Part of Anza-Borrego Will Close to Vehicles in Move to Help Bird

An unusually lush and pristine area of the Anza-Borrego Desert, where as much as half the state’s population of least Bell’s vireos live, will be off limits to all vehicles beginning Saturday, state Department of Parks and Recreation officials said.

The decision means that four-wheel-drive vehicles will be barred from a road that travels directly through the pristine area, a stream habitat known as Lower Willows. The road is the lone access to Coyote Canyon, a popular area for off-road enthusiasts, and they are unhappy about the move, said Lynn Brown, a member of the San Diego Off-Road Coalition.

Both Coyote Canyon and Lower Willows, just north of Borrego Springs and Henderson Canyon, will remain open to hikers and horseback riders until June 16, and then the entire Coyote Canyon and creek habitat will be closed to everyone through Sept. 15.

The stream is a vital source of water in the scorching summer months for the bighorn sheep that flourish in nearby mountains, said Kirk Wallace, Parks and Recreation Department deputy regional director. The area has been closed to people each summer since 1975.

Although Wallace said the state plans to create an alternate route to Coyote Canyon that would avoid the willow and moist thicket area, where as many as 100 breeding pairs of the endangered vireo reside, Brown and other off-roaders view the decision as yet another encroachment on their right to travel through pretty backcountry.

“We’re mad,” Brown said. “Lower Willows is beautiful, and people go there to enjoy the scenery, so they travel at a very slow rate of speed.” He estimates that people travel no more than 5 m.p.h. through the area.

“We’re not causing any damage. They don’t have the environmental documentation to back up their decision,” Brown said.

But Wallace said that state is primarily concerned with four-wheel-drive vehicles disturbing the willows and brush while the endangered birds are breeding from the end of March until June, when the young birds are mature enough to leave their nests. The state hopes to have an alternate road open that bypasses the creek sometime in the winter.

The least Bell’s vireo is on the state Endangered Species List and under consideration for the federal list.

“We are walking a tightrope,” Wallace said. “We came to the realization that there is an endangered bird to protect, but the only way to see the desert is to go there and drive through it. However, this is a state park, not a recreation area.”

The Lower Willows area that will be off limits to vehicles constitutes about an eight-mile strip of the entire 600,000-acre state park, Wallace said.

Park rangers began noticing several years ago that the noise and vibration from vehicles traveling through the creek disturbed the nests and in some cases knocked them over. Public hearings were held, and the state decided earlier this month to close the road.

“We’re attempting to do this as judiciously as possible,” Wallace said. “We couldn’t make the bypass now because the bulldozers would disturb the birds’ nesting, too.”

Meanwhile, Brown said at least four off-road groups will go ahead with plans to visit the area Sunday, despite warnings that the area is off limits. Ken Smith, chief ranger for the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, said the road through Lower Willows will be closed by a gate and deputy rangers will direct people to park their cars and walk into the area.

“We certainly have more people using the area,” Wallace said. “We have to think of ways to lessen the damage and impact on the environment.”