OHMVR denies grant funding for ISDRA (Glamis)

[Crowdog]

Funding rejected for Southern California off-road dunes site
The Associated Press
Published 4:25 p.m. PST Thursday, January 23, 2003
SACRAMENTO(AP) - A state commission on Thursday rejected $1.1 million for operating far southeastern California's Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, which draws 200,000 or more often rowdy off-road enthusiasts and party-seekers on holiday weekends.
Denial of the funds "will have a significant impact" on the dunes and the more than 3 million people who visit there annually, said the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the site. The money was to be used for visitor services including sanitation, trash removal and environmental monitoring.

The BLM said it may have to raise fees, cut services, or divert money from other desert recreation areas.

Thursday's decision was criticized by off-road advocates but praised by environmental groups that say the Algodones area's popularity threatens the desert habitat.

The decision comes a month after the same state panel approved the entire $292,000 law enforcement budget the BLM sought for the site. The BLM has increased patrols and citations over recent holidays for frequent violations involving public nudity, riding in open truckbeds and organized parties.

Over Thanksgiving 2001, activities culminated in a fatal shooting, several stabbings and more than 150 injuries, though a slightly smaller crowd was relatively more subdued last year.

"It looks like public services are going to suffer and recreation is going to be impacted by this," said Don Amador, western representative of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an off-road group. "It doesn't bode well for management of our public lands for off-road recreation."

Under the Bush administration, however, the BLM is expected to release this spring or summer new rules opening 49,000 previously closed acres of the desert to a number of off-roaders with permits. The new land management plan includes no provision limiting the overall number of visitors to the dunes.

Motorists can now freely roam 68,000 acres, or 106 square miles.

Daniel R. Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild, said a new environmental majority on the Off-Highway Motorized Vehicle Commission was concerned about the plan. The BLM's request was rejected on a 4-3 vote.

The same panel last fall rejected a U.S. Forest Service request for $400,000 for winter recreation programs in the Lake Tahoe Basin and along California 88 both east and west of the Kirkwood ski resort and Carson Pass.

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/5965108p-6924374c.html

[Crowdog]

More info regarding the OHMVR Commission and what you can do to help:
http://www.crowley-offroad.com/ohmvr_commission.htm

[Crowdog]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dunes25jan25.story
THE STATE
State Denies Grant to Help Manage Dunes
Commission accuses U.S. agency of poor management of the Imperial Sand Dunes off-road recreational area. Cuts in services there may result.
By Beth Silver
Special to The Times

January 25 2003

SAN DIEGO -- A state commission has refused to continue sharing the cost of operating the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, saying the federal government has done such a poor job of managing the desert magnet for off-road vehicles that the existence of rare plants and animals is threatened.

On a 4-3 vote, California's Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission this week denied a $1.1-million grant to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the recreation area, part of the 150,000-acre Algodones Dunes.

It was the commission's first refusal in more than 15 years to help pay for maintenance of the desert expanse in the southeastern corner of the state.

"The dunes have now elevated from a local disgrace to a national disgrace, based on the mismanagement there," said Pat Spitler, one of the four commissioners who voted to deny the grant.

Spitler said that besides neglecting environmental concerns, the BLM has failed to limit the number of holiday revelers or curb excessive drinking that has led to violence at nighttime gatherings attended by thousands of off-roaders.

The BLM will ask the state commission to reconsider when the federal agency completes its land management plan, possibly by early summer. The report already is a few months overdue.

In the meantime, the BLM will have to decide where to make cuts in service at the dunes.

Trash cleanup, search and rescue, emergency medical services and park ranger training may all suffer in the recreation area, said a BLM spokeswoman, Jan Bedrosian. The $1.1-million state grant has accounted for about one-sixth of the money used every year to manage the dunes.

The denial of funding may also affect the BLM's efforts to monitor environmental conditions, Bedrosian said. The milk vetch, which grows in the area, is a threatened plant subject to federal protection. The desert area also is home to dozens of rare animals.

Some environmentalists say the BLM's oversight has been a sham. The agency studies the effects of the off-roaders, but never does anything about them, said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist at the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild.

"It's not like this was some sucker punch out of right field. The commissioners have been telling them they want to see a different approach at the dunes and they didn't do it," Patterson said. "The state just threw up their hands and said, 'BLM, if you want to continue to manage this place like a scene out of a Mad Max movie, fund it yourself.' "

In addition to cutting services, the BLM may also turn to off-roaders to make up for the lack of state funds. Off-roaders already pay $30 annually to use the dunes, or $10 for a week. A fee increase would amount to double or triple taxation to the off-roaders, who also pay a state environmental fee when they register their vehicles, said Don Amador, western representative of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an off-road group.

