page, as does the state park website.

And this photographer got some great shots on his first trip to Anza-Borrego, though not necessarily of the flowers.

Feel free to post your own flower reports in the comments section below.

Chuparosa and brittlebush in Bitter Creek.

UPDATE: Here are a few more photos from a hike up Harper Canyon in Anza-Borrego on March 29. Feel free to help me out on the identifications in the comments section.

Orange Mallow

Beavertail cactus blossom

Going by the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association’s flower guide, I think this is a ghost flower (Mohavea confertiflora)

Creosote in bloom

So it’s not a flower, but this was a new lizard for me. Not sure, but could be a banded rock lizard.

Indigo bush

The Arizona Republic reported on May 13 that the Bureau of Land Management will ban off-road vehicles on 55,000 acres of the Sonoran Desert National Monument for up to two years or more. Violators of the ban could face a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison. Southwest Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Director (and Arizona State Representative candidate) Daniel Patterson was heavily involved in working for the ban, and covered it on his blog. Great work, Daniel, and thanks to the BLM staff who are instituting this much needed protection for a wild area of the Sonoran desert.

The ban is meant to allow the land to heal from what Patterson calls “an exponential increase in ORV traffic that, by BLM’s own admission, is beyond its ability to effectively manage. Damage to its lands has reached the point where, last year, agency officials suggested a monument-wide prohibition on ORV use.”

According to the Arizona Republic article, BLM officials say that “reckless riders have torn up the soil, ripped up the native plant cover and marred the desert landscape with illegal dumping.”

Hmmm… sounds a lot like what’s happened to the Desert Cahuilla area east of Anza-Borrego over the last four decades.

Torn up soil? We’ve got your torn up soil, and petrified wood, too (the “rocks” in this photo, with a vehicle track going right through them)… (Photo by Larry Hogue)

How about these donuts marring ancient trails on fragile desert pavement? (Photo by Diana Lindsay)

Or this spiderweb of tracks in another part of the Desert Cahuilla area? (Photo by Phil Farquharson)

Ripped up plant cover? The flowers that people flock from miles around to view in Anza-Borrego get run over in Desert Cahuilla. (Photos by Diana Lindsay)

Illegal dumping? Trash piles like this one abound. (Photo by Deborah Knapp)

Desert Cahuilla has been subjected to much abuse that has damaged precious cultural artifacts, remains of ancient life, and fragile plant habitats that are easily damaged by such activities. Let’s hope that California’s Parks & Recreation department will take a small hint from the BLM, restricting vehicle use on the 4,000 acres it acquired in the Desert Cahuilla area in 2006, and on the lands it hopes to acquire there in the future. The Desert Protective Council and many other conservation organizations believe that these lands should be managed by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, under regulations similar to those in the rest of the park: street-legal vehicles only, restricted to designated routes mostly in wash bottoms.

For more info, see our Desert Cahuilla page and watch our our video about the area (featuring music by Richard Thompson!) — then send a quick and easy letter to the Director of California’s Parks department.

In his most strongly worded admonishment of SDG&E yet, San Diego City Attorney called on the company to come up with a rooftop solar plan for San Diego within 60 days, citing his authority to enforce state and local laws under the utility’s franchise agreement with the City. That was just one of the surprising, but little-covered, developments at yesterday’s Sunrise Powerlink hearings in Borrego Springs.

If you were following DesertBlog’s live Twitter posts on the hearing yesterday, then you read the Aguirre news there first. You also got a series of live updates from the hearing. I’ll be posting excerpts of the Twitter posts soon, but here are a couple things I didn’t cover:

Another surprising development, but one not yet covered by the media (which I missed too; credit goes to Diana Lindsay for reporting it to her e-mail list): After Stirling Energy Systems’ Buzz Schott touted the $100 million investment a foreign company is making in this proposed solar farm in the Imperial Valley, Administrative Law Judge Steven Weissman questioned Schott repeatedly about the cost for Phase 1 of the project. After several attempts to rebuff the question, Schott finally admitted that the total cost was in the neighborhood of $300 to $400 million, so the company still has a long way to go (technically as well as financially) before it can deliver any renewable power on the proposed Sunrise Powerlink. Questioning by the ALJ during a public hearing is apparently a rare event.

