FROM THE C0NSERVATION DESK -- Ben Romero TWO RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SIERRA CLUB at its quarterly meeting in San Francisco on February 5-6 which are of interest to the Desert Peaks Section are as follows: DESERT PUPFISH NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE. The Sierra Club supports the establishment of a Desert Pupfish National Wildlife Refuge as proposed by the Desert Fishes Council in the Ash Meadows area of Nye County, Nevada, and Inyo County, California, to protect the habitat of rare pupfish species. OFF-ROAD VEHICLES. The Sierra Club adopts as off-road vehicle policy: (1) the operation of ORVs should be presumed to be detrimental to all areas and should accordingly be prohibited on all public lands unless proven otherwise by competent, impartial investigators; (2) ORVs should only be permitted off roads in areas or on trails expressly designated and constructed for their use. Objective criteria should be used to identify areas to be designated for ORVs where environmental damage can be held to an acceptable level. Areas designated for ORV use should be studied periodically in order to detect unacceptable environmental damage. Where this occurs, the area should be closed to ORVs. (3) before deciding whether or not an area or trail should be designated for off-road vehicles or before deciding whether or not to adopt regulations governing their use, a public hearing involving all interested participants and an environmental impact statement must be required; (4) developements for the use of ORVs should be excluded from designated de facto wilderness, scenic areas, areas of fragile, rare, vanishing or relict vegetational types, areas of archaeological interest, areas of fragile natural features and scientific interest, trails built for use by foot or horse traffic, areas where erosion and other resource damage will occur with their use, areas where noise would adversely affect other users or natural areas, and wildlife sanctuaries; (5) local regulations that exceed state and federal standards for control of off-road vehicles shall be encouraged. (6) educational programs must be initiated to instruct operators as to safety and environmental impact; also as to areas designated by law for use. Operators must be tested and licensed on their ability to operate the vehicles. (This is only part of the resolution and the rest may be obtained by writing to San Francisco if you are interested in the entire statement.) Both resolutions are something that I, as your conservation chairman, have long worked for. The pupfish situation has deteriorated since we first brought it to your attention. It was very serious then; it is desperate now. If a note of desperation has crept into our plea for the pupfish habitats, it is because the situation is so bad, and because it involves a portion of Death Valley National Monument. We will need much more support from the public sector on this bill, SB 2141. It is now bottled up in Sen. Alan Bible's committee, Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation. Your letters will be appreciated. The bill will not be passed by adopting a jocular attitude nor by merely making jokes about it or the people who are working so very hard to get this bill passed. The Club position on ORVS is to be highly commended. We have long said that no area should he opened up to indiscriminate ORV use unless total impact and ecological studies wore done. We have also said they should not be permitted in areas mentioned in (4) above. And finally, we have been critical of BLM policy of not having public hearings on lands to be designated for intensive use, which is what happened in Stoddard Valley. These resolutions, If adopted by BLM, would put the emphasis on land use on what the land can tolerate, and not what pressure groups want. There can be no compromising of any of the areas mentioned in (4)

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