The Road-RIPorter

Bimonthly Newsletter of the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads. September/October 2001. Volume 6 # 5

The North End

and ORVs
Carolina Beach, North Carolina
By Lynda Bilbrough

Located just minutes from Wilmington,

North Carolina, the north end of Carolina Beach
(also known as Freeman Beach) is one of the
few undeveloped Atlantic Coast barrier island
areas left. This awe-inspiring area serves as
habitat for several species of birds including
american oystercatchers, willets, least terns,
common terns, black skimmers and the threat-
ened piping plover. Loggerhead sea turtles also
nest here.
On July 10, 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) designated the Carolina Beach Inlet area as critical
habitat for wintering piping plover (see map).
Carolina Beach is bordered by the Intracoastal Waterway
on the west side and the Atlantic to the east. On the
northern tip is a man-made cut-through from the Intrac-
oastal to the Atlantic, the Carolina Beach Inlet. The southern New shore highway signs. Lynda Bilbrough photo.
part of this three-mile stretch connects to Canal Drive in the
town of Carolina Beach and is located just minutes from area over the last five years, the number of nesting pairs of
Wilmington, North Carolina. Shore, dunes and wetlands these colonial waterbirds has declined to zero (March 20,
stretch across Carolina Beach from the town access to the 2001).”
cut-through and team with wildlife. Environmental activists, the Freeman Heirs, and other
The town of Carolina Beach has jurisdiction over the local property owners, for various reasons, have for several
first 1000 feet of this area. The remaining area is flood-zone decades been trying to eliminate vehicular access to the
private property inherited by the Freeman Heirs. The town beach. Their requests were virtually ignored until March,
of Carolina Beach allows unregulated off road vehicle (ORV) 2001, when they asked the Carolina Beach Town Council to
access at the end of Canal Drive onto the private property, enforce a 1997 law prohibiting beach driving. They in-
allowing environmental degradation and habitat damage on formed the town Council and Mayor Rothrock of the threat-
the north end. ened and endangered species issues and pointed out the
David Allen, NC Wildlife Resource Commission’s erosion and wetlands destruction that was occurring. Despite
Nongame Coastal Project Leader for Nongame and Endan- clear evidence of Endangered Species Act violations, not only
gered Wildlife has compiled statistics depicting an alarming did the Carolina Beach Council refuse to reverse the “no
decline wildlife in this area: “In 1995, 475 nests of least beach driving” ordinance, it reversed the ordinance!
terns, black skimmers and common terns were found near
Carolina Beach inlet. As disturbance has increased in the — continued on page 4 —
 From the Wildlands CPR Office... Wildlands
C
Center for
P
Preventing
Just before press time, the world was changed by the terrorist attacks at the R
Roads
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. At this point, in time, we cannot begin to
fathom the impacts of these actions on the natural world, domestic politics, and the
global community. For now we just offer our thoughts to all those who suffered Main Office
personally from this tragedy, and our hopes for a peaceful, non-violent resolution. P.O. Box 7516
Missoula, MT 59807
Thanks (406) 543-9551
WildlandsCPR@wildlandscpr.org
Wildlands CPR would like to start with a sincere thank you to the W. Alton Jones www.wildlandscpr.org
and Turner Foundations and the Foundation for Deep Ecology for continuing their
support of our programs. We are especially excited about W. Alton Jones two-year Colorado Office
grant to support a staff scientist at Wildlands CPR. Thanks also to those who 2260 Baseline Rd., Suite 205
Boulder, CO 80302
responded to Tommy’s renewal notices – we really appreciate your continued (303) 247-0998
support of our work. And as one more special thanks, we have our first ever bibliog- prebles@indra.net
raphy notes written by a high school student – Evan Youngblood-Petersen. THANKS
EVAN for working on this project, we Wildlands Center for Preventing
hope you had fun! Finally, we’d like to Roads works to protect and restore
wildland ecosystems by preventing
thank the Billings chapter of the
Montana Wilderness Association,
In this Issue and removing roads and limiting
motorized recreation. We are a
especially Dick Walton, for their help The North End & ORVs, p. 1, 4-5 national clearinghouse and network,
with our road monitoring program in -Lynda Bilbrough providing citizens with tools and
the Pryor Mountains this summer. strategies to fight road
construction, deter motorized
DePaving the Way, p. 3, 10 recreation, and promote road
Itchy Feet Bethanie Walder removal and revegetation.
Seems like fall is a time for Director
change… It’s just that we just didn’t Odes to Roads, p. 6-7 Bethanie Walder
realize there’d be so much of it at Tom Petersen Development Director
Wildlands CPR. Leslie Hannay, our Tom Petersen
most excellent program assistant for the
Bibliography Notes, p. 8-9
past year decided to move on and ORV Policy Coordinator
Evan Youngblood-Petersen Jacob Smith
eventually pursue an advanced degree.
In addition, as of mid-September, Ronni Roads Policy Coordinator
will be working for us on some legal Alerts & Regional, p. 10-14 Marnie Criley
issues on contract, and we will be hiring
Program Associate
a new Grassroots Advocate for the Jennifer Barry
Natural Trails and Waters Coalition. And in the midst of those shifts, we’re in the
process of hiring a staff scientist. We’d like to welcome Jennifer Barry as our new Newsletter
Program Assistant. She comes to us by way of the Southern Rockies Wolf Restoration Dan Funsch & Jim Coefield
Project in Boulder CO. In addition, former intern Katherine Postelli and Jessica Cohen Interns & Volunteers
are both joining us on a special project to collect data about ORV abuses nationally. Benjamin Hart, Eric Harris,
Welcome back Katherine, and welcome aboard Jessica! Carla Abrams, Amy Barry
Wildlands CPR would like to extend a big thanks to Leslie and Ronni! Leslie
completely revamped our website, kept the office together and did some terrific Board of Directors
research for us over the past year. Ronni helped build the grassroots aspect of the Katie Alvord, Karen Wood DiBari,
Natural Trails and Waters Coalition, and increased our understanding of off-road Sidney Maddock, Rod Mondt,
vehicle legal issues, statewide legislative efforts and recreational trails program Greg Munther, Cara Nelson, Mary
O'Brien, Ted Zukoski
funding. To them, we wish the best of luck as you move on down, (or off) the road.

