Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

= Av,e ~ v N ~ ~ ~ 1 2 3 31 9 101 1 12131415 1617 23 24 25 2627 2829 30 • 1988 AVON TYRE CALENDAR ·The infamo ul AVON 'calender i. now Bwia-bla from HAP JONES. Send cheek or money ord er for "2.95 t o; HAP J ONES DIS T. CO. The California Desert Protection Act (5 7 ) would close most the of the California desert to off-road rid ing . • ~~~.;-,:.3~~~~, 6 2 I ' • . or ... your motorcyc le d..l., GOUD tl""YHoNDA. Bgads ' Huge Invento of CR Parts!!!!! CR Support Dealer Fast UPS Service Daily ORDER BY PHONE TOLL FREE (800) 647·5700 (NlIfionwide including HawaH) (800) 356-5700 . . (Wisconsin) C.O.D. or Charge to Visa- M C _:IE Cedarburg, WI , / JIICC ., ~ ~..,. ,,'t' :.i:J ._._ v'X'-($ <;, ~~ rS'f' ,;:," ' ~ tel sales . service · parts • • • • • • The Cagiva MX Specialist Ducat ; Street & RR Experts Your Husqvar na Off Road Dealer MX/HS/End/RR A ccessor ies Technical Help & Set Up PARTS-IN STOCK-IN A HURRY 1 (312) 495-2273 M .C.C. 1015 E. Sr. Charles Rd . / Lombard. IL 60148 Ul'S t>oiIlj• U . A... ... COt> ~ ex. • designed to mi nimize impacts to wildlife. It is better to have heavy impact on a small percentage of the desert than light-to-moderate disturbance over the majority of the desert. Allegation: The Barstow-to-Vegas race reduced small rodent popula.tio n , i.e. ground squirrels and kan'garoo rats, by 90 percent in .race area. EL M Response: The 90 percent reduction was on th e race course _ itself, im med ia tely foll owing th e event, whi ch covered '152 linear miles a nd only 800 acres. Again, this sort of impact. . .is to be expected on intensive use areas. The effect on desert-wide p opu la ti on s is , insignificant. Allegation: Small desert mammals burrow into ground to escape heat; anima ls are maimed or killed wh en OHVs . pass overhead; burrows are destroyed; 'soi l is com pacted so they can't build burrows. Kangaroo rats survive on acute hearing; noise from OHVs bursts eardrums. EL M R esp onse: It is conceivable that a kangaroo rat's eardrums migh t be ruptured by noise from an OHV passing within a foot or two of th e animal. However, it is more likel y that individual kangaroo rat s would move before OHVs cam e (that) close. In an y case, ruptured eardru m s du e to noise from OHVs do es not hav e any documented effect on kangaroo rat populations in th e California desert asa whole. Allegation: (The) desert tortoise is vulnerabl e to wheels o f passing OHVs. Animals breed slowly and OHV impacts ca n destroy breeding capaci ty. EL M Resp onse: BLM has established a 16,OOO-acre Desert T ortoise Natural Area to protect one of th e dens est known populations of this species. In addiuon, th e CDCA Plan designated six areas within identified tortoise habitats as areas for longrange management. Since 1980, two more planning areas have be en designated. Three areas , comprising a total of 122,000 acre s, including private lands where tortoise den siti es are particularly high. . .were designated as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs). Five additional areas comp rising a tot al of 1,509,000 acres were designated as Desert Tortoise Crucial Habitat Management areas. Special, intensive mangement of all these tortoise areas is ongoing. All egation: OHV use scare s shy animals, like bighorn sheep, away from wat ering holes. EL M Response: O H Vs do not significantly conflict with bi&,horn sheep . OHV use in the vicinity of bighorn sheep waters is ligh t. The majority of the rugged habitat used by bighorn sheep is not suited to OHV use. Allegation: Meadowlarks and o ther ground nesters are vulnerable to OHV use in nesting season, which is th e peak seaso n for motorcycle use. ELM R esponse: Ground 'nesters are definitely vulnerable to OHV impacts during the nesting season. How ev er, thes e spe cies oc cur throughout th e desert . Allegation: Moderate OHV use reduces shrubs by 50 percent; heavy OHV use resulted in 70 percent decline. In areas where OHVs co ngregate, biomass (all plant life) was reduced by 95 percent. ELM Response: The basis of thes e percentages is a 1977 study of 16 sites in th e California desert. The 16 sites . wer e loca ted in only four areas of the western Mojave Desert. Eight of the 16 sites were undisturbed and served as co nt ro ls. The four areas chosen" for the study were not random ly selected ; rather, th ey were selected because of concent ra ted OHV use. Problem s o f study design aside, th e fact is that th e total vegetation di sturbed by OHV acti vity in the CDCA, as a whole, is very small. In a study done in 1980.. .it was estimated th at, at most, one half of one percent, or abo u t 60,000 of the 12 million acres in th e CDCA, "have been impacted by OHVs in some form or another. " The scientists considere d th is " a worst case an alysis." They co ncl uded the actual acre age dis turbed wa s probably much less. Allegation: (A) common shrub, creoso te, is (a) frequent victim of OHV damage. Once damaged, (it) tak es decad es to recover; some creosote rings date back to (the) ice ag e; o ne OHV race cut a swath three to six feet through three miles of virgin .creoso te bu sh es. . ELM R esp onse: (T he) . creoso te bu sh is extreme ly common. In few areas of th e CDCA does it form clonal rings. The most significant of these clones. ~ .receive protection through th e Desert Plan. Elsewhere, the loss of a few creosote bush plants is not worthy of the level of concern given in the above paragraph. A " three-to- six foot swath three miles long" would total less than one acre. This degree of disturbance wou ld translate into a loss of slightly more than 50 plants. Given the many millions of creoso te bush plants in the CDCA, this hardly seems significant. Allegation: OHV use helps to spread ali en plant species into new a reas. 'EL M R esp o nse: Although the spread of alien plant specie s by OHVs is certainly possible, it is doubtful that much of this spread is attributable to OHV use. ' Allegation: OHV use ca n cause tr ememdous erosion damage. In Jawbone Canyon, an open OHV area , so il mantle has been entirely removed and bedrock' is literally being quarried by OHV passage. ELM Responses Wh ile this area is severely impacted, most of the desert is not. Free play areas have been established with the knowledge that heavy use will cause some local impacts. By confining such use to , a few small areas, the majority of desert resources can be protected while still being available for OHV use. Allegation: Soil erosion causes air pollution. A single, one-day motorcycle race in 1974 produced more than 600 tons of airborne dust. Santa Ana windstorms of 1973 originated from (an ) area denuded of vegetation by heavy OHV use. ELM Response: Du st emissio ns occur in areas of intensive use, which is only slig h tly more than one percent of the entire CDCA. Even in areas where fugitive dust occu rs, TSP values return to normal within 48 hours... TSP measurements ma y approach background values in less th an 100 meters upwind of th e event. The rest of the all egation is unsupported by scientific data. Allegation: S7 is needed to stop the pi ec em eal d estruction of desert resources. EL M R espo n se: The desert is being adequately protected by the California Desert Plan. The p lan is a unique and comprehensive document developed with extensive research, four yea r s of intensive public involvem ent, and ten s of thousands of comments concerning resource values and proper uses of the desert'sresources, It was accepted by conservation interests as a great ' step forward , nationally recognized

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