Off-Road Vehicles: a Biologist’s Perspective

by Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

Educational Bulletin #09-3

A publication of the Desert Protective Council www.dpcinc.org

Editor’s note: In this season in which US Senator Dianne Feinsteinhas introduced the Caliornia Desert Protection Act o 2010, it’s in-structive to look at the history o the bill. The current bill builds onthe protections o the Caliornia Desert Protection Act o 1994, whichitsel was an amended version o an unsuccessul bill in 1987.Some things have changed since the frst CDPA was introducedin the 1980s – the percentage o desert land protected by law is sig-nifcantly larger now, or one – but many have not. Among the thingsthat remain unchanged is the damage an o-road vehicle (ORV) cando a piece o desert landscape. As conservationists gear up to discussthe ORV recreation provisions o the new CDPA, we would do well to consider the testimony o one o the all-time experts on ORV impacts on the desert, Dr. Robert C. Stebbins. Dr. Stebbins spent hiscareer studying desert wildlie. Along the way, he observed the impact the burgeoning ORV culture had on their lives. On July 23 1987, hewent beore the Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks, andForests o the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources o the USSenate to testiy about the damage done by ORVs, and to plead withthe senators to pass Senate Bill 7, the Caliornia Desert Protection Act o 1987. While the lands he reerred to were protected in part by theCDPA o 1994 and BLM ORV management policies have changed,his observations are as relevant today as they were 22 years ago.This Educational Bulletin begins with Dr. Stebbins’ spoken testi-mony beore the Subcommittee, and then continues with his preparedremarks. All text is in the public domain, taken rom the Congressional Record.

I am Robert Stebbins, UC Berkeley Emeritus Proessor o Zoology,a naturalist with over 40 years o teaching and research experiencein the Caliornia desert.I have worked or the Bureau o Land Management in Caliorniaand the academic and environmental communities during devel-opment o BLM’s management plans or the Caliornia desert.I have voiced special criticism o BLM’s program or o-roadvehicle (ORV) recreation in the desert because o the destructiveeects o ORVs on the desert environment. The Caliornia desertis one o the most ragile but diverse arid land environments onearth.Lying exposed and vulnerable are 11,000-year old creosotebushes, the oldest known living things; ossils that date rom nearlie’s beginnings; 40,000-year-old woodrat middens that tell o vegetation changes in the ormation o the desert; and the great-

The infamous Barstow to Vegas Race, now banned by the BLM in part due to the effortsof people like Robert Stebbins and the photographer, USGS geologist Howard Wilshire.

est collection o prehistoric rock art and large ground gures any-where in the world.The desert contains an immense variety o wild animal andplant lie. The growing popularity o ORV recreation is one o thegreatest threats to the desert. The desert’s antiquities, soils, andwildlie are severely impacted by vehicle wheels and recovery isextremely slow, i it can occur at all.Breakage o desert pavements and crusts promotes dust, and thespread o weeds has crowded out natural vegetation and wildlie.Millions o plants and animals have already been injured or killedoutright by ORVs in the desert, and archaeological and paleonto-logical resources destroyed.In terms o ecological damage, permitting widespread ORVrecreation in the desert is worse than allowing recreational chain-sawing in the nation’s orests. Forests potentially can recover. Thedesert probably cannot.The BLM management program or ORVs in the desert, inmy view, is inadequate. On the other hand, by establishing largeclosely-associated wilderness areas and parks, S7 will ensure pres-ervation o this ragile ecosystem.The smaller, ewer, and more isolated wilderness areas BLMhas recommended are ar less likely to protect the desert’s ecology.These wilderness areas, along with the increased presence o theNational Park System, will raise public awareness o the values o the desert.They will also help protect the desert against changes in policy with changes in political leadership. The BLM policy o cater-ing to many interests on our public lands works poorly in desertenvironments, because o the ragility and slow recovery o desertecosystems. Thereore, we should seek the desert’s highest use, theuse that is most likely to be sustainable and o greatest importanceto the American people. We should ollow the mandate o theAmerican people revealed by public opinion polls to preserve theecology and wildlie o the desert.In the ace o our growing numbers, wild lands are becomingour nation’s greatest treasure. From this perspective, the CaliorniaDesert Protection Act cannot be considered overzealous, I urgethis committee to pass this bill.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Stebbins follows.]

