Off-road News

California: A federal judge ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to close off-highway vehicle (OHV) access to more than half a million acres of California desert that is home to a desert tortoise protected under the Endangered Species Act. The ban covers large portions of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts in eastern San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties east of the Salton Sea and Joshua Tree National Park, including a number of washes popular with off-roaders. (The ban does not affect the Algodones Dunes in Imperial County, where off-roaders and conservationists reached a separate, interim settlement banning access to about 80,000 acres and allowing off-road use of another 80,000 acres.) The ban took effect immediately and will remain in effect until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rewrites habitat protection plans for the area. The SAN joined with OHV groups in expressing disappointment in the decision, which adds more acreage to the millions already closed to OHV access across the western United States. The SAN is also concerned that it will be difficult for the BLM to post signs to distinguish between legal and illegal OHV access areas.

 Oregon: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a draft plan to close more than 90,000 acres to off-road-vehicle users in central Oregon, including a section called the Badlands that is subject to wilderness designation. The closure would prohibit all motorized vehicles on the last 10 miles of routes currently still open within the 32,000 acre Badlands. Another 40 miles of roads and trails are already closed. The off-highway-vehicle ban is part of the Upper Deschutes Resource Management Plan, which will guide the long-term management of 400,000 acres of public land in central Oregon. Public comments on the BLM plan are due by February 14.