By MARC SCHANZ, Staff Writer
Saturday, February 28, 2004 10:22 PM PST
A group of environmental workers and government biologists will be criss-crossing the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area in the largest federal monitoring program of plant life and wildlife ever attempted in the sprawling dune ecosystem, U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials confirmed Friday.
More than 30 workers with the Environmental Careers Organization have been brought to the Valley by the bureau and are in the midst of training for the survey, which is scheduled to last through June 5, according to BLM spokesman Stephen Razo.
"(This program) encompasses a wide variety of monitoring that contributes to a level of ecosystem understanding," said Chris Knauf, a program coordinator with the BLM El Centro field office.
Attempting to canvass a multitude of plant and animal species — including the federally protected Peirson's milk-vetch — this survey is part of putting the wax on the recently aired dunes recreation area management plan proposed in 2003 by the BLM.
"A key part of this (survey) is establishing a baseline population count to monitor," El Centro branch Field Manager Greg Thomsen said.
One of the key provisions attached to the plan is the need for long-term and in-depth species monitoring.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a "no jeopardy" biological opinion in April 2003 that gave BLM the go ahead for the plan as long as the BLM adheres to monitoring requirements.
A court challenge to that opinion sent it back to Fish and Wildlife for further study and the results are being awaited by the BLM, environmentalists and the off-highway vehicle lobby.
The way the BLM has counted plants in the dunes has been a contentious topic for many years.
The BLM has thrown out field studies from 1990 determined to be biased and scientifically unsound. A new monitoring program was started in 1998, where biologists walk transects, or predetermined sampling areas in the dunes.
The American Sand Association paid for its own study of the milk-vetch in 2001 and found more than 71,000 plants in the dunes.
"There were aspects of that survey that were not completely scientific," said Terry Weiner, a conservation coordinator with the Desert Protective Council. "All they did was count plants."
During the four-month BLM survey, crews will be surveying for milk-vetch, the Colorado desert fringe-toed lizard, concentrations of microphyll woodland and songbirds, according to Thomsen.
Nearly 150 separate milk-vetch transects are planned, according to Knauf, as well as 70 transects for microphyll woodland and 67 for the fringe-toed lizard.
The milk-vetch, the only plant under Endangered Species Act protection being surveyed, is what's behind this, some say.
"It's definitely a good thing that they are doing more monitoring out there. We support that," said Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist with the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that has led the charge against the U.S. Department of the Interior and BLM to close off portions of the dunes to off-highway vehicle traffic.
"What's really behind this, we fear, is the political management of (BLM) attempting to use this monitoring as an all clear to open up the closed areas," Patterson added. "We can't support that."
"I think the field level staff (at BLM in El Centro) want to learn more about the populations out there," Patterson said. "The higher-ups want to hold this up to justify sacrificing habitat."
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