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Evolution and the Oceano Dunes

July 2, 2026

OPINION by GARY KIRKLAND

I read that a new group has teamed up with a Chumash tribe to sue the state to close the Oceano Dunes to off-road vehicles. This group is claiming they are saving endangered species and biodiversity.

When I took biology classes in college, the professors taught us evolution as major tenet of the biological sciences. One primary precept of evolution is “survival of the fit.”

Species not fit for the environment either adapts or becomes extinct. The fossil evidence shows that over 99% of all species that have ever lived on earth are extinct.

When one looks for biodiversity, one should study Antarctica. People have found fossils of palm trees and dinosaurs. Antarctica used to be on the equator according to plate tectonic theory.

Humans are part of nature. The evidence is overwhelming. What humans do is natural. Again, the evidence is overwhelming. Snowy plovers fly for short distances and lay their eggs on the sand at the beach.

If an off-road vehicle wipes out a snowy plover that is evolution at work. Snowy plovers should become extinct if they cannot adapt to a vehicle.

People should not waste valuable resources on species that have little chance of survival. Life is just fine without biodiversity.

 


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19 Comments

My main concern is that the dunes feel secure in their chosen gender.


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Mr. Kirkland has summarize the position of off-road advocates quite succinctly, f**k the environment, no compromises. Dune preservationists must not compromise either. There are hundreds of square miles of abandoned oilfields around Bakersfield that the rednecks are welcome to tear up with their vehicles.


0

For those who flunked biology class, the phrase is “survival of the fittest.”


The rest of this article is gibberish, presented as clever but clearly obtuse.


14

You know exactly what he meant – no need to be nit picky and pedantic. Snark and name calling won’t win a contest of ideas, nor will stating something is “clearly” something when it isn’t.


I’d like to see an intelligently made case for closing the last tiny bastion of beach off-road FUN in California, but remain disappointed so far. Probably because there simply isn’t one.


-3

Had to look to make sure it wasn’t April 1st. The next question is did Kirkland pass the biology class.


14

Based on his content here, I expect Mr. Kirkland got good marks. Can you point to anything of significance that he got wrong?


-9

Evolution explains natural selection over millions of years.

Not shitty actions by humans who feel like destroying habitat based on a hobby without regard to conservation.

So yeah, his basic idea of evolution is wrong.


8

Nah it ain’t. Plovers that choose to, or serendipitously nest in areas avoiding off-road traffic (a TINY chunk of the CA coast) have higher survival rates. Young that mimic this behavior also do, and this advantage adds up over time. So evolutionary advantage is a long term AND short term proposition – a behavioral as well as a physical process.


And every extant species today WILL be extinct someday, and life WILL go on – here or elsewhere. But as far as I know, only humans whine about “endangered” as a weapon to keep other humans from doing stuff they don’t want em doing simply because the whiners find it annoying. Many, many concessions have been made over the decades to appease the ecowhiners. It hasn’t worked, so I pretty much resist them now…


-3

So true! I can’t believe how some of us decided that we ‘ humans’ are somehow a invading alien force that are here to wreck everything .

We were ‘ born’ into this world – just like everything else. And someday we will return.

– just like everything else.

The anti- human stuff vibes like it came in the form of a sales pitch by those who seek power and control. Maybe they think they are Earth’s HOA board!

Good luck with that.


3

Spot on man; n those that seek to artificially extend the run of one species at the time expense of other species are working against nature much more than those of us that just go about their lives. But they just can’t see that, nor do they seem to comprehend just how harsh and cruel nature usually is. Can you imagine being a predator, where every meal is a desperate fight to the death!


-3

Sounds like you would have fit in with the people who came up with disease filled blankets and reservations to relocate the native Americans. They will be dead soon enough so sho cares. I am fairly certain if people listened they would hear them complaining.


Who cares , right?


2

Aw man! I am SO sorry if I hurt your feelings! Here! Have this blanket – it’ll make you feel better!!


