Natural Trails & Waters Coaliton Press Release
March 27, 2002

"The Algodones Dunes are a unique and amazing natural area, not an off-road sacrifice zone." said Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "We will fight this BLM special-interest scheme to remove balanced dunes management, and we will win."

Based on conversations with BLM managers, the plan's preferred alternative would reopen all currently protected dunes and adopt an "adaptive management" program would attempt to limit the number of off-road vehicles present at any time in designated areas to 525. However, with a small enforcement staff at the Dunes, monitoring the number of vehicles present at any time will remain as much of a problem as it has been in the past.

"The new leadership at the Department of Interior is undoing even the fragile progress made in the Dunes over the past two years," stated PEER General Counsel Dan Meyer. "BLM's retreat means more money devoted to litigation rather than preservation."

The Algodones Dunes, stretching over 40 miles northward from the US-Mexico border in eastern Imperial County, California, have been at risk for many years. National press coverage has documented how large-scale off-road vehicle use threatens public safety and damages critical habitat for endangered plants and animals, including the milkvetch and desert tortoise. In
January, a New York Times headline described the Dunes as "The Most Illegal Place in the World." Historically, the BLM allowed off-road vehicles to dominate 77% of the 150,000-acre dune ecosystem, leaving only 32,000 acres in the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness protected from off-road vehicle encroachment.

In November 2000, in an effort to protect endangered species in the Dunes, BLM and five off-road groups agreed to prohibit off-road vehicles from an additional 49,310 acres as the result of a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The agreement, which leaves half the Dunes open to off-road
vehicles, is to remain in effect until a permanent solution is developed to save the Peirson's milkvetch from extinction due to off-road activity.

However, the Bureau's draft plan is based on incorrect and misleading studies and lacks appropriate analyses that would make the environmental impact statement complete and accurate. For example, by comparing aerial surveys done in a drought year to on-the-ground surveys by botanists in a very wet year, the BLM concludes that the milkvetch did not decline in the two
seasons. It is not scientifically valid to draw this conclusion based on only two years of study. Moreover, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – not the Bureau – has the authority to make determinations about the recovery of endangered and threatened species.

Formed in 1954, the Desert Protective Council, a national organization with a long history of plant monitoring at the Dunes, wants the new management plan to protect the portions of the Dunes that have been closed to protect rare and endangered plants, and designate the large central closure area as wilderness.

"After fifty years of intense off-road vehicle abuse, many of the plant and animal species that have historically inhabited the dunes have declined or been eliminated," says Terry Weiner, Conservation Coordinator of the DPC. "We want the BLM to protect the remaining diversity of life in the dunes. Full protection for the remaining diversity in the fragile Algodones Dunes
system is not even an alternative in the Draft ISDRA," she says. "That's a shame."

Another concern regarding the draft Land Management Plan is that the Dunes are located in a region of southern California that does not meet federal air quality standards. As a result, the BLM must assess the impacts of its proposal on air quality. In addition to generating tons of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon pollution, large-scale off-road vehicle use creates plums of
fine particulate matter. Studies link exposure to fine particles with increased cases of asthma, respiratory disorders and lung cancer. According to the BLM, it has not initiated air quality monitoring nor does it have a plan in place to do so in the future.

"With the Algodones Dunes being located in a non-attainment area, it hard to believe that the BLM would not monitor air quality," said Alix Rauschman, Communications Specialist for the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition. "Failure to include this analysis in the draft plan calls this proposal immediately into question."

For background on the Algodones Dunes, please visit:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/cdca/algodones.html

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