BLM Announces End of Barstow-to-Vegas Motorcycle Race
Citing numerous problems associated with conducting point-to-point off-road vehicle races in the California Desert Conservation Area, Bureau of Land Management officials announced today their intent to disapprove any future applications for the American Motorcyclist Association's Barstow-to-Vegas and Johnson Valley-to-Parker races and SCORE~s Parker 400.
Based on the cumulative environmental impacts of these events over the years, the sponsors' continuing problems in managing the events, and the emergency listing of the desert tortoise as an endangered species, we feel strongly that further consideration of these races is inappropriate, said BLM California State Director Ed Hastey. "Although the American Motorcyclists Association and SCORE have tried diligently to control their riders, in a high-speed race situation, It is nearly impossible to control the behavior and reactions of individual participants." said BLM California Desert District Manager Gerald Hillier. He added that BLM also has to consider the impacts caused by both crews and spectators, which can be considerable.
"We recognize that we are proposing to end three major historic off-road vehicle events, but our primary concern has to be to conserve the natural resources under our administration. The endangered status of the desert tortoise is causing many changes in the management of public lands, some of which are not popular with our visitors. However, we feel confident we have made the right decision." said Hastey.
BLM's monitoring of these events has identified recurring problems, including numerous incursions into Wilderness Study Areas, course straying and widening, and wildlife habitat and vegetative damage. "We see no reasonable alternatives for routing these events out of desert tortoise habitat, away from Wilderness Study Areas, out of riparian zones, off of private lands, and away from desert communities." Hillier continued.
Traditionally, the Parker 400 course includes a 105-mile loop in California, and two loops of about the same distance in Arizona. The Arizona loop would not be affected by this decision. At least 70 miles of the California loop are in desert tortoise habitat, according to Hillier. A September 1989 survey located numerous tortoises and tortoise burrows in and adjacent to the course.
-BLM