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View Full Version : Battle of the Dunes - Oceano editorial



Crowdog
05-05-2002, 09:52 PM
Viewpoint / Dick Taylor: Battle of the Dunes
Saturday May 04, 2002, 07:30:09 PM


An area that thousands of Kern County residents my family included have enjoyed for almost 100 years may soon be closed. Oceano Dunes, formerly known as Pismo Beach, may very well be closed off to the public.

Last November, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit claiming the state Parks Department was not doing enough to protect three animal species and demanding the immediate closure of Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. Ironically, many Sierra Club members are unaware of the extremist and fanatical nature of their movement's leaders. They pay their $15 or $30 a year for membership to further what they view as an environmentally responsible approach to stewardship of our earth and its beauty. The Sierra Club is now a $95 million a year business.

The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division of the California Department of Parks and Recreation is a model for similar efforts in other states. It was created in 1971 with the cooperation of the Sierra Club. It is now opposed by a new generation of environmental extremists who want to turn California's deserts, forests and beaches into a great outdoor museum, where we can look, but not touch.

These environmental extremists have a single goal when it comes to off-highway vehicle recreation areas: close them all down. They have succeeded in closing hundreds of thousands of acres of popular recreation areas, including Imperial Sand Dunes in Southern California. Now they are trying to close Oceano Dunes on the Central Coast. There are only 1,500 acres remaining at Oceano Dunes where people can drive vehicles on the beach and camp.

Many families who visit Oceano Dunes have parents and grandparents who have been going there for decades some since the invention of the automobile.

In their assault on Oceano Dunes, the extremists are attacking some of their political allies. Their lawsuit comes at a time when Gov. Gray Davis is taking credit for increasing environmental protection at state parks.With friends like these, Davis needs no enemies.

Last November, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund filed suit demanding the immediate closure of Oceano Dunes SVRA. The suit claims that state parks officials have not protected three species at the dunes: the western snowy plover, the least tern and steelhead trout.

The Davis administration is standing side by side with the off-road community in this fight. When environmental extremists go to war, truth is the first casualty. So it is in this legal battle.

Their charges like almost all the charges filed by these extremists are false. In fact, the snowy plover and least tern are thriving at Oceano Dunes. It is the most successful habitat for these birds on the West Coast. According to a study completed just four months ago by the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, snowy plovers most often die because of predators (coyotes and ravens) that live in the wilderness area adjacent to Oceano Dunes.

With their attack on Oceano Dunes, the environmental extremists are simply expanding their scorched-earth warfare. In 2001, they managed to close more than 800,000 acres of public land to the public. Of course, all of these areas have been popular off-road recreation areas that's why they were targeted. In their efforts the extremists were aided and abetted by a federal agency that is supposed to serve the public: the Bureau of Land Management.

Ten of these closures followed the same suspicious pattern. In 2000, another extremist group, the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the BLM for allegedly violating the federal Endangered Species Act. Then, the bueau and their center friends quietly without the public notice environmental review required by law agreed to settle the lawsuit. How? By agreeing to close each of these popular off-road recreation areas to vehicle recreation.

Close first, find a reason for the closure later. That's the BLM policy in each of these closures. Like someone who shoots first and asks questions later, the bureau closed these areas first, then decided to do an environmental review to justify their actions.

What about the reasons cited for some desert closures here in the desert of Kern County? The "threatened" desert tortoise. (The most recent closure took effect March 29 and closed 17,000 more acres of off-road recreation area near California City.) The desert tortoise may be dying out, but scientific studies have documented that the tortoise is the victim of a contagious respiratory disease and by predator ravens not of the OHVs. Even in areas that have been closed to vehicles for 15 years, the number of tortoises continues to decline.

We need support to fight wealthy, devious opponents. These extremists are well financed. They know how to use scare tactics, pious rhetoric and plain falsehoods to milk money from good-hearted but ill-informed donors. The extremists have the priceless additional advantage of allies within government agencies and liberal politicians.

The California Coastal Commission is a group whose members are appointed by the governor and the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly. It has jurisdiction over Oceano Dunes and its members are sympathetic to the environmental extremists.

Davis, his staff and the Department of Parks and Recreation are working hard to keep Oceano Dunes open. The coastal commission is threatening to ignore scientific evidence and not grant the Parks Department an operating permit this. The reason is not from lack of performance by the Parks Department, but because it will be making a stand against the commission. Oceano Dunes area is the recognized leader in producing constructive and enforceable standards in protecting wildlife. In spite of that fact, environmental fanatics continually provide misleading and false information regarding the park in an effort to inflame the public.

This tactic was successful in closing the public beaches at Lompoc and Vandenberg. Oceano Dunes has 1,250,000 visitors annually over 50 percent coming from the Central Valley. It also generates over $100 million annually to local communities.

If the coastal commission denies the Department of Parks and Recreation its permit, beach closure is likely. This would force the issue into the courts, where the science, data and performance by state parks will allow the coastal commission to be overturned.

Dick Taylor of Bakersfield is the Central California field representative for the California Off-Road Vehicle Association and president of the Kern Off-Highway Vehicle Association.

http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/story/1045954p-1152695c.html
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mopar 400
05-19-2002, 03:10 PM
I ma an avid user of the California Off highway recreation areas, and visit pismo as often as I can. I think that all these Enviromentilists need to take there ideas and shove them you know where. Just because someone feels that we should not be allowed to use the beaches for our personal pleasure does not justify there closure of public land. This whole lawsuit is a bunch of B>S> These enviro freaks are going to not only close the beach, if it does happen, but put many people out of a job, and upset the whole community. Home prices drop, family owned business' are shut down, and many other negative outcomes. The beaches are for our enjoyment, LET US BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!