Center for Biological Diversity
BECAUSE LIFE IS GOOD

Protecting endangered species and wild places through
science, policy, education, and environmental law.

For Immediate Release, November 8, 2006

Contact: Howard Gross, National Parks Conservation Association, (760) 366-3035
Mary Wells, California Wilderness Coalition, (510) 451-1450
Geary Hund, The Wilderness Society, (951) 640-3398
Chris Kassar , Center for Biological Diversity, (520) 623-5252 x 317
Ted Zukoski, Earthjustice, (303) 996-9622

Death Valley National Park Threatened by
Extreme Off-Road Vehicle Use:
Conservation Groups Intervene in a Lawsuit Targeting a
Crown-Jewel Canyon in Southern California

WASHINGTON– Today the National Parks Conservation Association, Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups represented by Earthjustice filed papers to intervene in a federal lawsuit that seeks to allow extreme off-road vehicle use in a rare, fragile desert stream inside Death Valley National Park. Off-roading would damage the unique character of Surprise Canyon, including waterfalls, towering cottonwoods and lush willows that provide habitat for desert bighorn sheep, endangered birds, and rare species found nowhere else on earth.

“Death Valley is a national park — not a playground for off-road vehicles,” said Howard Gross, program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “The public shouldn’t be forced to see Surprise Canyon’s tremendous natural values destroyed by a handful of off-road vehicle users, especially when there are so many off-roading opportunities available elsewhere in the Mojave Desert.”

To protect Surprise Canyon Creek and the habitat and wildlife it supports, the conservation groups are intervening in a suit off-road vehicle users filed last month to open Surprise Canyon to motorized traffic. The suit claims that the sheer canyon walls and streambed are a “constructed highway” to which the off-roaders have a right-of-way under a repealed, Civil War era law known as R.S. 2477. Over the past 30 years, some western states, counties and off-road vehicle groups have alleged that hiking trails, wash bottoms, streambeds and little-used two-tracks meet the standard for a “constructed highway” under the law.

“In many cases, off-road interests have viewed R.S. 2477 as a way to undermine effective protection of wildlife habitat, wilderness and other values of public lands,” said Mary Wells of the California Wilderness Coalition.

Congress and federal land managers have recognized Surprise Canyon’s incredible values for decades. In the 1980s the Bureau of Land Management designated the lower portion of the canyon as an “Area of Critical Environmental Concern.” In 1994, Congress added the upper portion of the canyon to Death Valley National Park and designated the area surrounding the canyon as wilderness. In a compromise, Congress left a narrow strip of land through the canyon out of the wilderness designation to permit vehicle access to century-old mining claims at the top of the canyon, although a major flood had washed out the old dirt road in 1984. No mining has taken place in Surprise Canyon since then.

Previous off-road vehicle use caused serious damage to the canyon. In the 1990s, highly modified four-wheel drive vehicles began to scale the canyon. The drivers cut down plants and trees, filled in portions of the streambed with rocks, and used winches to pull vehicles up near-vertical waterfalls. A number of vehicles overturned when trying to negotiate the waterfalls and other steep terrain, dumping oil and other pollution into the stream.

“The BLM should have never allowed this kind of extreme off-road vehicle use in Surprise Canyon to occur,” said Geary Hund of The Wilderness Society. “It pollutes the stream, damages habitat, scares off wildlife and degrades the wilderness.”

In 2000, conservation groups sued the Bureau of Land Management for failing to evaluate the impact of off-road vehicle use and other management policies on endangered wildlife. As a result of a 2001 settlement, the Bureau closed the route through Surprise Canyon pending such analysis. The National Park Service closed the upper portion of the canyon to vehicles in 2002.

Since then Surprise Canyon has experienced a remarkable recovery. Cottonwoods and willows trees are flourishing, and rare species such as desert bighorn sheep are thriving. Endangered birds such as the Inyo California towhee have returned to the canyon after decades of absence.

"Preserving this rare desert stream and the web of life it supports is critical to the recovery of the Inyo California towhee and the conservation of other imperiled species such as the Panamint alligator lizard," said Chris Kassar, a wildlife biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Allowing off-roaders back into Surprise Canyon would set back recovery by decades by increasing soil erosion and polluting the waters of the creek."

Because Surprise Canyon is narrow and constrained through much of its length, it is not possible to resume off-road vehicle use without causing substantial adverse impacts to the creek, the wilderness character of the area, important water resources and other natural values.

"Surprise Canyon is on a path to natural restoration. It was torn up and damaged. Now it's thriving with plants and wildlife," said Tom Budlong of the Sierra Club. "When you visit the canyon you feel like you are again in a national park and wilderness, not at an extreme off-roading site. We need to keep it that way."

Other conservation groups joining in the motion are the Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, California Wilderness Coalition and The Wilderness Society.

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