DesertBlog

Off-Roading Ban in Sonoran Desert

The Arizona Republic reported on May 13 that the Bureau of Land Management will ban off-road vehicles on 55,000 acres of the Sonoran Desert National Monument for up to two years or more. Violators of the ban could face a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison. Southwest Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Director (and Arizona State Representative candidate) Daniel Patterson was heavily involved in working for the ban, and covered it on his blog. Great work, Daniel, and thanks to the BLM staff who are instituting this much needed protection for a wild area of the Sonoran desert.

The ban is meant to allow the land to heal from what Patterson calls “an exponential increase in ORV traffic that, by BLM’s own admission, is beyond its ability to effectively manage. Damage to its lands has reached the point where, last year, agency officials suggested a monument-wide prohibition on ORV use.”

According to the Arizona Republic article, BLM officials say that “reckless riders have torn up the soil, ripped up the native plant cover and marred the desert landscape with illegal dumping.”

Hmmm… sounds a lot like what’s happened to the Desert Cahuilla area east of Anza-Borrego over the last four decades.

Torn up soil? We’ve got your torn up soil, and petrified wood, too (the “rocks” in this photo, with a vehicle track going right through them)… (Photo by Larry Hogue)

How about these donuts marring ancient trails on fragile desert pavement? (Photo by Diana Lindsay)

Or this spiderweb of tracks in another part of the Desert Cahuilla area? (Photo by Phil Farquharson)

Ripped up plant cover? The flowers that people flock from miles around to view in Anza-Borrego get run over in Desert Cahuilla. (Photos by Diana Lindsay)

Illegal dumping? Trash piles like this one abound. (Photo by Deborah Knapp)

Desert Cahuilla has been subjected to much abuse that has damaged precious cultural artifacts, remains of ancient life, and fragile plant habitats that are easily damaged by such activities. Let’s hope that California’s Parks & Recreation department will take a small hint from the BLM, restricting vehicle use on the 4,000 acres it acquired in the Desert Cahuilla area in 2006, and on the lands it hopes to acquire there in the future. The Desert Protective Council and many other conservation organizations believe that these lands should be managed by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, under regulations similar to those in the rest of the park: street-legal vehicles only, restricted to designated routes mostly in wash bottoms.

For more info, see our Desert Cahuilla page and watch our our video about the area (featuring music by Richard Thompson!) — then send a quick and easy letter to the Director of California’s Parks department.