Crowdog
04-12-2005, 09:26 PM
This editorial was printed in the Yuma Sun today.
Recovery my Astragalus (Peirson’s milk vetch)
While your article on is one of the first to actually use the term TEMPORARY when referencing closures that resulted from a negotiated settlement between CBD et al and the BLM at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA), several other pertinent facts were omitted that your readers may want to know.
The most important fact is that when the CBD settled with the BLM over Peirson's milk-vetch (Astragalus magdalenae var.peirsonii) (PMV) they agreed to the closures as TEMPORARY. Now that all of the stipulations of the settlement have been met and the TEMPORARY closures are due to be re-opened with the implementation of a new Area Management Plan, they are backpedaling as fast as they can grasping at straws to keep the closures in place. It was never their intent that the closures be TEMPORARY. Since the beginning, the CBD has been lying to the public; they have wanted permanent closures all along. I was told this by their attorney when the closures first went up, “institutional momentum”, he said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) twice, not once, issued biological opinions that declare the new management plan for the ISDRA adequately protects the PMV and the other species that occur in the dunes. This is because most of the closures will stay intact.
33,289 out of the 49,000 TEMPORARILY closed acres will be managed as an Adaptive Management Area (AMA). Only 575 vehicles will be allowed in at any given moment into the area during hours of daylight from October through April. If you look at it from a standpoint of a ratio of "time open" to "time closed", it is closed ¾ or 75% of the year. It is closed 24/7 through the summer and closed at night during the winter – that’s open only ¼ or 25% of the time. If anyone thinks that is a 50/50 deal, it seems they need some math lessons.
Taken one step further, assume an average weekend of 40,000 visitors. Assume average persons per sand vehicle are 1.5 for a total of 26,667 sand vehicles. Out of that, only 525 vehicles, or 1.98% would be allowed in. So stated another way, the AMA is closed to over 98% of sand sport enthusiasts 75% of the time. For a weekend of 100,000, the percentage goes over 99%.
The CBD declares that the TEMPORARY closures have had the desired effect in that a “recovery” has occurred. That’s very interesting since most of the closed areas don’t support life because the sand is moving all the time. The large drifting dunes always were and always will be bare of any vegetation regardless of how many vehicles pass by. It also doesn’t explain how Dr. Art Phillips, III, PhD. just recently counted over 200,000+ plants in areas that are OPEN to motorized recreation. BLM’s estimates go as high as 1,000,000 PMV plants for the whole dune system. “Recovery” did not occur: RAIN did. Let me repeat that: RAIN is the largest influence on the number of plants in the dunes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that.
Also seldom mentioned is the Imperial Dunes Wilderness Area just across Highway 78 where motorized recreation is not allowed. Wilderness means NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES. Environmentalists moan that they have no dunes to hike or of which to take pictures. That is a ruse – they know that the dunes wilderness is there but want most of what is left too. At over 26,500 acres, this 40 square mile patch of pristine land is off limits to all vehicles and sits waiting for those thousands of footprints that never occur.
Just how big is 40 square miles? Manhattan Island is only 22 square miles. San Francisco is 47 square miles with a population of 750,000. Boston is 44 square miles with a population over 500,000. But this is not enough: they want another 49,000 acres for a total of 118 square miles or an area 2.5 times as large as San Francisco.
Surely is 40 square miles is enough acreage to sustain just about anything: why not a plant that grows even more abundantly in Mexico? That’s right, this dune set continues well into Mexico. No one has the intestinal fortitude to answer the question: “Is that enough to sustain and preserve the species at the Imperial Sand Dunes?”
Let me lead you in the correct direction. All of the following dunes are closed to motorized recreation. It is not a complete list, but many are smaller than 26,500 acres: how is it that these smaller acreages are adequate to protect the species in those areas?
· Black Sands Beach
· Cadiz Dunes
· Eureka
· Guadalupe Dunes
· Humboldt Dunes
· Ibex
· Kelso
· Marina Dunes
· Morro Bay Sand Spit
· Panamint
· Rice Valley
· Saline
The environmental community just cannot have it all. Moreover, they don’t NEED it all. The bottom line at the ISDRA is that anti-access groups want to prohibit access to areas that total 2.5 times the area of San Francisco and more than 5 times the area of Manhattan Island – 5 TIMES!
There are already more acres of sand dunes PERMANENTLY CLOSED to motorized recreation than there are open to it.
Enough is enough. According to the experts in 2 biological opinions, the dunes’ biosphere is adequately protected. We’re not asking for all that much in comparison to total acreage of dunes in America – most of which are already off limits to us.
