Off-highway vehicles are parked south of mile marker 8 at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area in 2021, in an area that was previously fenced off to protect western snowy plover and California least tern habitat.
Off-highway vehicles are parked south of mile marker 8 at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area in 2021, in an area that was previously fenced off to protect western snowy plover and California least tern habitat. Credit: David Middlecamp / San Luis Obispo Tribune file photo

Off-roading will be temporarily suspended at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area starting Tuesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Anne Hwang ruled on Thursday that State Parks must halt off-highway vehicle recreation at the Oceano Dunes south of Arroyo Grande Creek until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues the park an incidental take permit for snowy plovers, a protected shorebird.

The judge said the California Department of Parks and Recreation violated the Endangered Species Act by allowing the snowy plover to be harmed by off-roading without possessing an incidental take permit.

The Endangered Species Act prohibits unintentional harm known as “incidental take” of protected animals. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated certain parts of the Oceano Dunes as critical habitat for the snowy plover, including some areas where off-roading is authorized.

By 2002, State Parks started the process for creating a Habitat Conservation Plan under the Endangered Species Act to allow for the incidental take of snowy plovers, the ruling said.

However, as of Friday, State Parks hadn’t finished the plan or acquired a permit for the incidental take of the protected shorebird. Because of this ruling, State Parks can’t allow off-roading on the dunes until it acquires the permit.

The area will close to camping and off-highway vehicle use south of Arroyo Grande Creek starting on Tuesday, State Parks spokesman Jorge Moreno said.

The park will cancel all camping reservations from Tuesday until May 22 and issue refunds to affected campers, he said.

Street-legal vehicles will not be allowed to drive on the beach south of the creek, either. State Parks plans to issue 1,000 day-use passes to the Pismo Street beach area, but that number could be adjusted, he said.

“This is a temporary measure expected to remain in place until the Habitat Conservation Plan is completed and an incidental take permit is issued,” he said in a statement, adding that the plan should be completed by the end of May, and the permit should follow.

A snowy plover walks along the water line at Oceano Dunes.
A snowy plover walks along the water line at the Oceano Dunes. Credit: Courtesy photo

State Parks disagreed with the ruling.

“State Parks operates one of the most successful western snowy plover conservation programs on the West Coast at Oceano Dunes SVRA,” the agency said in a statement. “This lawsuit does nothing to improve the program and will result in thousands of families losing their camping reservations and coastal recreational access, while cutting operational revenue that funds environmental conservation. We are reviewing our options to continue to effectively maintain both important environmental protections and coastal access for all Californians.”

Through its management program, State Parks met its population goal of 180 breeding adult snowy plovers at the Oceano Dunes for the past 10 years, contributing to the recovery of the species, Moreno said.

Friends of Oceano Dunes, a nonprofit organization created to advocate for off-roading at the dunes, was not thrilled to hear that off-roading was suspended at the park.

Nonprofit president Jim Suty called the situation “extremely frustrating” in a video posted on Facebook. “Friends has a long record of encouraging State Parks to get the Habitat Conservation Plan done, both in writing as well as in our discussions at the Off-Highway Vehicle Commission. So, we’re frustrated just like you are,” he said in the video.

However, he said the responsibility to complete the report lies with State Parks leaders in Sacramento, not with park rangers managing the day-to-day affairs at the park.

“The people working at Oceano, the people at the kiosk — they have nothing to do with this. The rangers, they have nothing to do with this. So don’t vent your frustration to them,” Suty said.

Additionally, Suty said the snowy plover population is doing well at the Oceano Dunes — and the birds can coexist with off-roading.

“The environmentalists like to spin it that we’re out there crushing them and running them all over and destroying them all, and that’s just not what the data suggests,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Center for Biological Diversity celebrated the ruling. The center filed a lawsuit in 2020 that resulted in this case.

“The court’s ruling makes it clear that off-roading in snowy plover habitat violates the Endangered Species Act and must stop,” Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney Zeynep Graves said in a press release. “For decades, state officials have let off-road vehicles tear through protected habitat at Oceano Dunes, injuring and killing snowy plovers, harassing roosting flocks and degrading their habitat. These threatened shorebirds will be safer and stand a better chance at survival thanks to this ruling.”