Habitat reduced for milk vetch By ERIC GALVAN, Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:12 PM PST
A victory for off-road enthusiasts is a loss for environmentalists protecting the Pierson’s milk vetch.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday approved reducing the critical habitat for the milk vetch by more than 9,700 acres in the Algodones Dunes in Imperial County.
The original critical habitat was designated in 2004 at 21,863 acres, but was reduced Thursday to 12,105 acres.
“That’s positive in that it opens up more land,” said El Centro Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer and United Desert Gateway representative Cathy Kennerson. “It’ll open up more area and, I’m not sure that in itself will bring in more people, but it will give those out there more of a playground.”
In November 2000, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to force it to close 49,000 acres of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area to protect the milk vetch.
In November 2001, the American Sand Association, San Diego Off-Road Coalition and the Off-Road Business Association then sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the plant from the endangered species list.
In July 2002 a federal judge in San Diego ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for the milk vetch and seven other endangered or threatened plants.
That year 52,780 acres were designated as critical habitat for the milk vetch. The next year that number was reduced to 21,836.
It’s now been cut 33 percent, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Daniel Patterson, an ecologist and Southwest director for PEER, said he, nor PEER, agreed with the decision.
“It’s a pretty poor decision,” he said. “It’s not wise for the feds to continue to try to not bring some balanced conversation to the dunes.
“This is what I would call a political decision, not a science decision,” he said. “This clearly doesn’t follow the best science.”
Patterson said his group hasn’t yet decided to pursue an appeal or further legal action.
Bob Mason, president of the American Sand Association, said a decision is still pending on the de-listing of the milk vetch from the endangered species list.
He said if it is not de-listed, the ASA will pursue getting it taken off the list again.
“We’re happy with what we see,” Mason said. “The bottom line is that what we see looks good, but as of right now, there will be no immediate changes.”
Mason said the BLM would have to go through its recreation area management plan before designating the critical habitat area.
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.
asdf wrote on Feb 28, 2008 11:53 AM: