In Desert Battle, Dune Buggy Takes On Peirson's Milk-Vetch

Fight About Spiny Plants
Blossoms Into a War
Over Endangered Species
By JOHN J. FIALKA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
April 15, 2005

IMPERIAL SAND DUNES, Calif. -- This stretch of hot, dry, wind-carved sand is one of the least habitable spots in the U.S. But it has become the battleground for advocates of two rugged denizens of these hills.

One is the Peirson's milk-vetch, an obscure, shrub-sized member of the pea family. The other is the 21st-century Southern California dune buggy, a snarling, V-8-powered beast in a tubular frame mounted on special tires with rubber flaps.

In the milk-vetch's corner is Dan Patterson, a 34-year-old red-bearded ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson, Ariz., nonprofit. He argues that the vehicle endangers the plant and should be banned from large parts of the dunes, which are 20 miles west of Yuma, Ariz.

To prove his point, he likes to drive his battered, dirty, 1992 Toyota SUV down a highway that bisects the dunes. The side where buggies are prohibited is dotted with wildflowers including the purple bloom of the milk-vetch. The side where off-road vehicles are allowed is a mess of tire tracks.

For the buggies, there's Dick Holliday, sporting a gray Fu Manchu mustache, who has spent 40 of his 60 years driving on the dunes. He's now a top officer of the American Sand Association, a 19,000-member lobbying group in La Verne, Calif., devoted to improving the image and rights of off-road vehicles. He argues the buggies don't pose a threat to the milk-vetch, and says buggy drivers steer clear of the spiny plants for fear of puncturing one of their $250 tires.

The competing claims have sparked multiple lawsuits, fights between rival camps' biologists, and testy public hearings. "I've never been physically pushed, but I've been catcalled," says Eileen Anderson, a botanist for the California Native Plant Society. To try to sift the conflicting assertions of vetch viability, the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management will spend $1 million for its annual survey. This month, as the winter off-road-vehicle season ends, a team of 30 government-hired biologists has moved out here, living in tents, tallying the plants in sample five-mile tracts.

The milk-vetch squabble is at the center of a broader, escalating, debate over the 31-year-old Endangered Species Act, hailed by backers as a high point of the 1970s environmental movement. Mr. Patterson's center alone -- calling itself "nature's legal eagles" -- claims credit for having used the law's club to get 334 plants and animals formally designated as threatened, more than a quarter of all species on the endangered-species list.

Businesses and political conservatives have long attacked the law as imposing additional expenses on property owners, who must often make changes to protect species. They also argue the law is ineffective, noting that of 1,264 plants and animals listed as endangered, only 16 have recovered. They want the Republican-dominated Congress to make it more difficult for the government to limit landowners' options. "Pretending that mankind is not part of the environment doesn't work," California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, who is spearheading the effort, said recently at a hearing on the subject.

The milk-vetch was named after the early 20th-century California botanist F.W. Peirson, who first identified it. There are no known commercial uses for the plant, but biologists marvel at how well it has adapted to severe conditions. It anchors itself in the shifting sand with a sturdy taproot that can snake down 50 feet to find water. It has gray, fuzzy leaves that prevent sunburn, seductive purple flowers that attract a certain type of white-faced bee and lightweight seed pods that float for miles on desert winds which replant the milk-vetch, often where nothing else grows.

The buggies came after World War II and have also adapted. They started as converted Volkswagen beetles, so underpowered that most couldn't make it up the steeper dunes. Then hot-rod enthusiasts and manufacturers created bigger, more powerful machines. Today modern buggies costing up to $75,000 and propelled by 600- to 800-horsepower engines can easily claw their way up any dune. Sometimes they climb into the air above the dunes before slamming down on special, air-cushioned shock absorbers copied from airplane landing-gear.

Over the past decade, off-road-vehicle traffic here has nearly doubled. Winter holiday weekends can bring 190,000 people, the great majority of them watching the drag races or roaring around on dune buggies, motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles.

Moves to separate vetch from vehicles began in 1994, when a Democratic Congress prodded by environmental groups set aside 32,000 acres in the northern part of the dunes as a permanent wilderness area. That didn't bother buggy enthusiasts too much because the steepest dunes are in the south. Then environmentalists sued to have the milk-vetch officially declared an endangered species and to broaden the restrictions. They claimed victory in November 2000, when the Clinton administration as part of a court settlement agreed to fence off an additional 49,300 acres in the popular southern portion of the dunes.

Until then, the battle was a legal and political mismatch. Environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity have had a long history of coordination, working the Endangered Species Act through regulators and the courts. Off-road enthusiasts mainly just showed up on weekends to ride the dunes and to party.