Denis Trafecanty again ran 50 miles from Ocotillo along the Powerline route and then down the California Riding and Hiking Trail to the hearing at the Borrego Springs Resort. I met him by chance on the trail coming in to Hellhole Canyon, and then later got this shot of him as he approached the resort. He was looking great, and then had enough energy to speak at the hearing. Go Denis! (He was running to raise money for the Protect Our Communities Fund which is still accepting pledges and donations.)

In the “if my head wasn’t attached” category: I forgot to report on the Smart Energy Solutions Campaign’s 27-foot-long banner with hundreds of comment cards collected at Earthday. It took a dozen volunteers to parade it through the meeting hall while campaign organizer Micah Mitrosky was speaking. Fortunately the IV Press was on the ball, and you can watch Micah testifying and see the Smart Energy supporters carrying the banner about halfway through this video. Micah and all her volunteers did a great job.

To follow DesertBlog on Twitter, go to Twitter.com, create an account, then “follow” the username “desertblog”. Mostly you’ll receive reminders when posts appear on the blog, plus occasional recommendations on good desert or conservation reading.

This is the only kind of sunrise we need to see from the San Felipe Hills — or anywhere else in San Diego’s backcountry.

UPDATE: The San Diego Union-Tribune covered Sempra’s donation to the Governor today, May 10, in this article.

The Desert Protective Council has a new article covering the back- ground of the Sunrise Powerlink, titled ”Sunrise Powerlink: Battle for California’s Energy Future,” on our main website. It will also appear in the Summer 2008 issue of Desert Report. (BTW, Desert Report’s current issue has several articles covering the solar energy issue in other parts of the California Desert, including a good article by Bill Powers.)

Utility Consumers Action Network has posted Michael Shames’ report on the latest round of Evidentiary Hearings on the Sunrise Powerlink. He says SDG&E’s case has fallen apart (but don’t think that lets you out of attending Monday’s public hearings in Borrego Springs!). Here’s a quote: “Sunrise is a remarkable money loser — some $8 billion over its estimated 60-year lifespan.”

UCAN also has a reprint of a  Capitol Alert article about Sempra’s recent (and fishy) $50,000 donation to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite political initiative, just days after the Governator reaffirmed his support of the Sunrise Powerlink in a speech at Yale. The Union-Tribune seems to have missed this story, and Capitol Alert requires a registration, so thanks to UCAN for posting this.

We hope to see many (most… all…) of you in Borrego Springs on Monday. If you speak or leave a written comment, remember to emphasize that we don’t need the Sunrise Powerlink anywhere, because we have smarter energy alternatives available within San Diego.

The comment deadline on the Sunrise Powerlink Draft Environmental Impact Report is April 11th. As SDG&E rolls out its “False Choice” advertising campaign — more on that tomorrow — it’s vital that the Public Utilities Commission hear the other side. If you haven’t sent a written comment, now is the time to do it! If you’ve already written, write again! And, forward this post to your like-minded friends, asking them to write. 

Commenting is easy. Just send an e-mail to: sunrise@aspeneg.com.  Make sure to include your name, address and telephone number. The CPUC also maintains a webpage with more details on the DEIR and how to comment.

In addition to your own personal reasons for opposing the Sunrise Powerlink, make sure to insist that the Final EIR fully analyze “San Diego Smart Energy 2020″ as a viable alternative to the Powerlink. For more on this alternative, visit the Smart Energy Solutions Campaign website.

For more detailed comment letter points, see DPC’s Sunrise Powerlink page. 

The San Felipe Hills are poppin’! Whether it’s the barrel cactus, yucca and brittlebush of the lower elevations, the lupines and poppies of the middle reaches, or the bush poppies colonizing the burn areas in the north, spring is bursting out throughout this low mountain range on the western edge of Anza-Borrego.

If you’re planning a trip, the Pacific Crest Trail provides easy access to the San Felipe Hills. You’ll find the Barrel Springs trailhead off of highway S-22 about 1 mile east of highway S-2, giving access to the northern, chapparal-covered portion of the range. (From the parking area, the trail heads directly south through a gate, then turns left (eastward) past the piped Barrel Springs.)

At the southern, desert end of the range, the PCT passes through Scissors Crossing (the junction of S-2 and Highway 78) before heading north onto the slopes of Grapevine Mountain. (Best parking is on S-2 south of 78; from there, follow the PCT signs across San Felipe Creek and then across Highway 78.)

If you’d prefer to have a leader for your outing, the Anza-Borrego Foundation and Institute is offering a hike in the northern portion of the San Felipe Hills on April 13.

For those of you who can’t make it to Anza-Borrego this year, enjoy the photos!