-8

I live near the dunes. The sand blows. The tide ebbs and flows. Wildlife thrives, as it always has. Tar oil seeps up (the Chumash called it “pismo” and used it to seal their watercraft). Oh, and to my knowledge, they didn’t drive off-road vehicles and yet the Nipomo Mesa still rose in hight over millions of years.


Let people enjoy it all, as they will for certain this glorious fourth of July weekend!


The plover will be just fine.


17

I’m not even going to address his position because the logic is just so…awful. First he fails to mention that another primary piece of an evolutionary puzzle is time. Not generally measured in centuries but in thousands and tens of thousands and millions of years.


Second is his assertion that because humans are a part of nature, anything we do is therefore natural. Its just idiotic. Leave nature alone and yeah, you might get a human. But your not going to get an iPhone, a laptop, a local newspaper, labubu, Dubai pistachio chocolate bullshit, whatever.


If you’re going to argue that we should let a species go extinct due to human behavior, I’d certainly hope you’d be able to make a better argument than Mr. Kirkland. It also makes me question the editorial “standards” of CCN. Like, you guys read this logically deficient drivel and really went, “yeah, the Five Cities community is really going to benefit from hearing about how Antarctica used to be on the equator so f*** the birds.”


6

While I agree that Gary’s piece might be a bit taunting and inviting of a negative response, you might want take time to consider the points you argue: Evolutionary and extinction events can happen over long … as well a short time periods.

There is no “ rule” there, right?

Secondly- That humans and ‘ human creations’ are somehow outside of the Natural World – is purely conceptual. The obvious truth is that everything is “ happening’ in the same Unified Field – whether it is a bee hive or a stop sign. Terms like natural or unnatural are arbitrary separations – mental and verbal constructs only .

Thirdly , you can disagree with an editorial like this one, but I don’t see the point in attacking the publisher. A diversity of perspectives allows us an opportunity to check our own beliefs – maybe change them or mount a counter-argument. It’s all good.

I think you’d agree – nobody owns ‘ the truth’ and I haven’t met anybody- myself included, who gets it right all the time.


10

Actually, it is far easier for vehicle operators to adapt to Snowy Plovers than Plovers adapt to vehicles. The issue of Oceano Dunes is not either-or. Both wildlife and vehicle access can be accommodated as it has been for decades with proper resource management. The beach area available to OHV access at Oceano Dunes represents a miniscule percentage of California’s 1100-mile coastline (not including shoreline of offshore islands). Careful use and management can continue to provide traditional limited access for motorized vehicles while simultaneously protecting species diversity and resilience in the shoreline/dunes ecosystem. Life on Planet Earth is far better with biodiversity.


9

I have houses in Grover Beach and Morro Bay. I love driving my Jeep Gladiator on the Oceano dunes and oppose shutting down that longtime use. I also love “running” (jogging at about the same speed as that lady in the walker) on the beach in North Morro Bay, surrounded by teaming wildlife, and am glad i have to leave the Jeep parked in the lot. Despite my strong bias against regulation as a libertarian conservative, i think we do best with political diversity.


15

Umm…I’m no fan environmentalists, nor fake Indians using the name of a tribe he has zero connection to, in the name of activism.


But, Gary seems to have had some strange colored Koolaid laced with his favorite distilled spirits. Because, that’s NOT how evolution works.


It’s been about 30 million years since the Antarctic supported any Flora (back when there was a huge amount of Co2 in the atmosphere). It’s been less than 150 years since recreational use of the Pismo dunes began.


Also, an entire ecosystem, usually combined with extreme weather and geologic changes, must be altered for any plant or animal to begin to adapt. Less than 1600 acres, out of 22,700 of dunes, is designated for recreational off road use, leaving well over 20,000 acres to support the Plover. Also, the Snowy Plover ranges from Oregon, to Chile. So, yeah, not really in any danger of extermination by Bob riding his quad.


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