Advisory Committee
Thought you’d like to know… Jasper Carlton, Dave Foreman,
That we don’t spend a whole lot of our resources on fancy print jobs for our Keith Hammer, Timothy Hermach,
newsletter. Well okay, you could already tell that since we stick to black and white, Marion Hourdequin,
and we keep the newsletter on letterweight post consumer, non-chlorine bleached Kraig Klungness, Lorin Lindner,
paper. But last month our print quality was really poor, and we expect that many of Andy Mahler, Robert McConnell,
Stephanie Mills, Reed Noss,
you noticed – perhaps you thought you just got a bad copy. Well, it didn’t make Michael Soulé, Dan Stotter,
sense to us to waste a bunch of paper reprinting just so the pictures would be clearer, Steve Trombulak, Louisa Willcox,
especially since the text seemed just fine. In any case, we want you to know that Bill Willers, Howie Wolke
we’ll continue to put the majority of our funds into getting roads removed on the
ground, not into fancy newsletter printing. Thanks for your patience, and
hopefully we’re over our printing problems. © 2001 Wildlands CPR

2 The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001

The New Transportation Atlas:
Still RARE?
By Bethanie Walder
In the 1970s, the US Forest Service undertook
two different mapping and inventory processes to
determine the overall remaining roadless acreage it
managed in the United States. Those processes,
called RARE I and RARE II (Roadless Area Review and
Evaluation), eventually resulted in maps of all
“inventoried” roadless areas on national forest lands.
In partial response to problems with RARE I, the
Forest Service developed very specific criteria for
what constituted a road for the RARE II inventories,
and thus which roads would disqualify an area for
inclusion on the inventoried roadless maps.
The failure to arrest the continual creation
and use of unauthorized cross-country
routes results in further degradation of
the land, an atmosphere of lawlessness
regarding motorized recreation,
and a tacit approval of one of the most
significant problems ever to plague
the National Forests.
According to the Forest Service Handbook (FSH
1909.12, § 7.11) a roadless area is literally “an area
without any improved roads maintained for travel by
standard passenger type vehicles.” User-created
cross-country routes, therefore, would not and do not
disqualify an area from roadless consideration.
Even so, in some instances two-tracks that were
not constructed or maintained were used to dis-
qualify areas from the roadless inventory. Other areas
were simply left off the maps because the timber
values were too high. One longtime activist cites
examples where a road might have been constructed
through a valley bottom, but the roadless area
boundary was drawn in at the ridgetop, leaving all the
land between the valley bottom and the ridgetop
unprotected. These examples show cause for
concern with large-scale mapping projects.
But was it important to inventory roadless areas
back in the 1970s? Yes. Was it a flawed process in
several instances? Yes. Does that mean we should
The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001
never map anything again? No. More importantly,
how does this, now, apply to roaded and roadless
areas and does it apply to ORVs?
The Forest Service recently approved a long-term
transportation policy, which included directives to
develop a comprehensive, ground-based transporta-
tion atlas of every transportation route that exists,
from bridges to airstrips. From trails to roads. And
we do need to know what’s on the ground to under-
stand the overall impacts the transportation system is
having on wildlife and watersheds, regardless of
whether or not all the routes are legal. But while we
do need to know what’s out there, we also need the
Forest Service to manage the land while they do the
mapping.
Unfortunately, the Forest Service is mixing road
mapping with off-road vehicle management. They’ve
decided that the only way they can get control over
the illegal construction of motorized routes is to
make new maps, showing all the routes. They think
they’ll be able to somehow stop people from making
new routes, just because they’ve put all the old illegal
routes on a map. The Forest Service seems to think
that the only way to get a handle on the continued
proliferation of illegal off-road vehicle routes is to
inventory those routes; to create a baseline map that
shows everything that is on the ground at the time
the map is completed, and then anything that
appears after that time would be considered illegal.
But the Forest Service already has maps –
baseline maps of all their system/classified transpor-
tation routes* – both motorized and non-motorized,
both trail and road. Those system transportation
maps were completed at a fixed point in time. And
those system maps are supposed to be updated as
new routes are officially and legally added to the
system. Anything that exists on the ground, there-
fore, but does not show up on a system map, should
constitute an unclassified/non-system route. It is
important to remember, however, that those system
— continued on page 10 —
* The Forest Service switched their terminology
from “system” to “classified,” and from “non-system”
to “unclassified.” But both terms are still used, so we
are using both here.
3
 — continued from page 1 — using Fort Fisher, and not a result of management
practices.
We also just confirmed at press time that no
We notified the New Hanover County Council
terns or skimmers nested on the northern end of
about the issue, and contacted all significant public
Carolina Beach this year. Disturbance was the specific
officials. We also encouraged the local media to
sole cause for abandonment of this site.
cover our story. As timing would have it, one time,
The Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Bluewater
during a visit to the site by WECT-TV News, a truck
Network, Cape Fear Surfriders, Sierra Club, North
became stuck in the sand just beyond the camera’s
Carolina Coastal Reserve, Sea Turtle Restoration
view. Sand flying from the spinning tires showed
Project, Volusia County Sea Turtle Patrol, and Wild-
clear evidence of erosion. Huge plow marks from
lands Center for Preventing Roads all support efforts
various ORVs gutted the beach. The Carolina Beach
to eliminate ORVs from the north end shore.
Weekly News printed a full-feature, front-page cover
According to Bart Semcer, a representative of the
story.
Sierra Club, “After sprawl, recreational use is the
leading cause in the decline of wildlife. The last
remaining 4-5 percent of Atlantic Coast barrier island
habitat is being destroyed primarily by motorized
vehicles.”
U.S. Senator John Edwards wrote the USFWS and
asked them to create a plan to protect the piping
plover. At press time, there has been no response to
this request.
Private citizens who have fought (and won)
similar efforts elsewhere provided a great deal of
support for our work and helped us along. Most
notably among them is Shirley Reynolds. Shirley was
named National Wildlife Federation “Citizen of the
View from Land’s End at Carolina Beach of wetlands with beach dunes and vehicles, Year” for her unrelenting efforts to protect the sea
with the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Lynda Bilbrough Photo. turtles of Volusia County, Florida. After not getting
anywhere through other means, she ultimately sued
Volusia County for violating the Endangered Species
We also solicited credible environmental
Act by failing to control ORV use on the beach – and
agencies and organizations to get involved. The
won!
National Audubon Society agreed to manage and
Recently, through the help of New Hanover
monitor the site provided that ORVs would be
County Commissioner William Caster, we were able
eliminated and the private owners were in support.
to secure some slight gains. There has been a slight
This monitoring service would save both New
increase in law enforcement for the area, but vehicu-
Hanover County as well as North Carolina taxpayers a
lar access is still allowed. However, it is a step in the
substantial amount of money. The USFWS and the
NC Wildlife Resources Commission data both support
an ORV closure as the only means that will achieve
adequate protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat.
The situation at a nearby beach is instructive.
Fort Fisher State Park, a state beach just three miles to
the south, allows managed vehicular access. How-
ever, according to the NC Wildlife Resources Commis-
sion, even well managed traffic and wildlife do not
mix. The statistics document the decline nesting birds
at Fort Fisher State Park:
* In 1990, 392 nests for black skimmers,
common terns, least terns, and gull-billed terns
were found;
* In 1991, there were 400 least tern nests, and no
others;
* In 1993, there were 130 least tern nests;
* In 1995, there were no nests of any kind;
* In 1997, there were 92 nests for black skim-
mers, common terns and least terns;
* The most recent survey in 1999 found 41 nests
for black skimmers and least terns.
David Allen, nongame coastal project leader for
the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Section of the
NC Wildlife Resources Commission, indicated that Vehicles travelling within posted areas create fields of dune
ruts. Lynda Bilbrough photo.
these trends are the result of the number of people

