Educational Bulletin #09-3

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

Off-Road Vehicles: a Biologist’s Perspective

by Dr. Robert C. Stebbins

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

Editor’s note: In this season in which US Senator Dianne Feinstein
has introduced the California Desert Protection Act of 2010, it’s in-
structive to look at the history of the bill. The current bill builds on
the protections of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994, which
itself was an amended version of an unsuccessful bill in 1987.
Some things have changed since the first CDPA was introduced
in the 1980s – the percentage of desert land protected by law is sig-
nificantly larger now, for one – but many have not. Among the things
that remain unchanged is the damage an off-road vehicle (ORV) can
do a piece of desert landscape. As conservationists gear up to discuss
the ORV recreation provisions of the new CDPA, we would do well
to consider the testimony of one of the all-time experts on ORV im-
pacts on the desert, Dr. Robert C. Stebbins. Dr. Stebbins spent his
career studying desert wildlife. Along the way, he observed the impact
the burgeoning ORV culture had on their lives. On July 23 1987, he
went before the Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks, and
Forests of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the US
Senate to testify about the damage done by ORVs, and to plead with
the senators to pass Senate Bill 7, the California Desert Protection Act
of 1987. While the lands he referred to were protected in part by the
CDPA of 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 before the Subcommittee, and then continues with his prepared
remarks. All text is in the public domain, taken from the Congressional
Record.
I am Robert Stebbins, UC Berkeley Emeritus Professor of Zoology,
a naturalist with over 40 years of teaching and research experience
in the California desert.
I have worked for the Bureau of Land Management in California
and the academic and environmental communities during devel­
opment of BLM’s management plans for the California desert.
I have voiced special criticism of BLM’s program for off-road
vehicle (ORV) recreation in the desert because of the destructive
effects of ORVs on the desert environment. The California desert
is one of the most fragile but diverse arid land environments on
earth.
Lying exposed and vulnerable are 11,000-year old creosote
bushes, the oldest known living things; fossils that date from near
life’s beginnings; 40,000-year-old woodrat middens that tell of
vegetation changes in the formation of the desert; and the great­

