Today Laramie conservation group Biodiversity Associates responded with disappointment to the Bureau of Land Management's long awaited national off-road vehicle (ORV) draft plan. The draft plan does not stop ORV abuse and damage; it only offers guidance should the BLM prepare future ORV plans. What's more, the agency admits this guidance is discretionary only.

"The BLM knows the ORV problem is exploding, and the agency expended enormous resources collecting public comment for this plan. But BLM's proposed solution leaves ORVs as unregulated as if nothing had happened" said Jeff Kessler, spokesperson for Biodiversity Associates. "At a minimum, the agency should at least close the existing Wilderness Study Areas and inventoried roadless areas to ORV use."

Biodiversity Associates' response was not unique. Conservation organizations across the west, dismissed the plan as inadequate.

The BLM reported to Congress this year 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..."

Currently BLM management plans close less than 6 % of public lands in the contiguous western states to ORV use. In Wyoming, 97.5% of BLM land is currently open to ORV use, either year round or seasonally. Figures are similar for other states. This is a completely unbalanced amount of land open to ORV use and has resulted in the widespread damage to the public lands that citizens of the United States treasure so much.

The "BLM held over forty public hearings on ORV problems across the west this year", said Kessler. The public has spoken, and now the BLM should act by closing the most sensitive 8% of its land which the agency recognizes as wilderness. This would be a start to restoring balance on public lands."

"The ORV problem was recognized long ago with orders by Presidents Nixon and Carter" added Kessler. "Since then the machines have only become more numerous, more powerful and more damaging. Our public lands need protection now."

The Bureau of Land Management oversees 264 million acres in the western states, more public land than the National Forest and Park Services combined.

In Wyoming, 97.5% of BLM land is currently open to ORV use, either year round or seasonally. Figures are similar for other states. This is a completely unbalanced amount of land open to ORV use and has resulted in the widespread damage to the public lands that citizens of the United States treasure so much. Due to the industrial development of BLM lands in Wyoming (e.g., oil and gas wells, roads, pipelines and ancillary facilities; coal bed methane wells, roads, pipelines and ancillary facilities; power plants and mines), we are losing the special values, wide open spaces, and quiet places that make the BLM lands unique and irreplaceable. Specific problem areas of which we are aware include Green Mountain (near Muddy Gap) and by Crooked Canyon (east of Mountain View)

Undisturbed areas on BLM lands are becoming scarce due to industrial developments such as the natural gas boom in southwestern Wyoming, and also from the treads of ORVs. Consider that BLM has protected only about 577,000 acres as Wilderness Study Areas and recommended only 240,000 acres for Wilderness designation, out of a more than 18 million acres of BLM land in Wyoming. As ORVs are allowed to penetrate these areas before they are formally protected, their impacts have the potential to ruin the wild qualities of certain areas and either prevent them from being formally protected or significantly reduce the amount of area that qualifies for protection. This loss of wild country needs to end and restricting ORV use in proposed wilderness areas, inventoried roadless areas, WSAs, and other undisturbed areas would be a vital step in preserving America's wild lands. However, BLM did not do this in the draft plan they released today.

In comments submitted in August of this year, Biodiversity Associates urged BLM to prohibit ORV use in any legislatively or administratively proposed wilderness areas, inventoried roadless areas, Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) and all other areas that remain in relatively undisturbed or natural condition. There are significant roadless lands outside BLM WSAs, including but not limited to 523,000 acres recommended for Wilderness designation in Wilderness at Risk: the Wyoming citizens' wilderness proposal for BLM lands in Wyoming (1994). There are also other roadless lands not included in either WSA status or Wilderness at Risk.