Here is an interesting article that was in the Press-Enterprise.

U.S. move fuels fears over dune plant

HABITAT: A cut in proposed land threatens the Peirson's milk-vetch, environmentalists say.


09:10 AM PDT on Wednesday, August 4, 2004



By JENNIFER BOWLES / The Press-Enterprise

At the California desert's most popular off-roading area, the Bush administration on Tuesday reduced by 60 percent the amount of land considered critical for the survival of a threatened plant.


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped most off-roading areas from its final habitat designation, thus removing these areas from potential closures due to habitat impact. Instead, the agency placed most of the habitat in a wilderness area of the 160,000-acre Imperial Sand Dunes that already bans motorized vehicles.

Environmentalists said the reduction of critical habitat favored off-roaders and would lead to further destruction of the Peirson's milk-vetch, a flowering plant that grows on the wind-sculpted dunes.

"It's a political hack job," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sought protections for the plant.

Grant George, president of the American Sand Association, an off-roading group with 17,000 members, said he didn't know the details of the designation for the milk-vetch but thinks the plant doesn't deserve to be on the Endangered Species list, let alone any protection of its habitat.

"We don't feel there is any justification for any protections," said George, of Rancho Cucamonga, whose group had unsuccessfully fought to take the plant off the list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the decision to cut 30,000 acres of critical habitat from a proposal a year ago was based on the potential economic impacts to Imperial County and Yuma County in Arizona. The original proposal, if it led to off-roading closures, would have cost those economies between $55 million and $124 million through 2013, said Jane Hendron, a spokeswoman for the wildlife agency.


U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service / Special to The Press-Enterprise
Peirson's milk-vetch and the plant with seeds.



With the final designation, that figure is $2.8 million for the same time frame.

"The secretary does have the discretion to exclude areas if, after weighing the pros and cons, it's determined that the benefits of excluding an area are greater than the benefits of including critical habitat," she said.

In this case, the decision was signed by Craig Manson, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks in the Interior Department.

Hendron said a critical habitat designation doesn't automatically lead to closures.

Doran Sanchez, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the dunes, said the agency had not seen the final decision. The BLM is awaiting further analysis from the wildlife agency before reopening about one-third of the dunes that were closed in 2000 under a legal settlement agreement with the Center and other environmental groups.

George said he feared the areas would still remain closed at the beginning of the riding season in October.

Reach Jennifer Bowles at 951-368-9548 or jbowles@pe.com

Link provided below but you must register first then you can view it.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories...es04.5805f.html

Up

Jimmiee, this article is about designating critical habitat, which is a requirement under the Endangered Species Act.

When a species is listed as endangered or threatened, Fish & Wildlife (FWS) is supposed to designate "critical habitat" for the species. They didn't do that for the Pierson's Milk Vetch (PMV) and so some of the bad guy organizations sued the FWS to force them to designate critical habitat.

In response, the FWS's first proposal for critical habitat was 52,780 acres. After further review, public comments, etc., they whittled it down to 21,863 acres. The final ruling came out yesterday and this article addresses that final ruling.

The FWS has put together a list of questions and answers on this critical habitat designation.

There is also a thread in the Glamis Dunes Issues forum discussing this designation: http://www.glamisdunes.com/invision/index....showtopic=25218

Vicki

Thanks Vicki for all you do on our BB. You have helped make this more understandable and I for one appreciate it. Jim