4 The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001


US Fish and Wildlife Service graphic.
right direction. Now, only licensed 4-wheel drive vehicles and licensed
drivers are allowed and no campers, trailers, jet skis or boats are
permitted. The dune/vegetation line also was redefined to restrict
vehicles to a narrower shore “lane.” Unfortunately, the area is only
sporadically patrolled. On Labor Day weekend there were several
violations (see photos).
Commissioner Caster’s action does not address the sea turtle and
waterbird habitat issues, however. Dogs are still allowed to run free. The
shore still has revving engines and destabilized dunes. A hodge-podge of
signs marks the entire shore; one area is actually marked “crossover”
through the Atlantic dune line into the wetlands. Even with these
changes, it’s clear that beaches and vehicles are incompatible!
Knowledge carries responsibility. As Shirley Reynolds once said,
“They (wildlife) have no voice. We must be that voice and protect our
natural resources and their habitat.”
What You Can Do
You can help protect this fragile barrier
island, the north end of Carolina Beach, by
writing Senator John Edwards and requesting that
he lead the effort to eliminate ORV access. Also,
you can write to other North Carolina politicians.
For your own efforts to conserve our shores,
look at the situation from all angles: scientific,
economic, environmental, safety, sanitation, etc.
Get expert legal support. Wildlands CPR/Natural
Trails and Water Coalition is a good resource.
Send all important correspondence via certified
mail. (Don’t e-mail politicians and risk being
ignored.) Keep an excellent paper trail.
Be a concerned citizen gathering informa-
tion. Never be deceitful. There’s no need to
disperse information until you know the facts.
Don’t exaggerate. Be an “information conduit.”
Publicize the facts. Think of yourself as the
public relations director for the land. What a
great job!
Be patient. Persevere. Expect to be shocked
that environmental protection laws are not
enforced. Expect to be downhearted, discour-
aged and angry at times. Take action and get a
beach buddy—several if you want. There are
those who will carry the responsibility of
knowledge with you and lighten the load.
Write to these officials with your concerns:
NC Public Officials
Senator John Edwards
US Senate, 225 Dirksen Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3154

–Lynda Bilbrough is an activist working to protect Carolina Beach. You can Governor Michael F. Easley
20301 Mail Service Center
contact her at: threewaters@msn.com
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
919-733-4240

William G. Ross, Jr., Secretary

NC Department of Natural Resources
1601 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1601
919-733-4984

Representative Mike McIntyre

US House of Representatives
228 Cannon House Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2731; 202-225-5773 fax

State Senator Patrick Ballantine

District 4, NC General Assembly
1127 Legislative Office Building
Piping Plover. Photo by C. Perex, USFWS. Raleigh, NC 27601

