Please take a minute to read and sign the petition to Reform the Endangered Species Act:

http://www.petitiononline.com/esa2004/petition.html

This petition goes hand in hand with the ESA Protest Rally scheduled for June 11, 2004 in Carlsbad California.

There will also be a Letter Generator up and ready to use on Monday, June 7.

More info on ESA Reform.

Why is reforming the ESA important to off-roading?

The ESA is the biggest enemy to our future use of all sand dune areas. It must be reformed so that agencies have to use sound, peer-reviewed science as a basis for their decisions.

As many of you have seen at Glamis, The Center for Biological Diversity will roll out another sensitive, threatened or endangered species whenever they can in an attempt to close things down (Andrew's scarab, Flat Tailed Lizard, Desert Tortoise, ....).

Well, just look around at other dunes and you'll find many more species that are on the "sensitive" or endangered list:

ISDRA - This is just a partial list of sensitive, threatened and endangered species: Algodones Dunes sunflower, Giant Spanish needle, Silver-leaved Dune Sunflower, Sandfood, Andrews dune scarab beetle, Rosy Boa, Flat-tailed Horned Lizard, Colorado Desert Fringetoed Lizard, Desert Tortoise, Couch’s Spadefoot Toad, Burrowing Owl, Le Conte’s Thrasher

- Oceano Dunes: Western Snowy Plover (threatened) & California least tern (endangered).

- Kelso: Already closed by Wilderness designation, but it has a beetle, two crickets and a katydid.

- Amargosa (Big Dune), NV: Big Dune beetle (sensitive species) has already closed riding area! There is another beetle and a weevil on the sensitive list.

- Crescent Dune, NV: Three beetles on the sensitive list

- Dumont: At least one beetle on the sensitive list

- Eureka Dunes: Already closed by Wilderness designation, but it has two endangered plants.

- Coral Pink, UT: Coral Pink Tiger Beetle (sensitive) & Welsh’s Milkweed (threatened and 3500 acres has been designated as critical habitat)

- Little Sahara, UT: 5 candidate species and the last remaining habitat for an endemic species of fourwing saltbush.

And last but not least, Sand Mountain: Sixteen species endemic to Sand Mountain have been identified and others provide important habitat for these species. Important species on Sand Mountain include the:
mottled milkvetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. kennedyi)
Kearney buckwheat (Eriogonum nummulare)
desert sunflower (Helianthus deserticola)
sand cholla (Opuntia pulchella)
Nevada oryctes (Oryctes nevadensis)
Sand Mountain blue butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens arenamontana) - petition filed to list as endangered
Hardy’s aegialian beetle (Aegialia hardyi)
Sand Mountain aphodius scarab beetle (Aphodius sp.)
click beetle (Cardiophorus sp.)
Sand Mountain pygmy beetle (Coenonycha pygmaea)
sand-obligate beetle (Eusattus muricatus)
Sand Mountain serican scarab beetle (Serica psammobunus)
dune honey ant (Myrmecocystus arenarius)

Numerous species of rare and endemic bees are also found at Sand Mountain:
Anthidium rodecki
Anthophora affabilis
Calliopsis phaceliae
Colletes stepheni
C. tectiventris
Hespereapis sp.
Perdita aridella
P. chloris
P. cleomellae
P. eucnides eucnides
P. haigi
P. hirticeps apicata
P. vesca.

If you look a bit further, I'll bet you'd find something at St. Anthony, Oregon, etc. Get the picture yet? If you like sand, we must reform this law!

The ESA must be reformed if we are to have a future at any dune! Congressman Pombo is our best hope in this effort. And your representatives need to hear from you. Tell them to support Pombo's effort to fix this bad law.