{"id":578544,"date":"2026-04-11T20:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/578544\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:46:09","slug":"off-roading-to-be-suspended-at-the-oceano-dunes-court-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/578544\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-roading to be suspended at the Oceano Dunes, court said"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off-roading will be temporarily suspended at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area<\/a> starting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> issues the park an incidental take permit for snowy plovers, a protected shorebird.<\/p>\n

The judge said that 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.<\/p>\n

The Endangered Species Act prohibits unintentional harm known as \u201cincidental take\u201d of protected animals.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. But, as of Friday, State Parks hadn\u2019t finished the plan or acquired a permit for the incidental take of the protected shorebird.<\/p>\n

Because of this ruling, State Parks can\u2019t allow off-roading on the dunes until it acquires the permit.<\/p>\n

\"A A snowy plover walks along the water line at the Oceano Dunes. Jeff Miller Center for Biological Diversity Off-roading suspended at the Oceano Dunes<\/p>\n

The Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area will close to camping and off-highway vehicle use south of Arroyo Grande Creek starting on Tuesday, State Parks spokesperson Jorge Moreno said.<\/p>\n

The park will cancel all camping reservations from Tuesday until May 22 and issue refunds to impacted campers, he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, street-legal vehicles will be allowed to drive on the beach south of the creek. State Parks plans to issue 1,000 day-use passes to the Pismo Street beach area, but this number could be adjusted, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a temporary measure expected to remain in place until the Habitat Conservation Plan is completed and an incidental take permit is issued,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Habitat Conservation Plan should be completed by the end of May, and the permit should follow, Moreno said.<\/p>\n

State Parks disagreed with the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cState Parks operates one of the most successful western snowy plover conservation programs on the West Coast at Oceano Dunes SVRA,\u201d the agency said in a statement. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Off-highway Off-highway vehicles are parked south of mile marker 8 at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in an area that was previously fenced off to protect western snowy plover and California least tern habitat. David Middlecamp dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com <\/p>\n

Friends of the Oceano Dunes<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

Nonprofit president Jim Suty called the situation \u201cextremely frustrating\u201d in a video posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriends 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\u2019re frustrated just like you are,\u201d he said in the video.<\/p>\n

But, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people working at Oceano, the people at the kiosk \u2014 they have nothing to do with this. The rangers, they have nothing to do with this. So don\u2019t vent your frustration to them,\u201d Suty said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Suty said the snowy plover population is doing well at the Oceano Dunes \u2014 and the birds can coexist with off-roading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environmentalists like to spin it that we\u2019re out there crushing them and running them all over and destroying them all, and that\u2019s just not what the data suggests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Center for Biological Diversity<\/a> celebrated the ruling. The center filed a lawsuit in 2020 that resulted in this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s ruling makes it clear that off-roading in snowy plover habitat violates the Endangered Species Act and must stop,\u201d Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney Zeynep Graves said in a press release. \u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from San Luis Obispo Tribune<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Stephanie Zappelli<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tribune<\/p>\n

Stephanie Zappelli is the environment and immigration reporter for The Tribune. Born and raised in San Diego, they graduated from Cal Poly with a journalism degree. When not writing, they enjoy playing guitar, reading and exploring the outdoors.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off-roading will be temporarily suspended at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area starting on Tuesday. U.S. District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-578544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}