State Representative Daniel McComas

Chair, Env. & Natural Resources Committee
North Carolina General Assembly
Knowledge carries responsibility. 606 Legislative Office Bldg.
Raleigh, NC 27601-2808
As Shirley Reynolds once said, Ted Davis Jr., Chairman
“They [wildlife] have no voice. William Caster, Commissioner
bcaster@co.new-hanover.nc.us
We must be that voice and protect our New Hanover County Commission
320 Chestnut St. Room 305
natural resources and their habitat.” Wilmington, NC 28401

The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001 5

 Odes to Roads
Road Worthy
By Tom Petersen
W
e took the Dalai Lama on
the road with us. He got
the front seat. We usually
don’t feel his presence so strongly,
but that morning Evan and I were
starting a road trip to Salt Lake
City to hear him speak. The sunroof
was open, our hair ruffled in the
wind, and as we glanced upward
through the open roof, mountain-
ous cumulus clouds loomed over us.
My 17 year-old son and I were on the road, and
it couldn’t have been better: a road trip to Salt Lake,
about 1200 miles round trip from our home in
Missoula, Montana. Interstate 90 to Interstate 15 all
the way. We cranked up the tape player and sang
Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” over and over.
“On the road again; I just can’t wait to be on the road
again,” Willie crooned, and it seemed he was singing
just to us. We pointed out red-tail and harrier hawks,
gazed at blue Utah sky and sang to the open country.
The trip and the road seemed full of possibility. We
put the cruise control at 75, crunched tortilla chips
and Gala apples and drank cold sodas from our
cooler. When we stopped at a small town park
outside of Logan Utah for lunch, we ate tuna
sandwiches under breezy cottonwoods.
We had time. Time to talk about his new (and
first) girlfriend, about what we expected to hear
from the Dalai Lama (who was in Salt Lake to honor
the city and their care and settlement of Tibetan
refugees), and time to talk about where we’d stop to
fish on the way back. We had plenty of time, and the
car and the road trip enclosed our time, encapsu-
lated it in its roaring metal body, allowed us to get
away from our other life of writing grant proposals
or doing Spanish homework or picking towels off
the bathroom floor. “Everything is fine, God exists,
we know time,” says Dean Mortiarty in Jack
Kerouac’s On the Road.
Evan and I were prisoners by choice, explorers
by nature, speeding through an adventure in time
and place and father and son with the freedom to go
anywhere we wanted—as long as there was road
beneath us. We had American history by our side.
6 The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001
We were Sal and Dean from Kerouac’s On the Road,
and yes, we had a little more money than Sal and
weren’t hustling women, but the essence was the
same: it was late spring, the season Kerouac called
“the great time of travelling.”
I have a tendency to associate roads with
freedom through movement, and they do give us
freedom to move—quickly—to new places, new
faces. Inman, a character in Charles Frazier’s Cold
Mountain says travelers can “…take the attitude that
there was no burden that couldn’t be lightened, no
wreckful life that couldn’t be set right by heading off
down the road.”
Evan’s and my life were not wrecked and we
carried few burdens; all we had was more road
ahead of us, possibility, and the uncertainty of what
lay beyond the next turn, the next town. It is
liberating to leave your life behind, even for a
weekend. There is little to lose.
We cruised into Salt Lake later that day, pulled
into the huge parking lot at the University of Utah,
popped open the car doors and pried ourselves out
of our well-imprinted seats. We stretched the road
miles from our bodies, and shook the road dust from
us like dogs shaking off water. The Dalai Lama left to
prepare his talk.
During the trip down my mind had spun with
thoughts of roads. They have helped create our
mobile society and in some ways we are all the
better for it. How could Evan and I travel to Salt Lake
without them? We could have flown, but driving
allowed the flexibility and freedom to go wherever
we desired, to veer off the beaten track to buy a
souvenir, to stop at a roadside park for lunch, to take
a different route or maybe turn around if we
changed our minds.
 My life seems to be carried by the road. In the late 50’s,
when I was growing up near St. Louis, my family would drive
north some summers to Lake Michigan—to Saugatuck and
Douglas and Holland—about a third of the way up the lake on
the eastern side, around the bend from Chicago. My dad’s
work partner had a small house in Saugatuck that we’d rent
for the week.
My two brothers and I would scramble into the back seat
of our light-blue ‘57 Mercury, shiny chrome tail fins flying off
the back of the car like the winged Mercury himself, while our
parents would load the well-used stainless steel ice-chest with
pop and beer and bologna sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.
Off we’d go, north and east on old U.S. Highway 55, our tires
over the sectioned-cement road rhythmically clicking and
clacking like train over track.
Our motor-time didn’t stop when we’d arrive in
Saugatuck. Sand dunes rolled along Lake Michigan’s shores,
some towering as high as 200-300 feet and wider than many
farm fields. Sculpted by Ice Age glaciers, wind and water, the
dunes were called “a signature of time and eternity,” by the
poet Carl Sandburg. Tourist businesses could take you on
those dunes in oversized sand dune buggies with four fat tires,
rollbars and no roofs. The five of us would load up in the
It makes sense in some ways,
growing up in a culture of roads and
road travels, that some of my stories
come from a paved place.
But the land fills and enriches my
stories like a river swollen to its
shores, flowing with the fullest
current, carrying the greatest force.
buggy and the driver would speed off, race up a high dune,
hesitate momentarily at the crest and then, as if we were
riding a road of steep hills, accelerate down the far side, all of
us screaming, hands up as in a roller coaster ride. Sometimes
on the peak of those dunes the driver would pause, then let
the dune buggy fall backwards, racing in reverse.
The road meant time with my family, and like Evan’s and
my trip to Salt Lake, gave us the chance to experience our
travels together, held in the Mercury and the road, forcing us
to talk and play as a group of five. Even alone on my bike as a
twelve-year-old, roads brought movement and speed and
freedom.
There are many kinds of freedom however. Some voices,
more disciplined than mine, call for freedom from the road,
not freedom with the road. Ruby, another character in Cold
Mountain, has the view “…that a world properly put together
would yield inhabitants so suited to their lives in their
assigned places that they would have neither need nor wish to
travel.”
Before roads? We walked. It’s estimated that the pre-
European population of what is now the United States was
around 5 million. They moved on paths, thin travelways worn
by foot, back and forth from village to village, from hunting
ground to hunting ground. In The Practice of the Wild, Gary
The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001
Snyder writes of a pass in the Brooks Range of northern
Alaska at the headwaters of the Koyukuk River, a green, three-
thousand-foot high tundra pass between the ranges, extremely
remote, no roads, only trails made by migrating caribou. Yet
the pass was used by Inupiaq and Athapaskan people as a
regular trade route for at least seven thousand years.
Some cultures still tell their stories through walking.
Snyder describes driving through the desert of central
Australia with a Pintubi elder. While narrating the landscape
for Snyder, the elder suddenly began speaking rapidly about a
mountain they were passing, then another hillside, then a
boulder, then lizards, acacias, wallabies. Snyder writes, “I
realized after about half an hour of this that these were tales
to be told while walking [Snyder’s emphasis], and that I was
experiencing a speeded-up version of what might be leisurely
told over several days of foot travel.”
My true story also originates with the land, the place from
which all stories begin, in all cultures. When I get out of the
car, the land tells a different kind of story. When I shift from
the panoramic view from the road to the slower, more detailed
view of foot travel, my story becomes complete.
It makes sense in some ways, growing up in a culture of
roads and road travels, that some of my stories come from a
paved place. But the land fills and enriches my stories like a
river swollen to its shores, flowing with the fullest current,
carrying the greatest force.
When Evan and I were driving through southeastern
Idaho on our way back from our trip to see the Dalai Lama, we
tried to find a river to fish. As we drove, fishing stories rose to
the surface like trout during a big hatch. In the car Evan told
me that the Dalai Lama had made such an impression on him
that the next time he missed a strike he would exercise
Buddhist-like patience, and not toss his rod in frustration as he
sometimes had. It was a statement of hope, mentally crafted
as the wheels in his head turned with the wheels of the road.
Eventually we stopped the car, got out and placed our feet
on the ground. Evan and I stood before the Black River, its
riparian banks and brush swirling in warbler yellow and
standing in stately heron blue. Encased in Black Canyon, the
river promised cutthroats and browns.
We fished in deep pools along the rock-stepped river.
Early on, Evan missed a strike. He swore, and tossed his road
to his feet. He paused a moment, glanced at me and smiled.
Then he picked up his rod and moved to another pool.
– Tommy Petersen’s son always catches more fish than he does.
7
 Bibliography Notes
Bibliography Notes summarizes and highlights some of the
scientific literature in our 6,000 citation bibliography on the
ecological effects of roads. We offer bibliographic searches to
help activists access important biological research relevant to
roads. We keep copies of most articles cited in Bibliography
Notes in our office library.

