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Bush Administration Refuses to Consider Protection for Threatened Beetle on

Algodones Sand Dunes

 

May 09, 2006 — By the Center for Biological Diversity

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On May 5th, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) unwisely

announced it would not consider Endangered Species Act protection for the rare

Andrew's dunes scarab beetle. The beetle lives on dunes in fragile Sonoran

Desert habitat in southeast California, and is threatened by intensive off-road

vehicle use, especially on the Algodones (Imperial) Sand Dunes.

 

The Center for Biological Diversity (Center) filed a petition to list and

protect the beetle under the Endangered Species Act in December 2002. The Center

was forced to go to court in December 2004 because the Bush administration

failed to respond to the petition. The Center, along with Public Employees for

Environmental Responsibility and Sierra Club, also filed a petition to protect

16 other Algodones Dunes endemic animals as threatened or endangered. A decision

on that petition is still pending.

 

The biggest harm to Algodones Dunes wildlife is intensive off-road driving - the

dunes are severely damaged by up to 240,000 off-road vehicles (ORVs) on a single

busy weekend. ORVs at the Algodones Dunes include sand rails, motorcycles,

trucks and all-terrain vehicles, whose tires cut deeply into the sand habitat,

even when accelerating on level ground (Stebbins 1995). The dunes are currently

managed under a 2000 court-approved agreement between the U.S. Bureau of Land

Management (BLM), ORV riders and conservationists. The agreement keeps over 106

square miles open to unlimited off-road driving, while nearly 50,000 acres of

the dunes are protected for wildlife and scenic non-motorized recreation.

Despite this fair balance, the dunes have suffered from illegal off-road driving

in protected habitat areas and lax BLM enforcement. ORV lobbyists and the BLM

are pushing to scrap the current balanced multiple-use management and open

nearly 50,000 acres dunes habitat to destructive ORV driving, but the courts

have repeatedly blocked such extreme actions in response to challenges from the

Center.

 

Dunes are hotspots of desert biological diversity, likely because they are more

mesic than other desert habitats due to their ability to store water. The

Algodones Dunes are no exception, harboring dozens of rare endemic wildlife and

plants within its habitat island. Animal species endemic to the Algodones Dunes

are adapted to the hot, arid environment and often exhibit habitat

specialization, such as dependence upon a particular host plant. Narrow endemic

species and habitat specialists are considered more prone to extinction than

widespread habitat generalists (Rabinowitz 1981, Sarre et al. 1995, Fischer and

Stocklin 1997, Henein et al.1998).

 

" Protection of the dunes scarab beetle is needed now, because the off-road lobby

and BLM plan to sacrifice the Algodones Dunes is a huge threat to the desert's

web-of-life, " said Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist with the Center who

formerly worked with BLM in the California desert. " We do not agree with FWS on

this finding, and may again be forced to challenge it in court. "

 

In addition to the Andrew's dunes scarab beetle, the 16 endangered endemic dune

species are: two sand wasps (Microbembex elegans Griswold and Stictiella

villegasi Bohart); two bees (Perdita algodones Timberlake and P. glamis

Timberlake); one vespid (Euparagia n. sp.); two velvet ants (Dasymutilla

nocturna Mickel and Dasymutilla imperialis); three jewel beetles (Algodones sand

jewel beetle, Lepismadora algodones Velten; Algodones white wax jewel beetle,

Prasinalia imperialis (Barr); and Algodones Croton jewel beetle, Agrilus harenus

Nelson); two scarab beetles (Hardy's dune beetle, Anomala hardyorum Potts and

Cyclocephala wandae); and four subspecies of Roth's dune weevil (Trigonoscuta

rothi rothi, T. r. algodones, T. r. imperialis and T. r. punctata).

Conservationists are also seeking critical habitat designations for all 17

species concurrent with listing, as required by law.

 

During daylight and early evening, 80 percent of desert fauna are buried

underground and are subsequently crushed by off-road vehicle tires (Stebbins

1995). For example, scientific surveys at the Algodones Dunes comparing areas

used by ORVs with protected areas indicate that off-road driving causes drastic

reductions in the abundance of several beetle species (Luckenbach and Bury

1983). Off-road driving also resulted in reduced plant cover, further

threatening the survival of the rare endemic species of the Algodones Dunes that

depend on these plants for food and breeding sites. Studies at the dunes have

shown that even moderate ORV use results in significant reductions of plant

cover (Luckenbach and Bury 1983, Hess in prep.).

 

The preferred alternative in BLM's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

for the proposed Recreation Area Management Plan for the Algodones Dunes (BLM

RAMP 2002) would permit ORV use on an astounding 198,220 acres and protect only

25,800 acres - all of which is already protected as wilderness by an act of

Congress. The one-sided plan has been struck down in federal court, but still is

being pushed by the Bush administration without any consideration of the myriad

rare endemic species that are the subject of the July 2004 petition. In fact,

the BLM DEIS listed only five insect species " known to occur or having the

potential to occur " at the Algodones Dunes, and only three of the species are

endemics (Andrew's dune scarab beetle, Carlson's dune beetle, and Hardy's dune

beetle). Therefore, the BLM ignored the nearly two-dozen other endemic insects

at the Algodones Dunes for which information has long been available in the

scientific literature. Conservationists were able to locate information on these

endemics readily in the published literature, reports to the agency, and via

personal communication with entomologists familiar with the area. Thus it is

disturbing why the BLM made no acknowledgement of these species in its

management plan.

 

BLM has continued to push its abysmal management plan despite scientifically

proven adverse impacts of ORVs on the species that inhabit the Algodones Dunes.

Vulnerability from anthropogenic (historic, ongoing, and imminent human-caused

habitat destruction) and environmental (restricted range, habitat specialist)

pressures, as well as a complete failure of the existing regulatory mechanisms

to protect this fragile dune habitat and the species it supports, puts the rare

endemic wildlife at the Algodones Dunes at risk of extinction.

 

The BLM plan to eliminate the protected areas would devastate dozens of

imperiled species - including the Peirson's milkvetch, desert tortoise,

Algodones dunes sunflower, flat-tailed horned lizard and Andrew's dunes scarab

beetle. It would also greatly worsen air pollution and drive away hikers,

birdwatchers, photographers, Native Americans and others. In addition to

allowing intense environmental harm, opening conservation areas to ORVs will

displace and deter non-motorized visitors, costing nearby communities in the

Imperial Valley and Yuma at least $3.3 million annually in sustainable

recreation related spending.

 

In 2004, FWS rejected a petition by the ORV industry to remove Endangered

Species Act protection for the Peirson's milkvetch, finding that the rare

flowering plant is harmed by off-road vehicles and in need of continued legal

protection. However, it recently reversed course after intervention by the

Department of Interior's Julie MacDonald and are looking to de-list the

milkvetch.

 

Contact Info:

 

Daniel R. Patterson

Center for Biological Diversity

Tel: 520.623.5252 x306

E-mail: dpatterson

 

Website : the Center for Biological Diversity

 

What's gonna happen when the buses don't run

and what's gonna happen when the, winter comes

what are you gonna do,

what are you gonna do

when the oil runs out?