County closes Competition Hill

By LAURA MITCHELL

Staff Writer

Competition Hill, a spot for some of the wildest parties at the Imperial Sand Dunes, will be closed at night this Thanksgiving holiday to help gain control of lawlessness in the dunes.

The nighttime closure, effective immediately, was declared in a resolution as an emergency item by the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday after law enforcement officials realized the number of people visiting the dunes is increasing.

"We think there will be huge crowds. The two weekends surrounding Halloween this year were bigger than expected, so we think Thanksgiving will be bigger, too," county Sheriff Harold Carter said.

Last year the four-day Thanksgiving holiday at the dunes was the most violent weekend ever there as fewer than 40 law enforcement officers tried to control more than 200,000 visitors.

The weekend saw a shootout in which a man lost his life, stabbing incidents and someone in a BMW — trying to evade a speeding ticket — running over a bureau ranger.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management Supervising Ranger Bob Haggerty said the problems are a lot like what used to happen in Palm Springs during spring break and what happens in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

Last Thanksgiving we counted up to 10,000 people partying at Comp Hill, Haggerty said.

Most of the people at the dunes are law-abiding and are there to ride. The problem is the smaller percentage of visitors who come to the dunes to party, he said.

Carter agreed, saying the rave parties in the bowl at the bottom of North Competition Hill don't have anything to do with off-roading.

"It's not safe for off-roaders, law enforcement officers or paramedics," he said.

Carter said once Comp Hill is closed at night, the rave crowd will probably move to other locations in the dunes known for parties. These areas might have to be looked at for closure as well.

Haggerty said the BLM is working to close five problem areas at night in the dunes by the New Year's holiday: North Competition Hill, South Competition Hill, Oldsmobile Hill, Test Hill and Patton Valley.

Carter said he would like to get to the point where the areas can be open all the time but he must think of safety first.

American Sand Association President Jerry Seaver said he heard rumors about a possible nighttime closure but was surprised by the decision. Seaver said he was told by law enforcement there would be some discussion before anything happened.

"We've never been for any closures but we understand what's motivating this," he said.

Off-road groups have been fighting against environmental closures imposed in recent years.

Local off-roading advocate Chuck Mobley of Brawley said he considers the action just another closure, but added, "If it will stop the rowdiness and lawlessness, I would be all for it — if it works."

Center for Biological Diversity Desert ecologist Daniel Patterson said the board's action shows the situation at the dunes had gotten out of control.

But, Patterson added, he was not sure what authority the supervisors had to close federal land.

"It's dangerous to hand over federal land decisions to a local authority," he said.

Conservationists are concerned the BLM does not become "puppets of the county board," Patterson said.

He said he is concerned the parties will move to another, more environmentally sensitive area of the dunes.

County Supervisor Wally Leimgruber, whose district includes the sand dunes, said Comp Hill will be closed for a half-hour before sunset until a half-hour after sunrise.

Haggerty didn't say how officers will keep people out of the bowl, only that it is still being planned.

The board is also considering asking for county Fire Chief Joe Buzo's support to declare a state of emergency. The county declared a state of emergency in December 2001 because of increasing chaos at the Imperial Sand Dunes following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

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



http://www.ivpressonline.com/display/inn_news/news05.txt

DUNERS INFORMING DUNERS
Please make copies of this information and distribute
November 22, 2002
Imperial County Closes Federal Land

On Tuesday, November 19, 2002, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that places a dusk to dawn curfew at Competition Hill in the Glamis area of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.. Wally Leimgruber, an Imperial County Board of Supervisor, said, "the intent of the ordinance was to be for the Major Holidays only, not every night. The Board also wanted it to be structured so the curfew could be at the Imperial County Sheriff's discretion; expanded to more days or areas if needed." The ordinance as written, however, says that there will be a curfew every night. Leimgruber said the board of Supervisors is planning to amend the ordinance at the next Board of Supervisors meeting this Tuesday, November 26th 2002, to clarify their intent.

This unprecedented action by a local authority closing Federal land was done without any public comment or discussion. Imperial County says the curfew is necessary to protect the public from lawless behavior by a small portion of the people who recreate at the ISDRA. The County's action appears to have the blessing of, and was initiated by, the Imperial County Sheriff's Office. It was kept between them and the County Board of Supervisors. It was not discussed with, or proposed to, the American Sand Association in advance.

Since there are adequate rules and regulations already in place, The American Sand Association is opposed to additional curfews and additional laws. The ASA's main objection to the curfew is that it affects the law-abiding users of the ISDRA who enjoy "running Comp" at night for the fun and challenge. Moreover, the Bureau of Land Management has stated repeatedly that their "Zero Tolerance" enforcement methods, begun in January 2002, have had a significant positive impact reducing past problems.