The Impact of Off-Road

Vehicles on Sand Dune Habitats
Dumont Dunes, a BLM open area in the Mojave Desert.
Howard Wilshire photo.
By Evan Youngblood-Petersen

Sand dunes are a biologically unique fraction of arid land
ecosystems (Bury & Luckenbach 1983). They serve as “habitat
islands” for numerous species of vegetation and wildlife. The
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, for example, teems
with life, encompassing 42 different ecotones. The same is
true of the dunes of Back Bay, Virginia where yellow sand is
crowned with sea oats and nesting birds. Compared to those,
the dunes of California seem devoid of life. They support only
a few specialized plants and animals, of which many are rare,
threatened or endemic species such as Peirson’s milk-vetch or
the Andrews dune scarab beetle (Anonymous, 1974). All
unprotected dunes hold one thing in common, though: they
are used intensively by dune buggies and off-road vehicles
(ORVs).
ORV use in sand dune areas causes significant adverse
impacts to wildlife and vegetation in many ways. ORV use can
destroy vegetation, leaving the area prone to erosion and
disrupting the life cycles of animals depending on this vegeta-
tion for food or cover. Wildlife can be crushed by ORVs, have
their dens destroyed, and even become completely deafened
by noise. Dune buggies and ORVs displace sand, causing
erosion. ORV tracks also compact sand, hindering its ability to
nourish vegetation and absorb water.
Vegetation Destruction
ORV use in dune areas destroys many species of vegeta-
tion. There is a direct correlation between the intensity of ORV
use and the severity of damage (Bury 1980). ORVs can and do
run over and through various dune vegetation species, includ-
ing blue palo verde, screwbean, and ironwood. Endangered or
threatened species found in dune ecosystems include croton,
desert sunflower, sandfood, and desert buckwheat (Bury &
Luckenbach 1983).
Direct impacts caused by ORVs include wheels crushing
the foliage, root systems, and seedlings. The superstructure
and undercarriage of ORVs can damage vegetation and uproot
plant foliage and stems (Wilshire et al 1979). In a case study of
the Algodones Dunes in California, control plots had an
average of 2.4 times the number of species, ten times the
density, 9.4 times the cover, and forty times the volume of
shrubby perennials when compared to ORV-impacted plots
(Bury & Luckhenbach 1983). Destruction of root systems in
dune areas is especially prevalent because they are already so
fragile. Vegetation removal alone can raise the soil tempera-
tures up to 14 degrees Celsius in the daytime (Liddle & Moore
1974). This suggests that “in sand dune pasture the removal of
above-ground vegetation has a major effect on the soil micro-
climate” (Liddle & Moore 1974).
Adverse Effects on Wildlife
ORV use on sand dunes has adverse affects on many
species of wildlife, including piping plovers, desert kangaroo
rats, fringe-toed lizards, pale kangaroo mice, sidewinders and
shovel-nosed snakes (Bury & Luckenbach 1983, Bury 1980).
ORVs harm desert kangaroo rats in many ways (Berry
1980, Bury 1980). They can be crushed or maimed and tires
can collapse their burrows (Bury 1980). The desert kangaroo
rat also has a highly developed sense of hearing that it depends
on for survival. They can detect, at a distance, sounds as faint
as wing beats of owls and the movement of a snake across the
sand. When exposed to 500 seconds of intermittent dune
buggy sounds, desert kangaroo rats are deafened for approxi-
mately 21 days. During this time, they can be approached
unnoticed and eaten by snakes and owls (Berry 1980).
The piping plover is listed under the Endangered Species
Act as “endangered” in four eastern states and “threatened” in
six (Hoopes et al 1993). A 1986 survey found only 547 pairs of
breeding plovers in those states. Nine years later, after ORVs
and dune buggies were restricted seasonally from nesting
areas, they had more than doubled to 1150 breeding pairs (Line
1996).
Plovers are affected by ORV use in many ways. The pair
forms a depression in the sand somewhere on the high beach
close to the dunes after arriving on beaches along the Atlantic
coast, (USFWS 1999). These nests can be crushed by ORVs,
leaving scavengers easy pickings (Line 1996). Both chicks and
adults have been found crushed by ORVs. Surviving chicks can
leave the nest within a day after hatching to feed, moving
extensively along the beach. They will stand in, walk, and run
along tracks created by ORVs and have trouble crossing or
climbing out of deep ruts (Melvin et al 1994). Over the course
of a five-year study in Massachusetts and New York, 18 piping
plover chicks and 2 adults were found dead in tire tracks.
Biologists believe that vehicles kill many more plovers than the
study observed (Melvin et al 1994).