But after the string of court decisions favoring the milk-vetch, buggy riders and manufacturers banded together to form the American Sand Association. In 2001, the group hired a biologist, Arthur M. Phillips III. After counting more than 71,000 of the plants growing in the dune-buggy area, he concluded that the milk-vetch wasn't endangered. Patrolling in dune buggies, and using the satellite-based Global Positioning System, Mr. Phillips said he and five other milk-vetch counters marked out 25 census tracts for a return visit. This year, after heavy rains here, "it looks like the count will be equivalent or greater," he estimates.

Mr. Patterson dismisses those findings. "Phillips's work is scientifically invalid," he asserts. "Off-roaders think everything they see out there is a Peirson's milk-vetch." Mr. Phillips replies: "We do our work in the field. They do theirs in court. We have almost nothing in common."

Another big part of the ASA's campaign is to try to soften the image of dune-buggy riders as hell-raisers -- a reputation exacerbated over Thanksgiving weekend in 2001, when a drug- and alcohol-using crowd that gathered to watch the competition experienced a fatal shooting, several stabbings and accidents involving more than 150 injuries.

Since then, the sand association has started a charm campaign. Members pick up trash and put up billboards emphasizing safety on nearby highways. They are working out rules for uphill drag-races to minimize the danger to crowds. The ASA says in one safety flier to members that "this is important" in part because, after one raucous incident, "the Sierra Club demanded the dunes be closed because a reasonable amount of safety could not be maintained. A nonenvironmental issue, to be sure, but ammunition they could use just the same."

The Interior Department, which regulates the dunes, is required by law to keep them open for a variety of recreational uses. Mr. Patterson thinks the department should promote greater use of the dunes by hikers and photographers to offset the domination of off-roaders. As it stands, dune-buggy drivers, seeing the rare person walking in the dunes during busy weekends, sometimes stop to ask whether their vehicles have broken down. Do they need any help?

"This is not just about Peirson's milk-vetch," says Mr. Patterson. "This is about a really cool place." His center has notified the Interior Department that it is preparing a new lawsuit that argues 16 other dune species are also endangered, including three exotic beetles, two rare ants and four weevils.

Write to John J. Fialka at john.fialka@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB...ys_free_feature

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.

And I'm sure that each one has a special reason for being in the dunes!!!! JackA$$.

from the wall street journal no less!!!

That's a pretty powerful statement. These fools wouldn't understand the scientific method if it was read to them from a high school textbook...yet seem to be able to claim that a respected scientist work is invalid? And it stands in direct conflict with the cbd's self appointed moniker of "natures legal eagles".....Nope, no court work there. I can't believe anyone would believe a word that spews out of this nazi's mouth.

I guess I'll never buy a WSJ again !!!. Pathetic !!.

As far as an article in a large national newspaper, we couldn't have expected a much better shake.

For the WSJ, that's not a bad article. I also find it ironic that the CBD criticizes Dr. Philips as not being "good science", when it's usually the enviro nazis that hire him to prove the plant needs to be listed.

2 years ago at Easter, myself and three friends who camp with us had the privilege of driving Dr. Philips and his associate (wife?) around GW and helped count PMV plants. At first, he flat out told us that he is almost always hired by the environmental groups to collect data proving the need for listing it.

After a few hours of us helping and actually dunning between sites, we offered them a few bottles of cool water and that's when he told us it looks good for the PMV. He said the data collected so far just that day showed a marked increase from what was first expressed to him by the nazis. (not a word for word quote, but hey, it's been 2 years and I suffer from CRS).

Saw this camp the weekend before Easter. West of Road Runner. They have quite the camp set-up! Wondered what it was.

Wonder how much that all costs

I have a pic at home.

I would of thought to WSJ would have commented on the financial impact we have as "off-roader" and our monetary investment in a growing industry, supporting American fabrication jobs

My reading is that this was a fairly balanced and informative article.

Since the WSJ is read by many legislators across the country, including members of Congress, this article may have the potential to attract their attention.

I think this might be the first truthful quote ever out of Danny boy...
we have know that for years. It isnt about a plant. Its about control, and money. The plant is simply a tool.

How are they getting to these tracts? Hiking??

Driving to were they need to start and then walking the transects.

I see,,, 50% right is better than 100% wrong

Yes folks, that's ONE MILLION FREAKING DOLLARS, or roughly 1/6th the budget for the entire year for maintaining Glamis.

I wonder if it costs Dr. Phillips a million dollars a year.... and then, I wonder who gets the more accurate count!

