Desert Cahuilla                     Read Entire Report

Of Quads & Bulldozers
INCURSIONS & ASSAULTS

It’s a challenge to patrol and police Anza-Borrego Desert State Park’s 600 mile boundary, and it’s been a goal of the Foundation to pursue parcels that would straighten and clarify irregular borders – and deter destructive incursions.

2007, sadly, was a year of run-amok quads and earth-flattening bulldozers. We regret that we must report the following in an otherwise upbeat Desert Update.
To the south of Borrego Valley, a developer had 2.6 miles of Park and Foundation land flagged and then bulldozed as a cross-country quad course. To the north, adjoining a ranch, 5.8 miles of parkland were bulldozed to create a spiral raceway.

Dumb? Arrogant? Malicious? It’s hard to say, with the only certainty that the first land owner was quick to blame an out-of-control ‘dozer driver; the second blames parties unknown.

In State Park’s contested Desert Cahuilla lands, ORV mayhem continued to shred vegetation, erode a fragile landscape, and most recently, “cut donuts” in a Native American site gifted to the Park by The Archaeological Conservancy. All the while, State Parks in Sacramento dragged its feet on initiating a CEQA environmental review of the area.

Regretably, there’s more. Sempra Energy / SDG&E’s proposed Sunrise Powerlink has its heavy equipment at the ready to install an east-west procession of enormous transmission towers through the heart of the Park. State hearings and reviews of this continue. What will be determined is unclear.

Yet, hope remains…

That ORV enthusiasts play by the rules.

That State Parks in Sacramento honors its commitment to conservation. And thinks better of adding tens of thousands of tons of churned-up particulate matter to the polluted air of Imperial County – with its already staggering incidence of lung disease among children and the elderly.

That an alternate route will be chosen for the Sunrise Powerlink. Or that, better yet – with local generation and solar technology – San Diego satisfies its hunger for power in its own backyard.

The idea and ideal that “Parks are Forever” could yet prevail.

Note: From the air and on the ground, the Foundation continues to document the ongoing destruction of the Desert Cahuilla lands. And we are indebted to our Vice President for Environmental Affairs Diana Lindsay. Her pursuit of the Cahuilla and Powerlink issues is an inspiration.

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