8 The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001

Erosion and Compaction
ORV use can greatly destabilize dunes, making them more
susceptible to erosion. The U.S. Senate Committee on Interior
and Insular Affairs (1971) concluded that ORVs increase the
rate of dune erosion by destroying vegetation. On arid land
dunes, this is evident in the form of wind erosion. Sand is
displaced into adjacent non-dune areas covering land well
beyond the region of direct ORV impact. In addition to wind
erosion, sea erosion is a major factor in coastal dune areas. In
these areas, land behind the dunes becomes more vulnerable
to saltwater flooding (Sheradin 1979).
While ORVs destabilize the surface layer, they also
compact the sub-surface (Sheradin 1979). Compaction causes
an increase in soil bulk density, penetration resistance, and
thermal capacity (Bury & Luckenbach 1983). In one instance,
the increased penetration resistance prevented loggerhead
turtles from burying their eggs on the beaches of Back Bay,
Virginia (U.S. Senate Noise Control Act 1971). The sub-surface
also cannot absorb nearly as much water, greatly reducing the
amount of moisture available to nourish plants and replenish
subsurface aquifers (in Sheradin, 1979).
Conclusion
There are many impacts of ORV use that are highly
detrimental to sand dune ecosystems. These range from
erosion and compaction of the dune to wildlife mortality and
vegetation destruction. Some wildlife and vegetation impacts
are obvious, while others may be more subtle.
The piping plover population along the Atlantic coast
plummeted until ORVs were removed from their nesting
grounds, after which the number of breeding pairs rebounded.
ORVs were directly causing wildlife mortality.
Where ORV use occurs on dunes, vegetation is either very
sparse or completely absent. Conversely, where there is no
ORV use, native plant populations flourish.
There are heartening developments. In the Algodones
Dunes in California, recent legal settlements (see RIPorter 6:3)
have closed almost 50,000 acres of the Dunes to off-road
vehicles to protect Peirson’s milk-vetch, desert tortoise, and
other imperiled species. In reviewing the literature cited above,
if the closure remains effective we can predict that in the
future, Algodones Dunes will have drastically improved habitat
for plants and wildlife.
–Evan Youngblood-Petersen is a senior at Hellgate High school in
Missoula, MT.
The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001
Piping Plover. USFWS photo.
Bibliography
Anonymous. 1974. Running it into the ground: a special ORV
report. Outdoor Western Annual 41:4-26
Berry, K.H. 1980. The effects of four-wheel vehicles on biological
resources. In: Andrews, R.N.L. and P. Nowak. 1980. Off-road
Vehicle Use: A Management Challenge. U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Office of Environmental Quality, Washington,
D.C.231-33.
Bury, R.B. 1980. What we know and do not know about off-road
vehicle impacts on wildlife. In: Andrews, R.N.L. and P.
Nowak. 1980. Off-road Vehicle Use: A Management
Challenge. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of
Environmental Quality, Washington, D.C. 110-22.
Bury, R.B. and R.A. Luckenbach. 1983. Vehicular recreation in arid
land dunes: biotic responses and management alternatives.
In: Webb, R.H. and Wilshire, H.G. Environmental Effects of
Off-Road Vehicles: Impacts and Management in Arid
Regions:207-21.
Liddle, M.J. and K.G. Moore. 1974. The microclimate of sand dune
tracks: the relative contribution of vegetation removal and
soil compression. Journal of Applied Ecology 11(3):1057-68.
Line, L. 1996. Massachusetts miracle, piping plovers return to New
England. Audubon. March-April:20-24.
Luckenbach, Roger A. and R.B. Bury. 1983. Effects of off-road
vehicles on the biota of the Algodones Dunes, Imperial
County, California. Journal of Applied Ecology 20:265-86.
Melvin, S.M., A. Hecht and C.R. Griffin. 1994. Piping plover
mortalities caused by off-road vehicles on Atlantic coast
beaches. Wildlife. Society Bulletin. 22:409-14.
Sheridan, D. 1979. Off-road vehicles on public land. Council on
Environmental Quality:10.
U.S. Senate. 1971. Committee on Commerce. Noise Control Act
of 1971 and Amendments. Hearing before the
Subcommittee on the Environment. U.S. GPO:626.
U.S. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. 1971.
Snowmobiles and Other Off-Road Vehicles, hearing before
the Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation, 92d Cong., 1st
sess., on study of effects of rapidly expanding use of all
terrain vehicles on public lands. U.S. Govt. Print. Office:72.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website:
http://pipingplover.fws.gov/overview.html
Wilshire, H.G, S. Shipley, and J.K. Nakata. 1978. Impacts of off-
road vehicles on vegetation. Transactions of the Forty-Third
North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference,
Phoenix, Arizona, editor K. Sabol. Washington D.C. : Wildlife
Management Institute:131-39.
Tom Petersen photo.
9