"Since last year, we have been suggesting checkpoints at the entrance of Comp Hill to identify liquor violations, illegal activity, or other rule violations: but certainly not a curfew," says Bob Mason, ASA's Public Safety Committee Chairman.

The ASA will make every attempt to inform its members of the new ordinance as quickly as possible. "Our primary concern is that there is inadequate lead time to inform ISDRA visitors," says Jerry Seaver, ASA President. "Future actions of this nature must be coordinated with representatives of the stakeholders if we are going to communicate effectively and accomplish the desired results."

For the latest update on the Imperial County's revised ordinance go to www.americansandassociation.org

The ASA

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-dunes22nov22,0,5166983.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dscie nce
THE STATE
Officials Impose New Curfew at Algodones Dunes
Efforts to quell unruly holiday gatherings at Competition Hill draw criticism from both environmentalists and off-road enthusiasts.
By Scott Gold
Times Staff Writer

November 22 2002

Now nobody's happy.

After years of hand-wringing and debate over the future of the stately Algodones Dunes, government officials in the southeastern tip of California said Thursday that they will attempt to rein in lawless free-for-alls at perhaps the most popular spot in the dunes for off-road enthusiasts.

The Imperial County Board of Supervisors said it has established a sunset-to-sunrise curfew at a destination known as Competition Hill, south of California 78. The curfew, which is already bringing howls of protest from both the off-road-vehicle community and environmental advocates, goes into effect immediately. Violating the curfew could bring misdemeanor charges and six months in jail.

The overnight restrictions were imposed just before Thanksgiving, which in recent years has brought huge crowds to "Comp Hill" and surrounding dunes in the Algodones system, which stretches nearly 40 miles from the Chocolate Mountains to the Mexican border.

Each year around Thanksgiving, as many as 200,000 off-roaders and spectators have created something of a Woodstock in pickup trucks, particularly around Competition Hill. Authorities say the gathering has become increasingly hazardous, in particular to law enforcement officers who try to impose some order.

By the time the holiday weekend was over last year, three people were dead and more than 200 injured, authorities said. There were scores of crashes, a shooting and an attack on a ranger. According to county records, law enforcement officers were surrounded at one point by "thousands of unruly recreationists threatening physical harm."

Similar gatherings are held around other holidays, and this year's Halloween crowd reached 75,000. That led to concerns that this year's Thanksgiving party could be bigger and more unruly than ever.

"There are assaults and vehicles damaged and all kinds of problems," said Imperial County Sheriff Harold Carter. "And then, when law enforcement tries to step in, the crowd turns on them. It makes it difficult to maintain the peace. It's just not worth the effort. Public safety mandates this."

The trouble is, the politics and emotions surrounding Competition Hill have become almost as complicated as those on Capitol Hill. The Board of Supervisors' decision has outraged off-road enthusiasts, who are embroiled in a bitter dispute with environmentalists about whether their high-tech, high-powered dune buggies and motorcycles damage the rare ecosystem.

Jerry Seaver, president of the American Sand Assn., which promotes off-road recreation, said enthusiasts should have been at the negotiating table all along.

The parties give the normally law-abiding community a bad name, and families end up paying the price, he said. The dunes have become one of the prime exhibits for those who believe government agencies are putting public land off-limits to the public, he said.

"We had no input in this," he said. "Even a curfew is a closure."

Environmentalists, meanwhile, have fought for years to protect land inhabited by albino grasshoppers and the Peirson's milk vetch, an endangered plant that features large pods whose seeds rattle in the breeze. Vehicles are killing these and other rare plants and animals that live only on the dunes, environmental organizations argue.

The conservation groups seemingly would be thrilled with the new restrictions. Not so.

In a letter sent to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday, the Idyllwild-based Center for Biological Diversity said it was a dangerous precedent for a county government to make land-use decisions on federal property.

"Our position is not against them trying to crack down," said Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist at the center. "Our problem is that a county ordinance has had an immediate effect on federal land. Federal land-management decisions should be made and put into effect by federal agencies."

Environmentalists have essentially ceded Competition Hill to off-road enthusiasts because damage there is so heavy, Patterson said. The ban on nighttime use at Comp Hill, he said, will simply encourage people to spread to new areas, where they will do more damage.

"That place has been completely destroyed," he said. "So let them tear it up. They can't tear it up any more than they already have."

The federal government, meanwhile, remains at something of an impasse while weighing the future of the dunes.

