Desert Survivors Issues Group
Minutes – June 16, 2003
I. Monitoring the Imperial Dunes – Letters Needed! Report from Steve Tabor
On Thanksgiving Weekend 2002, I led a carcamp to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wilderness Areas in Imperial County near the Mexican border. The Bureau of Land Management has issued a Notice of Proposed Action (NOPA) announcing more intense management of the Wilderness, largely prompted by the efforts of Survivors Craig Deutsche and Kelly Fuller and local resident Edie Harmon. These three have been performing regular monitoring at this Wilderness and at the nearby Jacumba Wilderness, photographing and mapping where abuse has occurred. I've written a comment letter to the BLM, praising the BLM for its renewed efforts, and urging more protection for the Coyote Mountains Wilderness, the Jacumba Wilderness, and the Yuha Desert Area of Environmental Concern, plus other Wilderness lands in the area.
We need backup on this from Desert Survivors members. Please read my comment and write a letter of your own. Your letter will show the BLM that there are interested persons outside the local area and outside the "off-road vehicle community" who care about these places and don't want to see them trashed. Your letter need not be as long as mine. I've listed my main points below, but add your own, especially of you've visited Imperial County Wildernesses and have some experience there.
Together, we can make a difference in how these lands are managed.
My main points:
1. I've observed much of the damage described in the NOPA on my own trip, and I want the BLM to protect the Wilderness and its environs. It is necessary to be pro-active in protection efforts, not just to perform clean-up.
2. I recommend campground hosts on cool season weekends at Fossil Canyon, Painted Gorge, Davies Canyon, and the Yuha ACEC. The presence of these campground hosts will be a deterrent to criminal activity.
3. I recommend that ten new BLM enforcement rangers be hired to protect these areas on cool season weekends. They should be stationed overnight at the areas mentioned above. Their salaries and expenses should be paid out of moneys collected to enhance and conserve off-road vehicle areas.
4. Protecting Wilderness and other lands from Imperial Dunes "spillover" of off-roaders should be a top priority of the BLM. It is not enough to simply protect off-roaders at the Dunes and allow the criminal element to go elsewhere.
5. Besides the Coyote Mountains and the Jacumba, other Wilderness Areas in the vicinity should also be protected from off-roader "spillover"from the Imperial Dunes. The Fish Creek Mountains, North Algodones, Indian Pass, and Picacho Peak Wilderness Areas should also be protected.
6. BLM rangers should be taken off "drug smuggling" patrols and should be working full time on protecting Wilderness and other BLM land from off-road and other damage and from other criminal elements, including invasion and abuse of the Wilderness. "Drug smuggling" should be the responsibility of the U.S. The Border Patrol .
The address to write is below. Send your letters by (postmarked by) June 26, 2003. Reference these Notices of Proposed Actions: "NOPA- CA670-2003-3" and "NOPA-CA670-2003-4". Include your own experiences on your own visits to Imperial County.
El Centro Field Office
Bureau of Land Management
Attn: Greg Thomsen, Field Manager
1661 South 4th Street
El Centro, CA 92243
II. Stepchildren of Desert Management
Other desert regions managed by the BLM’s El Centro office need attention. These include the Jacumba Mountains Wilderness, Coyote Mountains Wilderness, Indian Pass Wilderness, Fish Creek Mountains Wilderness, and the Yuha Desert, as well as areas that are critical habitat for bighorn sheep, the flat-tail horned lizard, rare stands of crucifixion thorn, and large numbers of archeological sites.
As Kelly Fuller of San Diego reported in an email, “All of these areas are getting trashed by illegal OHV use and illegal firearms shooting. In addition, some are driving into wilderness areas in order to burn toxic materials and spray paint racist graffiti.” Some of the illegal shooting is taking place less than a mile from BLM-designated camping areas – and the bullets have a range of a mile and a half.
A monitoring project has begun to document the damage and get the BLM to take action. While the BLM has issued two notices of proposed action (NOPA) as a result of our monitoring, we need to raise more awareness about these issues.
Members are encouraged to write letters to the OHV commission recommending that they fund portions of the law enforcement grant submitted by the El Centro BLM office. Letters are due in the fall; Kelly will apprise us of more details when they become available.
III. RS-2477 Update
California’s resource secretary Mary Nichols has opposed the federal ruling that would allow more road claims on federal lands by state and local governments. In a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Ms. Nichols she was concerned that the 2500 miles of roads in the Mojave National Preserve will see greater vehicle use and destruction of desert habitat. San Bernadino County recently applied for ownership of Camp Rock Road under the revived rule, and will likely pursue more of these claims.