The Honorable Gale A. Norton
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20240

Dear Secretary Norton:

As you know, President Bush has advocated for a fair and balanced approach to the protection of our environment, and we commend your leadership toward this goal. Under the Clinton Administration, federal laws, rules and regulations were routinely used as tools to restrict access to, and multiple use of, public lands. Although progress has been made to correct past wrongs, we believe more action is necessary.

Policies and management plans being promulgated by federal agencies continue to limit public access to public lands and fly in the face of sound science that would support the opposite. Such examples are evident in the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) 10 million acre California Desert District, where five new plans are being developed for this popular public recreation area. Millions of taxpayer dollars are financing these proposals which restrict public access to public lands in the name of protecting the environment.

As you know, a primary environmental driving force behind the new California Desert Management Plans is the Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan (DTRP). The DTRP was prepared 8 years ago with minimal scientific evidence and was scheduled to be reviewed 3 to 5 years ago. Biologists report that the tortoise is infected with an upper respiratory disease that is causing the major impact on the species. The second major impact is reported to be raven predation. No amount of closure to public use will correct these problems. Recently, the BLM's California Desert District Advisory Council (DAC) voted to recommend that the BLM delay implementation of its new desert management plans until the DTRP was updated - a recommendation that has heretofore been disregarded. To implement plans that, according to the BLMŐs own biologists, are based on inaccurate and insufficient data, is wholly inappropriate. Further, the final Northern and Eastern Colorado Plan/EIS and the final Northern and Eastern Mojave Planning Effort Plan/EIS with their multitude of closure provisions, have been released without regard for the logical DAC recommendation. It is anticipated that the other BLM desert plans will follow suit. This is totally unacceptable. Please work to update the DTRP and report back to us on your progress.

We are also concerned that the Peirson's Milk Vetch (PMV) has been identified as the reason for closing almost 50,000 acres of the most popular off-road recreation area in the country. In a pro- active effort to develop a solution, several organizations engaged a respected biological firm to study the status of the PMV that, supposedly, grows only in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA) in Southern California. That study showed the PMV to be abundant and reproducing adequately, thus, should not be listed as endangered. We are concerned that the Carlsbad Fish arid Wildlife Service (FWS) office may ignore this evidence and recommend a Jeopardy Opinion for the new ISDRA management plan. Additionally, we are concerned about the absence of a response to a petition by multiple use advocates to remove the PMV from the Endangered Species List (ESL). Such inaction further demonstrates that the FWS has a lack of concern for a balanced approach to land use issues. Because their science-based solutions are not being heard by federal agencies, public land users have been forced to turn to litigation to force a ruling on the PMV.

Also in process is a new effort to list the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard (FTHL) that lives in the Southern California Desert. Attempts to list this lizard in the past failed because there was no evidence to show that it was threatened. No new studies have been performed to change that position. Several recreation groups recently hired a qualified herpetologist to review all of the information available on the FTHL and prepared a report. This report, submitted to FWS during the open comment period, documents the fact that there is no scientific evidence to support the listing of the FTHL.

Issues surrounding both of these management plans have left us with some unanswered questions. Please provide us with your timely answers to the following: