A NEW MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE DUNES - ISDRA

by: Roy Denner, Off-Road Business Association (www.orbanet.org)

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a new RAMP for the ISDRA. In plain language that’s a Recreation Area Management Plan for the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. The following paragraphs summarize the key provisions of the RAMP in its final form.

AREAS RE-OPENED FOR OHV USE: As a result of a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency concluding that OHV use in the ISDRA does not put the Peirson’s Milk Vetch plant (PMV) in jeopardy of becoming extinct, the areas that have been closed to OHV use may be reopened - with certain restrictions. The restrictions apply to the large central closure. This area, with slightly modified boundaries, will become an Adaptive Management Area (AMA). Vehicle use in this area will be limited and the AMA will be monitored to determine if OHV activity actually impacts the PMV, the Algodones Dunes Sunflower, the Sand Food plant, the Colorado Fringed Toed Lizard, the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard, and/or desert microphyll woodland vegetation. If impacts are determined to occur, recreational usage will be adjusted.
A permit system will be established for the AMA. A maximum of 75 groups of 7 vehicles each will be allowed into the AMA each day, from sunup to sundown, for a total maximum of 525 vehicles per day - only if each group contains 7 vehicles. Vehicle drivers will be required to complete a resource conservation program before permits will be issued. Non-OHV users will also be required to obtain a permit to go into the AMA but those permits will not be subtracted from the available OHV permits.
Although details of the permit system have not yet been worked out, the plan is to issue some type of identifying flag that will be flown below the standard whip flag. The permits will be issued only from the Cahuilla Ranger Station, so if you are camped at Dune Buggy Flats or Buttercup, you have a long trip to get a permit before you can ride in the AMA. In future years, up to 70% of the permits will be available by advance reservation.
A plan will be developed to establish temporary closures or curfews, as deemed necessary, for areas experiencing a high level of lawlessness. These areas may include, but are not limited to, Competition Hill - north and south, Oldsmobile Hill, Test Hill, Patton Valley, and the sand drags.

VISITOR LIMITATIONS: A very complicated system will be implemented in the ISDRA to measure the visitor usage relative to a calculated “visitor supply”. If visitor usage exceeds visitor supply for more than a certain percentage for a certain number of days each year, various management actions will be taken. These actions range all the way from initiating education programs to differential fees for holidays and weekends to limiting the number of visitors allowed at any particular time.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES: Between 80 and 100 permits are issued to vendors in the ISDRA at any given time. Vendor activities will be allowed 7 days a week during duning season with Thursday through Monday restrictions during off season. Beginning in October, 2003, the Gecko Road vending pad will be the only long term vending pad - 7 days per week during the season.

CAMPING: 15 additional acres along Gecko Road will be opened to camping with a total of 60 new campsites. A pilot camping reservation system will be developed for the Roadrunner camping area. Osborne Overlook will remain open to camping (the draft Plan called for the construction of a new ranger station at Osborne Overlook).
1200 acres east of Glamis and the railroad tracks will be annexed into the ISDRA boundary and will be opened for camping. (25,600 acres east of the railroad tracks was closed to camping and OHV use last year).

FEES: A “Cost Recovery” system will be implemented in the ISDRA to determine camping fees. Recently the CA State Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Commission (managers of the Green Sticker Fund) voted to withhold $1 million of traditional funding that has been provided to the ISDRA in past years to help fund the operation and maintenance. That decision, coupled with reductions in Federal funding, has severely cramped the BLM’s ability to operate the ISDRA. As a result, camping fees will be determined, in the future, by the BLM’s need to recover actual costs. BLM’s only other option is to reduce OHV services and maintenance.
The new RAMP requires that non-OHV users pay fees to use the ISDRA - just like OHV recreationists.

FACILITIES: A new ranger station and a law enforcement facility will be built at the site of the existing Cahuilla Ranger Station. A communications facility and information kiosk will be located at Osborne Overlook. Information and interpretive kiosks will be installed at Gecko Road, Gecko Campground and Roadrunner Campground. Pit toilets will be constructed at Glamis Flats between washes 4 - 6. Pit toilets will be constructed at Dunebuggy Flats and the road there will be graded regularly. Semi-permanent ranger and law enforcement facilities will be constructed at Buttercup. An environmental interpretive area will be designated at Buttercup to educate the public.

BUFFER ZONE: The draft Plan called for a one-mile wide “Buffer Zone” around the entire ISDRA. No camping or OHV use would have been allowed in the Buffer Zone. The final Plan implements a one-mile wide “Planning Area”. Within the Planning Area, vehicles are allowed on designated trails and very limited camping is allowed.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES: A plan will be developed to ban alcoholic beverages outside of the designated camping areas if needed to maintain law and order.

IMPLEMENTATION: This is where the story gets complicated. A period of 30 days is allowed after a Plan is released for concerned parties to “protest” the RAMP. The OHV community has engaged an attorney to protest certain provisions of the Plan. The enviro-extremist groups, that were responsible for the closures in the first place, have indicated that they plan to sue the BLM to prevent the implementation of the RAMP. They have already filed a lawsuit in San Francisco to overturn Fish and Wildlife’s ruling that OHV use does not jeopardize the PMV plant.
The OHV community has two separate lawsuits in process for the ISDRA. The first lawsuit demands that the closures at the ISDRA should come down right now because due process was not followed by the BLM when the closures were implemented. A Federal Judge in San Diego will be issuing his decision on this case any day now. Whatever his decision is, one side or the other will undoubtedly appeal that decision. It is important that this lawsuit be continued to its conclusion since the decision will set case precedent.
The second OHV lawsuit is to remove the PMV from the endangered species list based on biological studies, funded by the OHV Community, that show the plant to be thriving in spite of OHV activity. The process for this lawsuit is very complicated and a decision from the court may not be reached before the fall, when the next season starts at the ISDRA.
Add to this the fact that the enviro-extremists are now trying to get the Andrews dune scarab beetle - which they claim only exists at the ISDRA - added to the endangered species list and you have a legal picture which is about as complex and convoluted as it can be. So all of the headlines and rumors that claim that the dunes are open again may just be a little premature. And, as usual, the only players that are really benefiting from this game are the attorneys.

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ORBA is a trade association composed of off-road related businesses united to promote common goals that support the prosperity and growth of the off-road industry. Off-road volunteer organizations that are working at the grass-roots level on specific land use issues can appeal to ORBA for financial and political support. ORBA Directors will decide which issues to support based on potential impacts to the off-road industry.

 

We don't have holly wood money, but we sure can BOYCOTT anything coming out of Hollywood, music or movies, and I am throwing my TV out this week.
This really sucks