— continued from page 3 —
transportation maps do not present even a remotely
accurate picture of the ecological problems caused by
all the illegally created routes that are out there on
the ground. Some unclassified routes may have been
official routes that the FS never put on their maps,
but many are the user-created routes that the FS
states they are trying to address through mapping.
The FS certainly does not need new maps to deter-
mine which routes are legal. They already have maps
that show the legal system. The FS already has a
system that they can use as a basis for current off-
road vehicle management – before they complete
their new comprehensive transportation atlas.
In the meantime, the Forest Service has an
obligation to stop the continued proliferation of new
user-created routes. In addition to that, the Forest
Service has an obligation to stop the use of motorized
vehicles on non-designated, non-system/unclassified
routes. That obligation does not rest on whether or
not new maps are completed – the Forest Service has
maps. Any routes not on the current maps should not
be open for use – period.
While mapping is clearly important, it is not a
substitute for aggressive, active management of
existing ORV problems. The failure to arrest the
continual creation and use of unauthorized cross-
country routes results in further degradation of the
land, an atmosphere of lawlessness regarding
motorized recreation, and a tacit approval of one of
the most significant problems ever to plague the
National Forests.
And to come full circle, if this mapping is done
correctly it will not threaten existing roadless areas or
wilderness designation. As long as the Forest Service
sticks to their language from RARE II, a non-con-
structed, non-improved, non-maintained route does
not disqualify an area from roadless consideration,
nor does it disqualify an area from potential wilder-
ness designation. Historically speaking, mapping has
provided us with invaluable information for protect-
ing roadless and wilderness areas. It does not,
however, replace management. Mapping roads and
routes and managing off-road vehicles are two
different things.
Mapping will provide us with a picture of road
problems and the remaining roadless acreage.
Mapping will provide us with a tool that we can use
to determine which roads to remove to expand
roadless acreage. Mapping will provide us with much
needed information for future management. But not
a single map other than the current transportation
plans is needed to provide us with the basis for
managing illegal off-road vehicle use, right now.
10
Regional Reports & Updates
The RAP: WCPR Hosts Road Removal
Prioritization Meeting
On August 17-18, Wildlands CPR hosted a meeting of activists and
scientists to commence a coordinated effort to establish ecologically-
based road removal criteria. While Wildlands CPR has wanted to initiate
such an effort for a while, one of the reasons behind holding the
meeting now is the new Forest Service Roads Policy. The new policy
provides an opportunity to affect road closure decisions through the
Roads Analysis Process (RAP), a public participation process. It’s through
RAP that the Forest Service will prioritize road decommissioning,
reconstruction and new construction, and where we need to push for
ecologically based road removal decisions as opposed to access and
budget-based decisions.
Many activists and scientists are interested in or are already
developing road removal criteria. We wanted to bring these people
together to avoid working similar projects independently and to figure
out how to share knowledge and resources to come up with the best
possible tool. The criteria, which would include standards and guidelines
for road removal prioritization, could be used not only as an on-the-
ground tool for environmental activists conducting assessments, but also
as a standard against which to hold the Forest Service’s RAP.
The meeting included presentations by Lee Metzgar, on prioritizing
road removal for wide ranging carnivores (specifically grizzlies), and
Chris Frissell from Pacific Rivers Council on prioritizing road removal for
aquatics and fisheries. Other components discussed were hydrology/
geomorphology, soils, invasive plant species, and recreating roadless/
wildlands through road removal.
We also discussed tools and models already in progress that can
help in our efforts to prioritize road removal. Bo Wilmer, Dawn Hartley
and Michele Crist from The Wilderness Society’s Center for Landscape
Analysis talked about the RoadNET model they are developing. RoadNET
(Road Network Evaluation Tool) is a spatially based computer software
application for assessing the ecological and economic impact of roads.
Another key to prioritizing road removal criteria is on-going
landscape level mapping efforts by groups such as The Wildlands
Project, Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative, and Alliance for the Wild
Rockies, just to name a few. Finally, on-the-ground road assessment and
removal efforts by groups like Sky Island Alliance, Predator Conservation
Alliance and Swan View Coalition provide some of the best models for
getting roads removed.
In terms of actually starting to write up road removal criteria... well,
we’re not there yet. But the meeting was a great opportunity to share
knowledge and experiences and lay the groundwork for a coordinated
effort of getting the most ecologically damaging roads removed. We plan
to continue working on the criteria, with assistance from other scien-
tists, and will keep you updated as it proceeds.
The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001
 Wildlands CPR Co-hosts
Road Workshop in Canada
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative,
Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads and the
Calgary/Banff chapter of Canadian Parks and
Wilderness Society present:

Managing Roads for Wildlife

Near Crowsnest Pass, AB
October 1-2, 2001
When:
The workshop begins at 8:30am on Monday, October 1st. Participants are encouraged to arrive the
evening of Sunday, September 30th. The workshop fee includes workshops all day October 1st and the 2nd
until 3 pm, dormitory accommodations September 30th & October 1st, all meals on October 1st and breakfast
& lunch on October 2. If enough participants are interested, we will offer an optional dinner Sunday, Sept.
30th at cost.