Interesting to see the NYC perspective. I wouldn't say the article was unbiased, as I think the writer definitely sided more with the CBD than the ASA. , I wish...I'm more of a buzzing, flat-4 powered beast myself This was not written by a friendly. But it pretty much summed up the respective sides in a nutshell. No mention of the new RAMP tho, nor any mention of the economic impact of duners on the surrounding community. But then again the CBD claims we're chasing away millions of $$$ by scaring off all those hikers we see in the north dunes...

We really need to work on a new terminology for the area that is "Sand Highway". That area is unquestionably a "Trailhead".
The area they refer to is a ROAD... not dunes as they are generally known in the desert. That is why the comparison is so stark in that area. We all know that as soon as you get away from Sand Highway the differences are much less great.

I think they're referring to the 78, if we're referring to the same quote...

SOOOOOO, so we know a wonderful news reporter that is a DUNER, and can write a different, more friendly, point of view????

WRITE IT, GET IT PUBLISHED........................

Funny you should mention that...

There's a reporter at the station, she and I have been working on the powers that be to do a Glamis series for the November sweeps period. They were going to do something last year, but the story got killed for some reason or other. I've offered my trailer and buggy to do the story series this year. Stay tuned, we'll see what happens...

[quote=Noozeyeguy,Apr 15 2005, 10:59 AM]

WRITE IT, GET IT PUBLISHED........................
[right][snapback]947778[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Funny you should mention that...

There's a reporter at the station, she and I have been working on the powers that be to do a Glamis series for the November sweeps period. They were going to do something last year, but the story got killed for some reason or other. I've offered my trailer and buggy to do the story series this year. Stay tuned, we'll see what happens...
[right][snapback]947815[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]


Let me know if you need some others to assist.... I'm in and I know my group would be too....

[quote=SOUTHERN BOY,Apr 15 2005, 12:56 PM]
[quote=Noozeyeguy,Apr 15 2005, 10:59 AM]

WRITE IT, GET IT PUBLISHED........................
[right][snapback]947778[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Funny you should mention that...

There's a reporter at the station, she and I have been working on the powers that be to do a Glamis series for the November sweeps period. They were going to do something last year, but the story got killed for some reason or other. I've offered my trailer and buggy to do the story series this year. Stay tuned, we'll see what happens...
[right][snapback]947815[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]


Let me know if you need some others to assist.... I'm in and I know my group would be too....
[right][snapback]947883[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Trust me, the GD.com family will be a big help if we can get this on the air. Gotta go to work now, there's widows I gotta put on TV...Don Henley wasn't too far off the mark...oh what the hell it pays the bills

Dang it....

All right, all you old farts, step up here.

I've been going to the desert for 40 years now, and can never remember seeing so many effin plants!!!


Back in the 60's, there was probably 1000 to 2000 peeps total out there on a big weekend. Our family photos don't show plants everywhere like there is now, and certainly weren't there in the photos I've seen of Patton's training camps out there either.

Buggies couldn't get to where we go now, and neither could the Jeeps of the day.

So it isn't just rain.

It's also the crap that has blown in from the agro fields in the Imperial Valley. The added dirt/dust has given the plants a bigger base to grow on/in.

Why aren't we addressing this?

If we can prove that the eco-system has changed as a result of agro, then maybe it gives us a leverage to drive over those damn pretty effin flowers.

'sides, those damn butterflies leave a mark on the paint jobs and chrome!!

Aerial photos and satellite images that I've seen have shown this.

I'll gladly spend hours/days/weeks to go thru archives to assemble a report and presntation on this, hell, I'll even travel to present it to the various groups. And I'll help do whatever we got to do

I know I ain't barking up the wrong tree here.....

I've been going to Glamis since '72. regretably, all my photo alblums were lost in a house fire several years ago. But I must agree, there haven't been this many plants in the desert for as long as I can remember.

You might be on to something.

What I was referring to ealier is the fact that they always say this... "If you drive down 78 you see tons of plants on the north side, and much fewer on the south."
But what they are failing to mention is the fact that the sand they are referring to on the south side of the dunes is a freaking road. That is the Glamis Trailhead, and sure, there's fewer plants here. But if you go further in, not even very far, but get away from the road the plants are just as abundant.

umm...I thought the purple flowers seen from the road are NOT milk vetch? I seem to remember steve brooks posting pics of them on the asa board, and him being told these were not the pmv. Perhaps Danny boy can't even identify this beautiful plant? Or the reporter is so dense that they can't say.."how can it be so endangered if there is so much of it over there?"....Too bad so many lies are put out there as "truth", and many will believe them because its in the WSJ???

I would love to know "why" this came up in the WSJ. It's such a local issue, I wonder if it's a test balloon for more to come.

I hope some letters to the editor in favor of duning get written, cause I know they'll probably get many, many negative green responses to this. I'm sure DP marshaled the troops to write in after the story appeared.