Vince Brunasso
American Sand Association -www.asasand.com
Co-founder and Legal Chairman
Recovery my Astragalus (Peirson’s milk vetch)
While your article on is one of the first to actually use the term TEMPORARY when referencing closures that resulted from a negotiated settlement between CBD et al and the BLM at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA), several other pertinent facts were omitted that your readers may want to know.
The most important fact is that when the CBD settled with the BLM over Peirson's milk-vetch (Astragalus magdalenae var.peirsonii) (PMV) they agreed to the closures as TEMPORARY. Now that all of the stipulations of the settlement have been met and the TEMPORARY closures are due to be re-opened with the implementation of a new Area Management Plan, they are backpedaling as fast as they can grasping at straws to keep the closures in place. It was never their intent that the closures be TEMPORARY. Since the beginning, the CBD has been lying to the public; they have wanted permanent closures all along. I was told this by their attorney when the closures first went up, “institutional momentum”, he said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) twice, not once, issued biological opinions that declare the new management plan for the ISDRA adequately protects the PMV and the other species that occur in the dunes. This is because most of the closures will stay intact.
33,289 out of the 49,000 TEMPORARILY closed acres will be managed as an Adaptive Management Area (AMA). Only 575 vehicles will be allowed in at any given moment into the area during hours of daylight from October through April. If you look at it from a standpoint of a ratio of "time open" to "time closed", it is closed ¾ or 75% of the year. It is closed 24/7 through the summer and closed at night during the winter – that’s open only ¼ or 25% of the time. If anyone thinks that is a 50/50 deal, it seems they need some math lessons.
Taken one step further, assume an average weekend of 40,000 visitors. Assume average persons per sand vehicle are 1.5 for a total of 26,667 sand vehicles. Out of that, only 525 vehicles, or 1.98% would be allowed in. So stated another way, the AMA is closed to over 98% of sand sport enthusiasts 75% of the time. For a weekend of 100,000, the percentage goes over 99%.
The CBD declares that the TEMPORARY closures have had the desired effect in that a “recovery” has occurred. That’s very interesting since most of the closed areas don’t support life because the sand is moving all the time. The large drifting dunes always were and always will be bare of any vegetation regardless of how many vehicles pass by. It also doesn’t explain how Dr. Art Phillips, III, PhD. just recently counted over 200,000+ plants in areas that are OPEN to motorized recreation. BLM’s estimates go as high as 1,000,000 PMV plants for the whole dune system. “Recovery” did not occur: RAIN did. Let me repeat that: RAIN is the largest influence on the number of plants in the dunes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that.
Also seldom mentioned is the Imperial Dunes Wilderness Area just across Highway 78 where motorized recreation is not allowed. Wilderness means NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES. Environmentalists moan that they have no dunes to hike or of which to take pictures. That is a ruse – they know that the dunes wilderness is there but want most of what is left too. At over 26,500 acres, this 40 square mile patch of pristine land is off limits to all vehicles and sits waiting for those thousands of footprints that never occur.
Just how big is 40 square miles? Manhattan Island is only 22 square miles. San Francisco is 47 square miles with a population of 750,000. Boston is 44 square miles with a population over 500,000. But this is not enough: they want another 49,000 acres for a total of 118 square miles or an area 2.5 times as large as San Francisco.
Surely is 40 square miles is enough acreage to sustain just about anything: why not a plant that grows even more abundantly in Mexico? That’s right, this dune set continues well into Mexico. No one has the intestinal fortitude to answer the question: “Is that enough to sustain and preserve the species at the Imperial Sand Dunes?”
Let me lead you in the correct direction. All of the following dunes are closed to motorized recreation. It is not a complete list, but many are smaller than 26,500 acres: how is it that these smaller acreages are adequate to protect the species in those areas?
· Black Sands Beach
· Cadiz Dunes
· Eureka
· Guadalupe Dunes
· Humboldt Dunes
· Ibex
· Kelso
· Marina Dunes
· Morro Bay Sand Spit
· Panamint
· Rice Valley
· Saline
The environmental community just cannot have it all. Moreover, they don’t NEED it all. The bottom line at the ISDRA is that anti-access groups want to prohibit access to areas that total 2.5 times the area of San Francisco and more than 5 times the area of Manhattan Island – 5 TIMES!
There are already more acres of sand dunes PERMANENTLY CLOSED to motorized recreation than there are open to it.
Enough is enough. According to the experts in 2 biological opinions, the dunes’ biosphere is adequately protected. We’re not asking for all that much in comparison to total acreage of dunes in America – most of which are already off limits to us.
Vince Brunasso
American Sand Association -www.asasand.com
Co-founder and Legal Chairman