The Bush administration has proposed overturning a Clinton-era legal settlement that bans off-road vehicles on about 50,000 acres of the dunes. The Bureau of Land Management wanted the plan in place by this fall but needs a sister agency to sign off on the proposal.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, however, according to agency documents, is considering issuing a "jeopardy opinion" saying, effectively, that the bureau's plan to reopen portions of the dunes could doom the milk vetch.

The BLM supports the plan to ban use of Comp Hill from sunup to sundown, said Stephen Razo, a spokesman at the Riverside-based California Desert District Office.

Despite the thorny politics, County Supervisor Wally Leimgruber said that the curfew is the right move -- and that the county has jurisdiction. Leimgruber himself has ridden dune buggies there, and frequently hikes and camps nearby. Last year around Thanksgiving, he waded into the fray -- and helped rescue a man who was being beaten by a mob.

Next week, the county may tinker with the ordinance to make clear that it will be applied only on busy holiday weekends, Leimgruber said.

"There is an element that chooses to come to Imperial County and engage in lawless activity," he said. "We simply will not tolerate it."

November 23, 2002



Competition Hill closure draws flak
FLAK

By LAURA MITCHELL

Staff Writer

It’s a “Mad Max” movie scene — dune buggies, alcohol, drugs and violence — that all but the lawless say must come to an end.

But when Imperial County officials stepped in and declared a closure on federal land in the desert, conservation and off-road groups both cried foul.

Violence at the Imperial Sand Dunes was increasing every year, coming to a head during the 2001 Thanksgiving holiday weekend when a man was killed in a shoot-out, a ranger was run over and officers handed out more than 1,000 citations.

Since then, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, working with county Sheriff Harold Carter, has effectively cracked down on people who show up at the dunes to party and cause problems.

But Thanksgiving is the big holiday and this year, it will be the big test.

Not willing to take any chances, the county Board of Supervisors this week closed Competition Hill at night. Competition Hill, in the dunes along Highway 78, is the scene of the wildest parties.

But the board’s decision upset groups on opposite sides of desert debates.

“We don’t understand where the county gets the authority to make a rule on federal public lands,” Desert Protective Council conservation coordinator Terry Weiner said.

Weiner said it’s understandable that Competition Hill needs to be closed for law enforcement purposes, but, she added, if an agency was going to make a decision, it should have been BLM.

“The main concern we have is the precedent this sets,” she said.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility California coordinator Karen Schambach said the bureau should not relinquish its authority to the county, even for a good cause.

“I think the county is trying to impose its will in an area where it has no jurisdiction. Everyone agrees there is a problem at Comp Hill, but giving the county the authority is not the way to do it,” Schambach said.

She said closing Competition Hill is a great idea, but the BLM should take the county’s decision as a recommendation.

As chief law enforcement officer in the county, Carter says he has the right to protect the public.

“BLM rangers in Imperial County enforce the law with my authority,” Carter said.

“I have designated and sworn Bureau rangers in as special deputies to enforce state law. As the sheriff here, I have the authority. It’s been tested in court and upheld,” he said.

Carter compared the violence at the dunes to a toxic spill that county officials have the responsibility to clean.

“You have to close it to get it cleaned up,” he said.

“I’m sure my deputies would rather be watching football during the Thanksgiving holiday than going to what they call a scene from a ‘Mad Max’ movie,” Carter said.

State Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle spokesman Joe Rosatto said there is a precedent that supports Carter’s authority.

“We routinely give county sheriffs grants for law enforcement on federal lands,” Rosatto said.

The BLM says it supports the county’s decision.

“We’re looking at this from a law enforcement perspective. The county has primary jurisdiction on law enforcement,” BLM spokesman Stephen Razo said.

The closure is in line with BLM goals and objectives for the dunes — a safe environment for visitors and law enforcement, Razo said.

But even with good intentions, just the word “closure” is a dirty word to off-road advocacy groups.

“Curfew would have been a better word,” American Sand Association spokesman Greg Gorman said.

The ASA and other off-road groups such as the San Diego Off-Road Coalition are working to reopen land closed last year to protect the endangered Peirson’s milk vetch. The groups say there are thousands of the plants in the dunes and it is not endangered.

The ASA does not endorse the closure but individual members say they understand why it is being done.

The county Board of Supervisors will review and possibly make changes to the ordinance closing Competition Hill at its meeting Tuesday.

Supervisor Wally Leimgruber said the county’s intent is to control the major holidays. The original ordinance was done in concert with the BLM.

The primary purpose of both agencies is safety, he said.

>> Staff Writer Laura Mitchell can be reached at 337-3452 or lauramitchel9@yahoo.com