Coastal Commission staff, in a 78-page report<\/a>, said motorized vehicles threaten both sensitive vegetation and critical habitat for the federally threatened<\/a> western snowy plover, a small, white-bellied shorebird. <\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia\u2019s dune habitats are particularly rare and important, so where driving could damage these sensitive areas, the Coastal Act requires that we protect them,\u201d commission spokesman Joshua Smith said in a statement to The Times. <\/p>\n However, he said, the agency does not \u201chave a one-size-fits-all policy on driving on the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n But Humboldt County residents and officials decry the move as just the latest example of overregulation and government overreach in liberal California \u2014 and of the disconnect between its rural and urban places. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat you see in Southern California isn\u2019t what we see up here,\u201d resident Joey Sancho told the Coastal Commission during its meeting in Eureka this month. \u201cThe beaches aren\u2019t overly populated. They\u2019re not being torn up by ATVs and so forth. But yet, [it\u2019s] just one more thing just to take away from us up here in the North Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n Humboldt County wants to make improvements to Centerville Road.<\/p>\n (Google street view)<\/p>\n Feierabend, a 36-year-old loan officer, told The Times: \u201cIt\u2019s about slowly choking out the individuals that utilize the beach and gaining control under the ruse, or the guise, of conservation.\u201d <\/p>\n The discord in Humboldt County comes as the Trump administration is taking aim at what it calls \u201cenvironmental extremism<\/a>\u201d in California, with federal officials trying \u2014 largely over state objections \u2014 to open the treasured coastline to more offshore oil drilling,<\/a> expanded rocket launches<\/a> and floating nuclear reactors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amid this wider debate, beach driving has emerged as an unexpected flashpoint. <\/p>\n Last month, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton called<\/a> coastal commissioners \u201cidiots\u201d for their years-long effort to end off-road driving<\/a> at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, the only state park that allows recreational driving on the beach. <\/p>\n Cars, bikes and pedestrians share the sand at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area near Pismo Beach in February 2021.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Oceano Dunes, near Pismo Beach in San Luis Obispo County, temporarily closed to off-roaders this spring amid long-running legal battles<\/a> between recreation advocates and environmentalists<\/a> who say all-terrain vehicles are tearing through<\/a> western snowy plover habitat and sending clouds of unhealthy dust into nearby neighborhoods. <\/p>\n \u201cSurprise, the Coastal Commission are trying to shut it down<\/a> because they\u2019re joyless bureaucrats who don\u2019t want anyone to have fun,\u201d Hilton said in a social media video<\/a> as he leaned on a bright yellow dune buggy on the sand. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just about fun. This is a real economic engine for this community.\u201d <\/p>\n If elected, he said, he would create<\/a> a state \u201cOffice of Fun and Freedom.\u201d Its first task? Protecting off-roading at Oceano Dunes.<\/p>\n The campaign for Xavier Becerra, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, did not return requests for comment. <\/p>\n In Humboldt County, residents have stressed that rural Centerville Beach is nothing like Oceano Dunes, where thousands of pickup trucks, ATVs and dirt bikes may carve through the sand on a given day. <\/p>\n Centerville Beach\u2019s nearest town, Ferndale, the childhood home of celebrity chef Guy Fieri, has a population of just 1,500. Residents say the beach typically sees a handful of four-wheelers and side-by-sides \u2014 with most heading out to fish, not joy-riding. <\/p>\n \u201cCenterville is not a beach anyone can just drive on \u2014 you\u2019ve got to know what you\u2019re doing,\u201d said Shawn Griggs, a painter who surfs there most mornings. \u201cIt\u2019s a very volatile beach with coarse sand. It\u2019s steep right off the shore; the sand bars are transient.\u201d <\/p>\n A view of Centerville Beach, near where Humboldt County is looking to repair a stretch of Centerville Road. <\/p>\n (Beau Sanders \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Griggs, 57, described himself as \u201can environmentalist at heart\u201d who appreciates efforts to protect threatened species. But he doubts vehicles are doing much harm at Centerville. <\/p>\n \u201cWith the amount of sand that is pushed off that beach every year and moved around, it\u2019s hard for me to imagine that beach would be a super stable beach for the snowy plover,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n The Coastal Commission staff report says the area is \u201cmoderately suitable for plovers,\u201d but that \u201cheavy human use\u201d has degraded the habitat. <\/p>\n In Humboldt County, driving is allowed on a handful of county-maintained beaches, as well as portions of the Samoa Dunes Recreation Area, which is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. <\/p>\n Feierabend, who grew up next to Centerville Beach, said vehicles are not destroying the beach \u2014 the ocean is. <\/p>\n \u201cNo one\u2019s going too fast,\u201d he told the Coastal Commission<\/a>. \u201cNo one\u2019s driving through dunes. In fact, there are no dunes.\u201d <\/p>\n Centerville Beach, home to some of the state\u2019s fastest-eroding cliffs<\/a>, has been shrinking<\/a> for decades. The rising<\/a> and warming sea has accelerated that process in recent years, and powerful El Ni\u00f1o-charged storms<\/a> this fall and winter could wreak further havoc on the coastline.<\/p>\n A beach parking lot that once accommodated up to 100 vehicles has already washed away. And Centerville Road \u2014 a narrow county thoroughfare that provides access to the beach, a few rural homes and the federally managed Lost Coast Headlands \u2014 is so regularly slammed by powerful storm waves that it is often covered with sand and made impassable. <\/p>\n The road is what initially brought Centerville Beach to the Coastal Commission\u2019s attention. <\/p>\n![\"Humboldt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790677689_251_.jpeg\")
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