The Importance of the California Desert ProtectionAct of 1987 to the Future of the California Desert

I, Robert Stebbins, am Emeritus Proessor o Zoology at theUniversity o Caliornia Museum o Vertebrate Zoology. TheMuseum is a research and teaching institution with over 75 yearso study devoted especially to the wild vertebrate animal lie o Caliornia, including that o the Caliornia desert. I have had 60 years o personal experience in the desert; during the last 40 years(as a member o the museum), I have engaged in biological teach-ing and research in the desert. I have taught classes and supervisedgraduate studies there, and have written several books and many scientic papers on the desert’s animal lie.From 1973 to 1980, during the development o the Bureau o Land Management’s Plan or the Caliornia Desert, I acted as aliaison or “communicator” between the scientic, educational,and environmentally oriented community and BLM. O specialconcern to these educators were the BLM’s plans or o-road(ORV) recreation. Since publication o The Caliornia DesertConservation Area Plan (1980), I have reviewed all Plan amend-ments to date.From the moment the BLM started planning or ORV use inthe desert, many people in the scientic community and the mu-seum in particular have expressed grave concern over the environ-mental damage wrought by this orm o recreation. The scienticcommunity has insisted that vehicles must be conned to desertroads (o which there are over 30,000 miles–a distance greaterthan the circumerence o the earth), and that ORV play must berestricted to clearly delimited open areas. For a variety o reasons,which I cannot go into here, the recommendations have not beenimplemented. BLM allows ORVs to (1) travel widely over the des-ert on trails (which multiply and widen); (2) conduct special ORVevents along trails without a permit (i the group has less than 50persons); (3) park 300 eet on either side o roads and trails, and(4) use most desert washes (places o great biological diversity).

ORV damage to the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area.Photo by Terry Weiner.

“Permitting widespread ORV recreationin the desert is worse than allowing recreational chain-sawing in the nation’sforests. Forests potentially can recover.The desert probably cannot.”

Such prescriptions or ORV use have proven to be impossible tocontrol adequately.“Legitimate” (BLM-approved) and illegitimate (unsanctionedby BLM) ORV activity has now seriously damaged the naturalecology o hundreds o thousands o acres o the western andsouthern desert. Many o the more seriously impacted areas may never recover.In addition to the ecological damage wrought by ORVs, theirindiscriminate use suppresses other traditional uses that are ori-ented not toward mechanized play, but toward enjoyment o thedesert’s solitude, scenery, and wildlie.ORV intrusions have been documented as the greatest distur-bance encountered by the many researchers and teachers using thedesert.ORVs cause damage to arid lands in many ways. They disruptthe widespread crusts and rock pavements that resist wind andwater erosion, thus accelerating erosion. They contribute greatly to dust problems. Dust mutes the desert’s vistas, pollutes the airand causes property damage and health problems. ORVs spreadweeds such as the Russian thistle (

Salsola

) ar into the desert. Thisplant crowds out other vegetation and can completely change theecology o heavily inested areas. Russian thistle has been oundgrowing in single motorcycle tracks. F. R. Fosberg, an interna-tional authority on weeds, warned BLM that, “Unless you (BLM)are in avor o changing the character o the vegetation, and hencethe whole landscape o the desert areas under BLM jurisdiction,in my considered opinion as a botanist and ecologist, you mustlimit vehicular trac to established roads and open the desert ar-eas only to hiking and other less ecologically destructive orms o recreation.”Existing plant and animal lie is rapidly destroyed in areaso heavy ORV use through direct impact o vehicle wheels andthrough soil compaction and loss. Many small desert animals– mice, reptiles, and invertebrates – are killed or maimed in theirburrows where they oten lie within a ew inches o the suraceduring much o the day. Because o the mobility o ORVs, suchdestruction can occur very rapidly and over a wide area. A singlemotorcycle traveling 20 miles impacts about an acre o groundsurace; a our-wheel-drive vehicle does so in about six miles o travel.There are ew arid lands in the world that can match theCaliornia desert in physical and biological diversity, accessibility,and scientic and educational resources. Contrary to the views o the uninormed, the desert is exceedingly rich in wildlie. Thereare some 1200 species o higher plants, over 100 o which are en-demic to the area; about 350 species o vertebrates; and thousandso invertebrates, including airy shrimps o the playas and fight-less insects o the dunes.

January 2003: ORVs line up before the start at the Annual Truckhaven Challenge at the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area.Photo by Tom Budlong.

“The California desert is secondonly to the Galapagos Islands in what it can teach us about evolution.”