Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it completed its review of the Bureau of Land Management's draft Recreation Area Management Plan for the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, and determined that the proposed plan would not jeopardize Peirson's milk-vetch (Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii) or the desert tortoise (Xerobates agassizi) ? two federally threatened species that occur within the dunes. The Service also concluded that implementation of the recreation plan would not adversely modify Peirson's milk-vetch designated critical habitat.
Federal agencies are required to consult with the Service if an agency determines that an action it is proposing to undertake, authorize or fund may affect federally listed species or their designated critical habitat. A biological opinion summarizing the effects of the proposed recreation plan on Peirson's milk-vetch and desert tortoise was prepared by the Service and provided to the BLM.
Completion of this consultation will allow the BLM to move forward with its efforts to finalize the Recreation Area Management Plan for the Imperial Sand Dunes, including the lifting of temporary closures on approximately 49,300 acres of the dunes.
The biological opinion covers the 15-year life of the proposed recreation plan. A copy of the biological opinion is available on the Internet at /www.ca.blm.gov.
"Although the Service acknowledges that increased off-highway vehicle use in the dunes can impact Peirson's milk-vetch, there are flexible management options available to ensure the natural resources in the dunes - including Peirson's milk-vetch and the desert tortoise - will be conserved," said Steve Thompson, the Service's Manager for California and Nevada.
There are 8 Management Areas identified in the proposed RAMP, one of which is the 26,202-acre North Algodones Dune Wilderness which is closed to recreational OHV use. The other areas are classed for varying degrees of OHV use. The majority of critical habitat for Peirson's milk-vetch occurs in the wilderness area wilderness area
Wilderness areas are places untamed by humans. The Wilderness Act of 1964 allows Congress to designate wilderness areas for protection to ensure that America's pristine wild lands will not disappear. Wilderness areas can be part of national wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests or public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Learn more about wilderness area and the Mammoth Wash area which receives limited OHV use. About 5,335 acres of critical habitat is designated within the 21,710-acre Ogilby Management Area.
The Service determined that little degradation of critical habitat would occur, given that no OHV use is proposed in the wilderness area and only limited use is anticipated in the Mammoth Wash management area. Even in the Ogilby area, which is expected to receive moderate use, potential adverse impacts to critical habitat would be neither detectable nor measurable within the 15-year life of the recreation plan.
A baseline has also been identified for Peirson's milk-vetch to allow for the detection of changes in the population of reproductive plants. If a decline of more than 50 percent below the baseline is detected, the BLM can exercise its authority to manage a particular area to ensure the plant is not jeopardized.
Both the Service and BLM are also cooperating in the development of monitoring and research programs to obtain additional scientific data about OHV use patterns and effects of OHVs on Peirson's milk-vetch. Other species in the Imperial Sand Dunes will also be monitored, including flat-tailed horned lizard, desert tortoise, microphyll woodlands, and avian species.
The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area is not located within the Northern and Eastern Colorado and Mojave Desert regions of the California Desert which are the subject of a separate consultation between the BLM and the Service. That consultation is expected to be completed in late February.
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For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, visit our home page at http://pacific.fws.gov
