Environmentalists: BLM off-road strategy falls short

Friday, Dec. 8, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

Environmental groups said they are disappointed in the Bureau of Land Management's draft plan to handle off-road vehicle traffic.

Friends of Nevada Wilderness and Nevada Wilderness Project spokesmen said on Thursday that the proposed guidelines do not stop off-road vehicle abuse and that local BLM managers may follow the guidelines at their discretion.

The BLM reported to Congress last year that off-road vehicle use had increased "dramatically" on the 264 million acres of land it oversees in Western states, 49 million acres in Nevada alone.

"But BLM's proposed solution leaves off-road vehicles as unregulated as if nothing had happened," Shaaron Netherton, executive director of Friends of Nevada Wilderness, said.

The agency should close the existing wilderness study areas and inventoried roadless areas to off-road vehicles, Netherton said.

In addition, the BLM noted during 40 public hearings earlier this year that off-road vehicles affected other public land users, such as ranchers grazing cattle and endangered or threatened wildlife.

"The public has spoken and now the BLM should act by closing the most sensitive 8 percent of its land which the agency recognizes as having wilderness value," said John Wallin, director of the Nevada Wilderness Project.

The BLM off-road vehicle guidelines are simply strategy, not a new rule or regulation, BLM managers said. The guidelines were proposed to help local BLM managers and the public decide how off-road vehicles fit into the public land use.

The public comment period ends Jan. 3 on the BLM off-road guidelines.

The draft strategy is available on the Internet at blm.gov.