ORV damage to the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area.
Photo by Terry Weiner.
est collection of prehistoric rock art and large ground figures any­
where in the world.
The desert contains an immense variety of wild animal and
plant life. The growing popularity of ORV recreation is one of the
greatest threats to the desert. The desert’s antiquities, soils, and
wildlife are severely impacted by vehicle wheels and recovery is
extremely slow, if it can occur at all.
Breakage of desert pavements and crusts promotes dust, and the
spread of weeds has crowded out natural vegetation and wildlife.
Millions of plants and animals have already been injured or killed
outright by ORVs in the desert, and archaeological and paleonto­
logical resources destroyed.
In terms of ecological damage, permitting widespread ORV
recreation in the desert is worse than allowing recreational chain-
sawing in the nation’s forests. Forests potentially can recover. The
desert probably cannot.
The BLM management program for ORVs in the desert, in
my view, is inadequate. On the other hand, by establishing large
closely-associated wilderness areas and parks, S7 will ensure pres­
ervation of this fragile ecosystem.
The smaller, fewer, and more isolated wilderness areas BLM
has recommended are far less likely to protect the desert’s ecology.
These wilderness areas, along with the increased presence of the
National Park System, will raise public awareness of the values of
the desert.
They will also help protect the desert against changes in policy
with changes in political leadership. The BLM policy of cater­
ing to many interests on our public lands works poorly in desert
­environments, because of the fragility and slow recovery of desert
ecosystems. Therefore, we should seek the desert’s highest use, the
use that is most likely to be sustainable and of greatest importance
to the American people. We should follow the mandate of the
American people revealed by public opinion polls to preserve the
ecology and wildlife of the desert.
In the face of our growing numbers, wild lands are becoming
our nation’s greatest treasure. From this perspective, the California
Desert Protection Act cannot be considered overzealous, I urge
this committee to pass this bill.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Stebbins follows.]
The Importance of the California Desert Protection
Act of 1987 to the Future of the California Desert
I, Robert Stebbins, am Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the
University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The
Museum is a research and teaching institution with over 75 years
of study devoted especially to the wild vertebrate animal life of
California, including that of the California desert. I have had 60
years of personal experience in the desert; during the last 40 years
(as a member of the museum), I have engaged in biological teach­
ing and research in the desert. I have taught classes and supervised
graduate studies there, and have written several books and many
scientific papers on the desert’s animal life.
From 1973 to 1980, during the development of the Bureau of
Land Management’s Plan for the California Desert, I acted as a
liaison or “communicator” between the scientific, educational,
and environmentally oriented community and BLM. Of special
concern to these educators were the BLM’s plans for off-road
(ORV) recreation. Since publication of The California Desert
Conservation Area Plan (1980), I have reviewed all Plan amend­
ments to date.
“Permitting widespread ORV recreation
in the desert is worse than allowing
recreational chain-sawing in the nation’s
forests. Forests potentially can recover.
The desert probably cannot.”
From the moment the BLM started planning for ORV use in
the desert, many people in the scientific community and the mu­
seum in particular have expressed grave concern over the environ­
mental damage wrought by this form of recreation. The scientific
community has insisted that vehicles must be confined to desert
roads (of which there are over 30,000 miles–a distance greater
than the circumference of the earth), and that ORV play must be
restricted to clearly delimited open areas. For a variety of reasons,
which I cannot go into here, the recommendations have not been
implemented. BLM allows ORVs to (1) travel widely over the des­
ert on trails (which multiply and widen); (2) conduct special ORV
events along trails without a permit (if the group has less than 50
persons); (3) park 300 feet on either side of roads and trails, and
(4) use most desert washes (places of great biological diversity).
January 2003: ORVs line up before the start at the Annual Truckhaven Challenge at the Desert Cahuilla Prehistoric Area.
Photo by Tom Budlong.
Such prescriptions for ORV use have proven to be impossible to
control adequately.
“Legitimate” (BLM-approved) and illegitimate (unsanctioned
by BLM) ORV activity has now seriously damaged the natural
ecology of hundreds of thousands of acres of the western and
southern desert. Many of the more seriously impacted areas may
never recover.
In addition to the ecological damage wrought by ORVs, their
indiscriminate use suppresses other traditional uses that are ori­
ented not toward mechanized play, but toward enjoyment of the
desert’s solitude, scenery, and wildlife.
ORV intrusions have been documented as the greatest distur­
bance encountered by the many researchers and teachers using the
desert.
ORVs cause damage to arid lands in many ways. They disrupt
the widespread crusts and rock pavements that resist wind and
water erosion, thus accelerating erosion. They contribute greatly
to dust problems. Dust mutes the desert’s vistas, pollutes the air
and causes property damage and health problems. ORVs spread
weeds such as the Russian thistle (Salsola) far into the desert. This
plant crowds out other vegetation and can completely change the
ecology of heavily infested areas. Russian thistle has been found
growing in single motorcycle tracks. F. R. Fosberg, an interna­
tional authority on weeds, warned BLM that, “Unless you (BLM)
are in favor of changing the character of the vegetation, and hence
the whole landscape of the desert areas under BLM jurisdiction,
in my considered opinion as a botanist and ecologist, you must
limit vehicular traffic to established roads and open the desert ar­
eas only to hiking and other less ecologically destructive forms of
recreation.”
Existing plant and animal life is rapidly destroyed in areas
of heavy ORV use through direct impact of vehicle wheels and
through soil compaction and loss. Many small desert animals
– mice, reptiles, and invertebrates – are killed or maimed in their
burrows where they often lie within a few inches of the surface
during much of the day. Because of the mobility of ORVs, such
destruction can occur very rapidly and over a wide area. A single
motorcycle traveling 20 miles impacts about an acre of ground
surface; a four-wheel-drive vehicle does so in about six miles of
travel.
There are few arid lands in the world that can match the
California desert in physical and biological diversity, accessibility,
and scientific and educational resources. Contrary to the views of
“The California desert is second
only to the Galapagos Islands in
what it can teach us about evolution.”
the uninformed, the desert is exceedingly rich in wildlife. There
are some 1200 species of higher plants, over 100 of which are en­
demic to the area; about 350 species of vertebrates; and thousands
of invertebrates, including fairy shrimps of the playas and flight­
less insects of the dunes.
 Many plants and animals of the California desert exist in isolat­
ed remnant populations. These populations often occur at remote
springs, on humid mountain tops, or in the sand dunes or playas.
Some of these species are rare or endangered.
These divergent and isolated living communities, with their
unique life forms, resemble those occupying island archipelagos.
Each “island” group (sand dunes, isolated mountain tops, etc.) is
physically separated from the others, and the biota of each is fol­
lowing its own course of evolution. In this sense, these complex
systems are like the famous Galapagos Islands, which were so im­
portant to the development of Darwin’s ideas on evolution. Indeed,
the California desert is second only to the Galapagos Islands in
what it can teach us about evolution.
In addition, the California desert has been the focal point of
research in arid lands agriculture, crucial to humanity’s crowded
future. Goatnut [a.k.a. jojoba – ed.], one of our native desert plants,
has, within only a few decades, emerged as a potentially important
crop plant for livestock fodder and as a replacement for sperm
whale oil, which is used in machinery that runs at high speeds and
temperatures. Such examination of arid land vegetation has only
just begun. Studies of temperature regulation in desert lizards has
contributed to recent reassessment by the medical profession of
the wisdom of across-the-board suppression of fever in humans.
The desert is a storehouse of untapped scientific information.
Even new species of vertebrate animals are still being discovered.
What appears to be a new toad species was found only about a
month ago, at the Afton Canyon oasis near Barstow in an area
overrun by ORVs. Thus, because of actions taken without adequate
advanced study, we are in the process of burning bridges to new
medicines, crop plants, recreational enjoyment, and a more in­
formed future.
This is why the California Desert Protection Act of 1987 (CDPA)
is so important. It will strengthen enforcement capability in deal­
ing with indiscriminate ORV use and other misuses of the Desert.
It will do so through its extensive system of wilderness areas and
the increased presence of the National Park Service. The integrity
of the wildland areas of the desert depends in large part on their
proximity to each other and their size. Small, widely separated
wilderness areas are prone to species decline caused by genetic
isolation.
Contrary to widespread rumors, the CDPA will not lock up the
desert. Grazing, hunting, and rock-hounding (on foot) can contin­
ue in the wilderness areas, and even mining can occur if there are
valid existing rights. Accessibility is not changed. Only new roads
can not be constructed, and off-road driving will not be permitted
within the wilderness boundaries.
The extensive protection areas that will be created by the CDPA
will not be just for the elite or the young and healthy. They will be
for everyone. Campsites can cluster about their borders and along
“cherry-stem” roads that penetrate some of the mountainous soli­
tudes. The elderly, very young, and disabled can feel the presence
of wildness, enjoy the pleasures of wildlife at their campsites, and,
as their spirits move them and they are able, venture into the edges
of primeval remnants of an earth that was once all wild.

“ORVs cause damage to arid lands in many ways. They disrupt the widespread crusts

and rock pavements that resist wind and water erosion, thus accelerating erosion.

They contribute greatly to dust problems. Dust mutes the desert’s vistas, pollutes the air

and causes property damage and health problems.”

Photo by Monique Lopez.