Federal agency blamed in report
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Dorl Meinert OPLEY NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON - Eight years after the California Desert Plan was put in place, the federal Bureau of Land Management has failed to develop almost half of the required measures to protect desert wildlife, according to a federal report released Sunday. In addition, the bureau has made limited progress in implementing protection plans that have been completed, says the report from the General Accounting Office. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, attributed the failure to budget shortfalls and the bureau's tendency to favor recreational and commercial uses over wildlife interests in parts of the desert. Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., who requested the GAO study, said the report should help generate support for his California desert protection bill now pending in the Senate. Rep. Mel Levine, D-Santa Monica, has introduced a similar bill in the House. In releasing the GAO report, Cranston called the California desert, "a national heritage that should be preserved for present and future generations of Americans." He said it is not being adequately protected against "callous usage and the inroads of development." A spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, an arm of the Department of the Interior, said officials hadn't seen the GAO report and couldn't respond to specifics. "We obviously believe we have done a very professional job of managing the desert," said bureau spokesman Bob Johns. 3 national parks proposed The Cranston and Levin. bills would establish three national parks east of Los Angeles. The bills would protect 7.5 million acres as wilderness or parkland and restrict access for vehicles, miners and developers. At a House bearing Thursday, Cy Jamison, director of the bureau, defended his agency's management of the |
desert and questioned why Congress
would want to override the existing plan, worked out through extensive
negotiations with competing interest groups. Congress created the 25 million-acre California Desert Conservation Area in 1976, and the bureau issued the overall desert protection plan in 1980. Of the 28 wildlife protection plans, it required, nine were late and three still have not been developed, the GAO report said. In addition, 36 of 37 required habitat protection plans have not been developed. "Even when plans have been developed they have not been effectively implemented," the GAO report stated. Between 1982 and 1988, wildlife funding was less than half of what the plans were estimated to cost, the report said. Also, the bureau has not provided sufficient staff resources. The report said that under current staffing levels, each bureau biologist is responsible for wildlife-related work on an average of 1.5 million acres. However, the GAO said funding and staff problems are not fully to blame. "Even if more funds were made available, however, BLM has not demonstrated the willingness to take actions necessary to protect wildlife interests." the GAO report stated. Insufficient restrictions "For example, it has permitted motorcycle races and established off-highway vehicle 'free play' areas in important desert tortoise habitat, has allowed livestock grazing that is harmful to various species, and has frequently not placed sufficient restrictions on mining operations to reduce adverse effects on wildlife," according to the report. The report said the desert tortoise population has decreased 50 percent since 1979. The GAO called for a "speedy completion" of the wildlife protection plans and "an institutional commitment to focus more on the long-term health of the land than on the immediate needs of special interest groups." |