As he tore up the dunes with his Suzuki ATV Saturday afternoon, Todd Ziereis stopped occasionally to pick up any trash he spotted.
At Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, the weekend before Martin Luther King Day has been the occasion for a large clean-up event for a decade now.
Ziereis, 31, said 40 friends and family members came with him from Levine, Ariz., to the dunes this weekend, which he said is one of the area’s busiest times of the year.
“As far as terrain goes, there’s nothing better than riding in the dunes,” Ziereis said. “Unfortunately, you do see a lot of trash out there.”
Cathy Kennerson, Chief Executive Officer of the El Centro Chamber of Commerce, said about 1,000 people participated in the clean-up, a relatively low turnout she blamed on the high winds and icy temperature on Saturday.
She said riders were eager to help out and brought in bags of trash as well as box springs, mufflers, and car batteries.
“It’s all part of a national Take Pride in America campaign, but we also want to make sure the dunes stay open to off-road vehicles,” Kennerson said. “It brings millions into the economy. They buy our gas and our food and they use our medical facilities.”
Jason Kaza, a member of the Yuma Duners off-road club, said off-road enthusiasts are well-aware that other dune locations have been closed because of trash build-up and are eager to do their part to keep the dunes in Imperial County open for riding.
“The off-road community is pretty good about policing themselves, but you’d be amazed at how much trash there is out there,” Kaza said.
Julie Krough, a member of the American Sand Association, an organization formed to keep dune locations in the Southwest open to off-road vehicles, was busy selling raffle tickets for a DeJong Sand Car Saturday afternoon.
She said the proceeds from the raffle will go toward fighting a lawsuit brought against the Bureau of Land Management by the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity to close a part of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area because they say the presence of off-road vehicles threatens an endangered plant native to the area.
“Part of the fundraising will pay for legal fees,” said Krough, who lives in Vista, Calif. “If there’s too much trash around they can shut the whole place down.”
Imperial County Supervisor Wally Leimgruber, whose district includes the dune recreation area, said environmental groups overestimate the dangers of off-road vehicles.
“They are concerned about the amount of visitors, but the area is large enough to accommodate these visitors,” said Leimgruber, adding that he has been riding off-road vehicles across the dunes since he was a child. “We’re trying to promote responsible use because this area helps our economy greatly.”
If you have an account already, just enter your Member ID and Password to access this page.
If you're new to our site, please create a new account.
Register FREE
To use certain features of ivpressonline.com, you must register FREE on the form provided. The Imperial Valley Press’ use of any personally identifying information you provide as part of registration is governed by the following privacy policy:
ivpressonline.com does not, and will not, release your personal information to any third party without your consent. We may, however, share some of the information we gather, in aggregate or demographic form, with advertisers and other partners. That is, we may provide general information about ways people use our site without identifying any particular individuals.
The opinions above are from readers of ivpressonline.com and in no way represent the views of the Imperial Valley Press staff or Schurz Communications Inc.
ivpressonline.com encourages readers to offer their opinions on our local stories. We ask readers keep their comments on topic and avoid derogatory comments about fellow readers. Our goal is to promote a civil discussion about the news.
We will never edit or alter comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain:
Subscribe Get the Imperial Valley Press every morning at your home or office. Start a subscription for your family, for yourself or give it to someone special. Click here.
Text Message AlertsReceive text message alerts on breaking news, latest updates, sports scores, offers and much more on your cellphone or PDA. Sign up here.
RegisterRegister free and start receiving email alerts on breaking news, a sneak preview of upcoming stories, reminders and much more. Click here to begin.
About UsWant to know more about the Imperial Valley Press? Want to contact us? Get general and contact information. Click here.
