November 15, 2002
Sierra Club rep says thoughtless public damages county’s deserts

By LAURA MITCHELL

Staff Writer

There are not as many off-road vehicles in Imperial County deserts outside the Imperial Sand Dunes, but the destruction they bring is just as great, conservationists say.

A tremendous amount of damage can be done in a single weekend, a single day, by a thoughtless public in the Western Colorado Desert area of the county, said Edie Harmon, Imperial County representative of the San Diego County chapter of the Sierra Club.

Archaeologist and Imperial Valley College Desert Museum Director Jay von Werlhof agreed, saying a Native American dance circle, carbon dated to be 2,700 years old, has been “just about trashed” within the last 30 years.

Harmon and von Werlhof spoke Thursday at a U.S Bureau of Land Management meeting scheduled to get public input on changes to desert routes of travel.

“The public needs to learn, unless there’s compliance, the areas need to be closed,” Harmon said.

BLM Ranger Bob Haggerty said the destruction is not caused by the off-road community as a whole.

“It’s just a handful of mostly kids that come out and party,” Haggerty said.

The damage is not from driving over a route, he said; the problem is willful destruction. The number of illegal routes is growing and there is other destruction such as people doing donuts and tearing an area to pieces, Haggerty said.

BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner Dallas Meeks said such people visit the desert to drink, go shooting and destroy an area, leaving behind trash and beer bottles.

“We’re not after the people who clean up after themselves and follow the rules, we’re after the people who don’t respect the rules,” Meeks said.

Haggerty said if people police themselves, as off-road groups are doing in the sand dunes, there would be no need for closures in other desert areas of the county.

Von Werlhof said more needs to be done to educate the public about the history of the area. He suggested the BLM put up more kiosks in camping and parking areas with literature and information.

>> Staff Writer Laura Mitchell can be reached at 337-3452 or lauramitchell9@yahoo.com

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I hope the IVP readers realize that the off-road recreation community has made quite a leap in conservation education, "within the last 30 years?" The Museum Director coaching his comments to encompass the past thirty years is less than genuine with respect to the current safeguards and care the off-road community extends to the desert cultural resources. This type of damage is rare today, and it is even more rare to find an off-road enthusiast involved. The damage as described is much more likely to be due to uneducated visitors (on foot).

The claims of damage and archeological site destruction do not represent the behavior of the modern educated off-road recreation enthusiast (any more than a trail-cutting granola-chewing hiker describes the typical modern Sierra Club member). Broad claims of damage attributed to motorized recreation enthusiasts (or any desert visitors) need to be focused and have dates assigned, to assure the feared damage is not due to an obsolete practice (activity that is no longer acceptable, today, even though it was common thirty years ago). Off-road enthusiasts care about the accuracy of all damage claims, to assure all desert enthusiasts (motorized and non-motorized) can work together in cooperation to implement protection and education programs to eliminate future damage. Coached comments, like those expressed in this article, do not reflect the current values and care extended to the desert by the modern off-road recreation enthusiast.

You will find that most off-road enthusiasts agree with the Museum director, that more can be done to educate the public about the rich culture and history of the desert. When the youth of today experience the values and hardships of the desert first hand, with the help of motorized access, the appreciation to protect the desert is reinforced much stronger than through reading words on a Kiosk display. Off-road recreation enthusiasts believe the best education is direct experience with the subject, and we believe this is best accomplished by preserving motorized off-highway vehicle access on historic wheeled travel routes (not through gates and closures that isolate the values from the public).

Ed A. Stevens