http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2003...news/news03.txt

Patterson: Review team selection polarizes dunes issues



By MARC SCHANZ, Staff Writer

Friday, November 7, 2003 3:27 PM PST

The Halloween weekend started the off-roading season in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area with a bang, with 62,000 visitors in the area, estimated the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

"We had a pretty average kickoff," said BLM El Centro Field Office Manager Greg Thomsen. "We're expecting a lot more during the Thanksgiving holiday."

While the dunes attract thousands of visitors every year and inject cash into the local economy, a coalition of environmental groups are now claiming they are being shut out of the dunes management process by the BLM.


The Center for Biological Diversity along with several conservation groups are protesting the exclusion of applicants with conservation backgrounds from the technical review team, a body set up by Thomsen to advise the BLM on the management of the dunes.

The team's new members were announced in September by Thomsen's office.

The team makes recommendations to the BLM on how to spend fees generated from dunes visitors, Thomsen said, in addition to setting priorities on the recently approved dunes management plan.

Members include representatives from both Yuma and Imperial counties, California and Arizona off-highway representatives, the Imperial Valley Joint Chambers of Commerce and the Yuma chamber.

While Thomsen said he is aware of the environmental groups' requests, there will be no change of membership on the panel.

"We've already selected the board for this year, and next summer we'll be taking a look at membership when some representatives leave the team," Thomsen added.

Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist with the CBD, said the team's members are exclusively from the off-highway vehicle community and business interests in Yuma and Imperial counties.

"This just further polarizes the issues surrounding the dunes," Patterson said. "It's not American to shut out the other side completely, and it doesn't give a lot of credibility to what (the team) is trying to do."

With all of the issues surrounding endangered species and access to the highly contested federal recreation area, other voices should be a part of the process, he added.

Patterson said several qualified applicants submitted applications to the BLM for the team, including desert scientists and Helen Quintana, an Imperial Valley school teacher.

"This team is a joke now. It speaks with only one voice," Patterson said.

The CBD said it will petition Rep. Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista) to try to get the BLM to balance interests on the board.

"I don't know the facts in this specific case yet," Filner said. "My general philosophy is that you need balance between recreation and preservation in the dunes, and since we are still seeking balance, everyone needs a voice in the process."

Imperial County Intergovernmental Relations Director Bob Ham, who has been a member of the review team nearly since its inception, said while it meets less frequently its primary purpose is to advise on the usage of fees generated by the use of the dunes.

"For the most part, that's what we've discussed over the years," Ham said. "While we have touched on other issues out there at the dunes, we're primarily concerned with what projects the fee money is spent on."

Since people driving vehicles are the primary source of fees at the recreation area, Ham thinks that's why many of the people on the body are picked from OHV interests.

"All those visitors every fall bring a lot of money and tourism into the county," Ham said.

Terry Weiner, a member of the Desert Protective Council, said she wrote letters to BLM Desert District Director Linda Hansen (Thomsen's boss) about the matter but that nothing has happened.

"All the usual suspects are being involved. Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears," Weiner said.

She said everyone has economic stakes in the dunes not just local business and OHV interests. People want to see more equitable spending for the dunes, Weiner added.

"As far as I'm concerned, I think they are blowing money on a form of recreation that is not sustainable," Weiner said of OHV tourism.

She said she is doubtful OHV recreation puts as much money into the local economy as many claim.

"It pollutes, generates noise and creates inevitable problems for public safety," Weiner said.

>> Staff Writer Marc Schanz can be reached at 337-3452 or at mschanz@ivpressonline.com

BOO EFFEN HOO!!!!

Well now, that's just too tempting to ignore.

Think I'll sit down tonight with a nice glass of wine and write a response to that load of crap.

Should be fun

"As far as I'm concerned, I think they are blowing money on a form of recreation that is not sustainable," Weiner said of OHV tourism.

Has she even taken a closer look at the Off-Road Industry or even been in the desert on a busy weekend to see how "un-sustainable" it is? 100,000 plus people in one weekend and she says it is not sustainable.....



"It pollutes, generates noise and creates inevitable problems for public safety," Weiner said.

Yes, just like the car you drive to work EVERY DAY!

yup, what a weiner, lol

Rep Filner don't know his ass from a hole in the ground...

We want Duncan Hunter!!!

BTW: I can't wait to vote that looser out!

DaPastor

Why should they be involved in how the fee money is spent? They don't pay into it.

Eff that SOB!

Dannyboo hasn't been in the news lately except for his most recent arrest. He's just gotta open his "la voca grande" in a more positive light.

It hasn't, but this is something we really have to fight. The Technical Review Team is designed in part to make recommendations to the BLM as to how the fees collected at the ISDRA should be spent. These fees are being generated by off-roaders and off-roaders should have the say as to how they are being spent.

The only concern a non-off-roader might have would be that the conservation issues are being properly addressed at the ISDRA.

Well, we've come a long way baby and we too are concerned with those issues. By bad-guy standards, will we be concerned enough? Having a seat on the TRT won't dictate that decision. So, the non-paying anti-access crowd will just have to continue to use the tool they've become so adept at using, the court system, if they feel the issues are not being properly addressed.

We cannot allow the BLM to take the easy route this time by giving in to the anti-access crowd demanding equal time. Once they start producing receipts showing they have a vested interest in the dunes like the off-roaders do, maybe then they'll have a point.

So Dano... time to put up or shut up. You've been lying to the public for years about how much money is generated in Imperial County by your cronies.

Prove it.

Vicki

It's funny how everyone with no prior interest wants to suddenly get involved when there is a "UNSUSTAINABLE" flow of funds coming in?????
100,000X$90.00, well, you do the math. This is just 1 weekend!

"It pollutes, generates noise and creates inevitable problems for public safety," Weiner said.
This quote was takin from her from the window of her EXCURSION!!!!!

No offense to Excursion owners, unless you are a enviromentalist.

Jason