Oceano Dunes: Reckoning with neglect, apathy, and deceit

April 30, 2025

OPINION by WILL HARRIS

We can’t do anything. We don’t have any real power. The commission has no teeth.

Such complaints of designed impotency are not uncommon from members of the state’s Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission. Ostensibly, the commission is to function as an oversight board for issues related to California State Parks and off-highway vehicle recreation because State Parks manages nine State Vehicular Recreation Areas, including Oceano Dunes, and administers gasoline-tax-funded grants to assist with sustainable, responsible OHV recreation in the state.

In practice, the commission serves little more than a receiving body that meets quarterly to accept what State Parks chooses to offer and to accept input from the public, be it in written form or in comments limited to three minutes.

But its nine members are afforded microphones, and their meetings become part of the public record, preserved on video. And because they are appointed—either by the governor or the state legislature—the commissioners are granted a certain ambassador status, which provides them a modest platform to speak on broad issues related to access, recreation, land management, and public expenditures.

So when the commission met in West Sacramento on April 2, after it had received information that demonstrates State Parks’s broad mismanagement of Oceano Dunes, one might think the commissioners would leverage the modest pulpit they have to press State Parks for answers. Instead, to the relief of State Parks executives, the commission allowed its focus to be diverted to the topic of cordiality.

In comments submitted to the commission for its meeting, former commissioner Ted Cabral stated that “due to the personal nature” of “advocacy messaging” regarding Oceano Dunes, “several women in leadership roles within California State Parks have shared concerns about their safety and well-being.”

He then stressed the importance of “civil discourse…that prioritizes mutual respect, safety, and productive collaboration,” and asked the commission to reaffirm such goals. The commissioners of course obliged because who would argue against something so laudable, particularly when “several women…shared concerns…about their safety and well-being?” Those in attendance joined in, sincerely concurring three minutes at a time.

But Cabral’s comments were vague. No names were given, no quotes provided, though he did mention Oceano Dunes. The net effect at the meeting was the raising of a false flag such that all news related to the park was broad brushed into a nebulous, general accusation of misogynistic-tinged hostility towards public employees.

This left unexamined a scathing critique of State Parks executives, two of whom happen to be women, that is supported by public records and witness accounts. Additionally, State Parks officials were not pressed as to why a significant legal victory over the California Coastal Commission was achieved by enthusiasts of the Oceano Dunes and not State Parks.

So whether intentional or not, Cabral’s appeal for civil discourse, freighted with allegation, served to prevent what should have been an open, public discussion regarding demonstrable failings of State Parks representatives. It also belies his own pugilistic approach to Oceano Dunes when on the commission.

I have been to enough commission meetings to know that Oceano Dunes related issues have dominated the commission‘s time and attention for years. And I know many of the regulars attending these meetings are torn. They see what has happened at Oceano Dunes, how State Parks executives needlessly capitulate to the shifting accusations of the local San Luis Obispo County air district, and they shake their heads in disgust.

Yet, at the same time, the issues and recreation areas these folks care about—OHV safety education, Carnegie, the Rubicon Trail, Clear Creek, Glamis, increased trail closures on federal land, etc.—do not get the attention they feel is necessary to affect desired recognition and/or change. Over time, they have grown resentful. For them, every minute the commission discusses Oceano Dunes is a minute given at the expense of their own cause. That resentment is understandable.

But successful resolution of their issues and concerns assumes these OHV stakeholders have an honest broker in State Parks. The Oceano Dunes saga, with State Parks’s acquiescence and duplicity at every turn, demonstrates that they do not. It is emblematic of a root problem: State Parks as represented by its current management in Sacramento is not a reliable partner. Let me count the ways.

1. Neglect. The State Parks staff position of local leadership at Oceano Dunes, the District Superintendent, has remained vacant for more than eight years. This negligence leaves both the park staff and the community adrift. It is a message that says neither are a priority. Excuses provided by State Parks Director Armando Quintero and Liz McGuirk, the Chief Deputy Director, that it is difficult to find a person with the right skill set, etc., ring hollow. Vacancies for far more complex jobs are filled everyday. Leaving this local leadership post open for nearly a decade is inexcusable.
2. Apathy. In 2021, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to eliminate OHV recreation at Oceano Dunes yet State Parks took no legal action in defense of the park. Thankfully, enthusiasts for the park—the Friends of Oceano Dunes and the American Sand Association—stepped up by filing suit against the Coastal Commission. The park enthusiasts prevailed: The Coastal Commission exceeded its authority. Had the Coastal Commission’s action been left unchallenged, the broader ramifications of their vote, the precedent set, would have impacted parks and camping areas up and down the coast. State Parks executives knew this yet chose to stay on the sidelines.
3. Deceit. Documents obtained from a public records request reveal that State Parks intentionally suppressed published scientific findings that would have benefited Oceano Dunes. The local air district has claimed since 2010 that airborne particulate matter (PM10) measured at the Nipomo Mesa, an area two miles east of Oceano Dunes, is dust from dunes disturbed by OHV recreation. An investigation by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography showed that only 14% of the Mesa PM10 consists of dust. The findings refute the air district’s claim that OHV recreation at Oceano Dunes is the cause of particulate pollution on the Mesa. Yet rather than leverage the findings to exonerate Oceano Dunes, State Parks undertook a concerted effort to avoid reference to the Scripps work. And worse, knowing that the Scripps findings were bolstered by publication in an esteemed scientific journal, State Parks chose to suppress news of the publication.

Neglect, Apathy, Deceit. These traits are not confined to the shifting, shrinking boundaries of the OHV riding area at Oceano Dunes. They are within our State Parks system, a reflection of its current Sacramento-based management. If these traits are not confronted openly and ultimately resolved, any stakeholder seeking collaboration and partnership with State Parks is undertaking a fool’s errand.

Will Harris is a geologist. From 2005 to 2022, California State Parks contracted Harris to provide geological consulting services and serve as subject matter expert regarding geological processes. Most of Harris’s work for State Parks regarded Oceano Dunes.