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The Battle Over Imperial Dunes
Environmentalists, Off-Road Vehicle Riders Clash Over BLM Plan
 Listen to the report by Erik Anderson of member station KPBS.
May 5, 2002 -- The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation & Wilderness Area is at the heart of a long-running conflict between off-road vehicle enthusiasts and environmentalists. Both groups are upset with a just-released U.S. government plan to manage the 200,000 acres of windswept desert in Southern California.
The Imperial Sand Dunes -- also called the Algodones Dunes -- is a long corridor of sand stretching 40 miles in the dry southeast corner of California. It boasts the largest mass of sand dunes in the state, and some of the dunes can reach up to 700 feet tall.
Erik Anderson of member station KPBS reports that even though there are no permanent residents in the dunes, there are plenty of people fighting over how the land should be used. Some of the people Anderson met have enjoyed racing their all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles in the sand for decades.
"Everybody sits around the campfire and enjoys themselves," says D.J. Ferrera, working on his family's $70,000 dune buggy. "And the next day you go out and tear it up... again. I mean, it's just fun."
But Sierra Club spokesman Larry Hogue says the region holds a special charm for people who enjoy hiking through the shifting sands -- and says there's plenty of evidence that the delicate dune environment would be better off left alone. Two years ago, in what environmentalists thought was a major victory, they convinced off-road groups and a federal judge to temporarily close 50,000 acres in the heart of the dunes.
There was hope federal officials would make the closure permanent. But the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced a long-term plan last month that lifts the temporary court-ordered closure on 15,000 acres, and calls for limited off-road use on the remaining 35,000 acres.
Environmentalists are disappointed the area is being re-opened, and off-road enthusiasts are upset that they only regain limited use of the closed area. Both groups hope to change the BLM plan in their favor before the agency makes a final decision this fall.
BLM spokesperson Roxy Trost says the agency is caught in the middle. "I mean, we're a multiple-use agency," Trost told Anderson. "We're mandated to provide recreation opportunities as well as to protect the natural and cultural resources of the area."
Trost says the BLM will continue to seek public input until this summer. Both off-road enthusiasts and environmentalists say the agency's efforts to appease both sides will probably fall short, and they expect the dispute to end up back in court.
Other Resources
• Latest Imperial Sand Dunes updates from the Bureau of Land Management.
• The California chapter of the Sierra Club has a special committee dedicated to the Algodones Dunes.
• The official Web site for member station KPBS.
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