BLM proposes limiting access, special events, at Black Rock Desert

Tuesday, June 16, 1998 | 9:58 a.m.

The goal of the federal recreation plan under consideration is to protect pioneer wagon trails, water holes and sensitive landscape.

As proposed, the plan would limit major special events to 150,000 visitor days a year. A visitor day is counted as an eight-hour period.

If adopted, the plan could eventually cap the annual Burning Man Festival held over the Labor Day weekend.

With estimated attendance of 10,000, the festival would need all those days if everyone stayed 24 hours a day for the full, five-day event.

The BLM expects to have a draft of the recreation plan and a draft environmental assessment published by the end of July. Public hearings will then be held during a 90-day review period.

The plan would also limit access on the number of roads that can be used to approach the 700-square mile desert 100 miles north of Reno.

Campsites could be built no closer than 300 feet from water holes to protect springs, and signs would be posted to keep vehicles off sections of the Applegate-Lassen trail, where wagon wheel ruts left by early pioneers crossing the desert are still visible.

BLM recreationist Jerry Moritz said the trail would be nominated as an area of critical environmental concern, which would afford it special protection.

And Black Rock Canyon would be designated as a wilderness area, meaning no motorized vehicles would allowed.