(Imperial Valley Press Online)
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2004...news/news02.txt

By MARC SCHANZ, Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 3:24 PM PDT

Off-highway vehicle groups are petitioning Congress and the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management, furious that user fees from the Imperial Sand Dunes
Recreation Area are the sole funding source for a mandated plant survey of
the Peirson's milk-vetch.

"We're not opposed to monitoring. We realize that has to be done and we
support good science," said Roy Denner, president of the Santee-based Off
Road Business Association.

Denner claims the four-month monitoring program, being conducted by BLM
staff and contract workers in the dunes, is being paid for by the user fees
of off-road enthusiasts who flock to the outdoor attraction during major
holidays.

Citing that the surveying is called for in the yet-to-be-implemented
recreation area management plan, or RAMP, proposed by the BLM, Denner said
he takes issue that OHV users are paying for the study on their own.

"These are studies that are being mandated by the government," Denner said.
"Why isn't the government paying for them, or at least helping?"

BLM El Centro Field Office Manager Greg Thomsen said he has spoken with many
representatives of the OHV community but concedes there's little he can do.

"Unfortunately, we have to do these surveys. They are critical to
implementing the (RAMP)," Thomsen said. "We have limited funding and some of
our funding sources this year came up short."

Thomsen points to the fact that California's OHV commission, which normally
doles out grants to BLM's enforcement activities in the dunes, held back on
grants for the Imperial Sand Dunes operations this year.

"It's unfortunate but we had to do it this way," Thomsen said.

OHV groups claim scientific surveys they sponsored are being ignored in the
process.

Denner points to the research of Arthur Phillips and his surveys of
milk-vetch in the dunes, commissioned by a host of off-road vehicle groups,
research that points to the milk-vetch's health and resiliency in the dunes
environment.

"They haven't taken any of this into the process of evaluating the
(species)," Denner said. "Fish and Wildlife have decided that there is
enough evidence to support looking at a delisting petition, so I don't see
why Phillip's work is being ignored."

Lynette Elser, resources chief at the BLM's El Centro office, said while
Phillips' studies are excellent science, the BLM's survey is a much wider
and comprehensive study.

"We're not looking at longevity of the plant in certain areas. We're trying
to find out just how many of these are out there in the dunes and where do
they live," Elser said.

In the background of the dispute over the management plan lies the pending
decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over whether to proceed with
delisting, or removing from a threatened species list, the milk-vetch, a
decision closing in on its May deadline, according to spokeswoman Jane
Hendron, with the service's Carlsbad office.

Compelled by a lawsuit filed by the American Sand Association and other
groups, the service must make a sped-up review of all the information
regarding the milk-vetch before it can proceed with a delisting petition,
Hendron said.

If the delisting petition proceeds after May, it would alter the balance of
the battle between OHV groups for open access to the dunes, and the
environmental groups seeking to keep closed areas sealed from vehicles to
protect plants and wildlife - putting the temporary closure areas in doubt
again.

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