State panel votes to end off-roading at Oceano Dunes
>> The California Coastal Commission has voted to end off-highway vehicle use at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area within three years, a decision that follows decades of debate over environmental and cultural impacts.
The 10-0 vote Thursday calls for the prohibition to take effect by 2024 at Oceano Dunes, the only California state park that allows recreational driving on the beach and in dunes.
The California Department of Parks and Recreation did not immediately say how it would respond to the decision.
The central coast park covers 3,500 acres along 8 miles of shoreline and inland for about 2 miles near the communities of Oceano and Grover Beach in
southern San Luis Obispo County.
Users primarily come to drive cars, trucks and offhighway vehicles on the beach and in the dunes, although some visitors come for beach day use, birdwatching, horseback riding, fishing and hiking, according to the commission.
The vote followed commission findings that driving degraded dune habitats, harmed native species, caused air quality and public health issues, and made other uses such as swimming and walking difficult.
The decision was long overdue, said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the nonprofit Center for
Biological Diversity, which sued the California Department of Parks and Recreation over off-roading harm to snowy plovers, a tiny shorebird that nests in depressions in sand.
“This reprieve for endangered wildlife and coastal dunes habitat will allow the non-motorized public to enjoy our beach and dunes as well as reduce greenhouse gases and dust pollution,” Miller said in a statement.
Oceano Dunes is one of nine vehicular recreation areas in the 280-unit state parks system.
The vote was a bitter blow to off-roading, which is a lifestyle, industry and part of the economy.
The Tribune of San Luis Obispo reported that owners of all-terrain vehicle rental shops had said their business will not survive closure of the dunes to offhighway vehicles.