Ruling protects rare desert plant

DISAPPOINTED: The decision could keep parts of Imperial Sand Dunes closed to off-roaders.


01:18 AM PDT on Friday, June 4, 2004



By JENNIFER BOWLES / The Press-Enterprise

In a setback for off-roaders, federal wildlife officials on Thursday said a plant that led to closures of the desert's most popular dunes should remain protected under the nation's Endangered Species Act.

"I'm extremely disappointed that the ruling went the way it did," said Grant George of Rancho Cucamonga, president of the American Sand Association, a 17,000-member group.

In their petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the association and other off-roading groups sought to prove the Peirson's milk-vetch, a spindly member of the pea family that bears purple blossoms, was in fact flourishing at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, about 100 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The milk-vetch grows on the towering, white dunes that stretch from the Mexican border 40 miles north and was listed as a threatened species in 1998.

In settlement agreements four years ago with environmental groups, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management closed large portions of the dunes to protect the plant's habitat. Although the BLM has proposed to reopen those closures, officials have made no final decision yet, said Doran Sanchez, a BLM spokesman.

The wildlife agency, in announcing its decision, said the plant still remains threatened by off-roading, predation by beetles and is susceptible to large-scale population losses because of vandalism and drought, said Jane Hendron, an agency spokeswoman.

Environmentalists welcomed the decision.

"There really should have never been any doubt," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild. "There's no solid scientific evidence that this wildlife species is anything but endangered."

Hendron said that although a study commissioned by the off-road groups showed 71,000 plants at the dunes, only five of those plants were older than one season.

"There is a significant difference based on research of its seed-producing ability between a plant in its first year and plants older than its first season," she said.

The fruit in first-year plants contain about five seeds, compared with 171 seeds in plants that survive into a second fruit-producing season, she said.

Although officials at the BLM and the wildlife agency said the decision will not affect management of the dunes, George said he feared it would.

"I see it as the mechanism to keep the dunes closed," he said, "and there's no justification for it."

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/s...s04.57a60.html

 

AP picked up the story today.....

Peirson's milk-vetch to remain on endangered species list

ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:51 p.m. June 4, 2004

SAN DIEGO – The Peirson's milk-vetch, a rare desert plant, will remain on a list of endangered and threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in denying a petition by off-road enthusiasts who wanted more room to ride.

After a review, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded Thursday that the milk-vetch remains threatened by habitat destruction and off-road vehicles, among other factors.

The small, broom-like plant is keeping dune riders out of an area 3½ times the size of Manhattan in California's Imperial Valley, the only place where the plant is found in the United States. The dunes in southeastern California are one of the most popular recreation areas in the nation, attracting 1 million visitors each year.

Lawyers for the American Sand Association, the San Diego Off-Road Coalition and the Off-Road Business Association petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001 to remove the plant from the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

The groups claimed the Fish and Wildlife Service relied on erroneous data to list the plant and new information shows healthy milk-vetch populations throughout the dunes.

The Peirson's milk-vetch was listed in 1998 as a threatened species.