ORV

Off Road Vehicles

ORV (Off Road Vehicle) use, often referred to as four-wheelers, or ATV's, continues to grow in popularity and represents an ongoing and significant threat to the fragile and irreplaceable landscapes of the American West.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees 264 million acres in the western states, more public land than the National Forest and Park Services combined. In 2007, the agency reported to Congress that off-road vehicle use has "increased dramatically" and admitted that because the agency's existing plans are inadequate that public lands have suffered a "proliferation of ORV trails, continued widespread damage affecting other uses such as grazing and wildlife, fragmentation of Threatened and Endangered [species] habitat, a reduction in air and water quality, and visitor use conflicts..."

ORVs can severely impact the delicate soils and waterways of western ecosystems. Destruction of soil and vegetation by off-road vehicles leads to erosion and soil compaction, which then affects water absorption and soil permeability. Vegetation damage, degradation of wilderness values and cultural sites, harassment of wildlife, and destruction of desert biotic crusts are additional impacts of ORV use that, once incurred, are difficult to remediate. With their priority focused on oil and gas leasing, the BLM does little to monitor ORV use, much less enforce regulations. Current agency plans call for closing less than 6% of public lands in the contiguous western states to ORV use. In Wyoming for example, 97.5% of BLM land is currently open to ORV use, either year round or seasonally. Figures are similar for other states. The BLM is now predicting a 200% increase in off-road vehicle use over the next 20 years, and concerned citizens have been organizing local groups to collaborate with larger conservation organizations to limit ORV access to sensitive public lands ecosystems.

EcoFlight works throughout the Rocky Mountain region, collaborating with our conservation partners in addressing this damaging and unbalanced use of our western public lands. Our flights have taken press and local activists, scientists and photographers and writers over numerous sensitive and threatened landscapes.  There have been a couple of notable victories:  in the Vermilion Cliffs area of Utah there are now forced closures to ORVs, and in the Factory Butte area there are plans for designated ORV use and areas restricted from ORV usage.  The challenge for us is that the BLM requires the submission of scientific data supporting their claims that ORV travel is not appropriate in these areas.  These areas are remote and provide specific needs for aircraft, a need that EcoFlight continues to fill as the most effective way to document direct ecosystem impacts.