Amador said he believes the commission's vote Thursday was politically motivated. Commissioners are still smarting from the Bush administration's plans to open another 50,000 acres of the dunes to off-roaders, he said.

About half the 150,000-acre area, which stretches from the Mexican border to the Chocolate Mountains 40 miles north, currently is closed to off-roading.

About 3 million people visit the dunes every year. Holiday weekends draw as many as 240,000 off-roaders and campers to what has become an increasingly popular and sometimes dangerous spot.

Three people were killed and hundreds were injured, including a park ranger who was run over, during Thanksgiving weekend in 2001.

While the state commission is declining to support the BLM's land management portion, it continues to aid law enforcement at the dunes.

In December, it awarded a $292,000 grant to the BLM and $800,000 to the Imperial County Sheriff's Department for that purpose.

The BLM is not likely to limit the number of off-roaders who can drive their dune buggies, trucks and dirt bikes through the desert sands, as environmentalists would like, Bedrosian said.

[Crowdog]

California commission stirs off-road vehicle debate

By DON THOMPSON -- Associated Press Writer
Published 2:34 p.m. PST Monday, February 3, 2003

SACRAMENTO(AP) - An obscure state commission that controls millions of fuel tax dollars is driving a new debate over the use of off-road vehicles on public lands in California.
Since a change in the panel's membership last year, commissioners have blocked grooming of heavily used snowmobile trails near Lake Tahoe; refused to provide money for a Southern California off-road site that draws 3 million people annually; and persuaded the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw a grant request for one of the nation's few "urban" national forests.



"Certainly it's a seismic shift in the way this commission has operated for the past 20 years," said Don Amador, western representative of the BlueRibbon Coalition (http://www.sharetrails.org) of off-highway vehicle users. But the shift has been welcomed by conservationists.

Back in 1992, Karen Schambach started protesting how the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission awarded grants funded by fuel taxes, off-highway vehicle registration fees and vehicle recreation area entrance fees. With $36 million, California's is the nation's largest off-highway vehicle program.

Environmental concerns weren't considered in "a program that was run by the (off-road) users," said Schambach, now state coordinator for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

By 1998, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Department of Parks and Recreation over grant guidelines they said illegally disregarded the environmental damage caused by off-road vehicles.

Gov. Gray Davis' new administration settled the suit. But the conservation groups said the standards were being applied only to state off-highway parks that make up about 10 percent of the available acreage, not to federal lands that account for the bulk of off-highway access.

They set out to gain an outright majority on the seven-member commission, and in doing so joined an ongoing debate between Davis and Democratic legislators over whether administration policies do enough to protect the environment.

Environmental groups pushed legislative leaders to appoint "green" commissioners, including Paul Spitler, executive director of the California Wilderness Coalition, which helped sue over the program in 1998.

The Democratic leaders' four members now outnumber the three more off-road-oriented appointees of the Democratic governor, and have made their majority count in awarding $16.4 million in grants for this year.

The commission first signaled a sea change last fall in rejecting a U.S. Forest Service request for $400,000 to groom 118 miles of snowmobile trails used by more than 50,000 snowmobilers in and near the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Some of the trails had been groomed annually since the 1980s, but fell victim to complaints from cross-country skiers about the machines' noise, pollution and speed in the increasingly crowded area.

The move was criticized by the Forest Service and the Blue Ribbon Coalition, which was incensed enough to file a still-pending conflict-of-interest complaint against new Commissioner John Brissenden of Hope Valley, owner of a Lake Tahoe-area resort near the snowmobile trails.

In January, commissioners split 4-3 in rejecting $1.1 million sought by the Bureau of Land Management to operate the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, which draws more than 3 million people annually. Commissioners who opposed the grant were upset by delays in a BLM management plan and by a Bush administration plan to open another 49,000 acres to off-roading.

The commission's new split also persuaded the Forest Service to withdraw a request for $900,000 to study and operate off-road programs in the Eldorado National Forest, which is battling a lawsuit over its off-highway vehicle programs filed by critics including Schambach and the Wilderness Coalition.

Located between Sacramento and Reno near Lake Tahoe, the Eldorado is among 21 of the nation's 155 national forests to be labeled an "urban forest" because it is within an hour's drive of more than 1 million people. The forest recorded 68,600 off-road visits last year.

The commission last month had its first public hearing on priorities, as required by a new law dedicating more gasoline tax money to conservation, law enforcement and restoring areas damaged by off-road vehicles. The same law lowers permitted off-road noise levels that had been one of the loudest in the nation.

The changes, Amador said, will have "federal agencies re-evaluating the partnership they've had with the state the last 15-20 years."

But, Schambach said, off-roaders are lucky the Legislature's green majority didn't cut off all the money. With the new rules and commission majority, "it's a whole new game, and they're being held to standards they haven't had to follow for 20 years."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/6054196p-7010630c.html