Where:
The workshop will be held at the Crowsnest Bible Camp between Coleman and Sparwood, and near the
infamous “Highway 3 fracture zone.” (If that doesn’t mean anything to you, come to the workshop!!)

The Workshop:
This roads workshop has been created as a direct response to numerous queries from Y2Y and
Wildlands CPR network groups about:
1) the best available science on the ecological effects of highways and forest roads,
2) possible mitigation and prevention measures, and
3) how to accomplish those measures on the ground.

Presenters Include:
Chris Frissel, Carolyn Callaghan, Shelly Alexander, Tony Clevenger, Kim Davitt, Marnie Criley, Jake
Herrero, Rupert Pilkington, Keith Hammer, and more to be announced.

Topics:
Ecological effects
Mitigation and restoration
Tools: documenting linear disturbances
physically mitigating linear disturbances
policy and legal hooks to prevent roads, get money
to mitigate, etc.
Forest Roads Case Study Field Trip
Highways Case Study Field Trip

Logistics:
This workshop is open to anyone who is part of the Yellowstone to Yukon network, Wildlands CPR or
is active with a network group. The cost for the workshop, which includes all materials, food and lodging
(shared rooms) for 1 1/2 days and two nights, is only $150.00 CD or $100.00 US. Y2Y offers a limited
number of travel scholarships to help cover some participants’ travel costs (preference will be given to
those coming from farther away and/or carpooling). We can help arrange carpooling if you let us know
your needs!

To Register:
Contact Caitlin Fox, Y2Y US Outreach Assistant at (406) 327-8512 or caitlin@y2y.net. Send checks to:
Y2Y, 114 W. Pine Street, Missoula, MT 59802.

We still have spaces left for the workshop – contact us soon to guarantee a spot.

The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001 11

 Regional Reports & Updates
Colville National Forest
Sets Bad ANILCA Precedent
On August 15, The Lands Council and other conservation
groups appealed a Colville National Forest decision to grant
Stimson Lumber Company a cost-share easement based on the
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).
ANILCA permits road construction for the purpose of accessing
private holdings within the boundaries of federal land.
Stimson plans to use this act to construct two miles of road on
public land, some of which cuts through old growth forest and
would lead to the degradation of critical endangered species
habitat for grizzly bear, Canadian lynx, gray wolf, bull trout and
mountain caribou – of which there are less than 30 animals
left. Stimson’s parcels lie within the LeClerc watershed, home
to rare wildlife and fish species. Stimson plans to log 1,577
acres, build 16 miles of new roads, and build 28 stream
crossings in this critical habitat.
According to Mike Petersen of The Lands Council, “this
decision by the Forest Service sets a bad precedent; that
ANILCA supersedes the Endangered Species Act.”
Mark Sprengel, Forest Program Director with the Selkirk
Conservation Alliance who coordinated efforts to write the
administrative appeal challenging the decision, states that the
Forest Service’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
for the project is inadequate, because all the conditions that led
to the Service’s initial “Jeopardy” finding still apply – such as
displacement of bears and mortality from road building. “This
situation is unprecedented,” explains Sprengel, since the FEIS,
which was issued last September by the Colville NF, readily
determines that “the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of
ANY action alternatives may affect – are likely to adversely
affect” caribou, grizzly bear, bull trout, lynx and gray wolf.
The Lands Council and Selkirk Conservation Alliance are
part of The Selkirk Coalition, a U.S./Canadian group of 19
organizations working to protect and restore the wildlife,
watersheds and communities of the Southern Selkirk Moun-
tains. “Ideally, we’d like to see Stimson at the negotiating table
to discuss the reasonable and prudent alternative of selling
their land in-holdings to a third party for perpetual protection,”
says Petersen of The Lands Council, “unfortunately, this is not
the case. This is why we are appealing this project.”
CPAWS gets Injunction against Clearing
Road in Wood Buffalo National Park
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) won
the first stage of their legal battle to stop construction of a 118
km road through the centre of Wood Buffalo National Park on
August 11, 2001. Wood Buffalo is Canada’s largest national
park and is recognized by the United Nations as a World
Heritage Site. It is home to one of the largest free-roaming
herds of bison in the world. The road was being proposed by a
Fort Smith-based consortium, the Thebacha Road Society, and
paid for from federal and territorial government funds.
Federal Court Judge, Honourable Madam Justice Dawson
granted CPAWS’ application for an interim injunction prevent-
ing tree clearing and road construction until the conservation
12
group’s lawsuit against road construction is heard in federal
court. Without the injunction the tree clearing for the road
would have started in the first week of September. Sierra Legal
Defense Fund will present legal arguments against the road
September 27 in Vancouver, BC.
“It’s our view that Minister of Canadian Heritage, Sheila
Copps is contravening national parks law by approving the
road. The judge’s decision saves the park from 118 kilometres
of tree clearing through the heart of Wood Buffalo and allows
us to argue that the road is illegal,” declared Sam Gunsch,
Executive Director of the Edmonton Chapter of CPAWS.
“Building this road would be a major step backwards in how
Parks Canada manages our national parks, as well as setting a
damaging precedent for future proposals in other parks.”
The injunction cites the irreparable damage that would
happen to the park vegetation, as well as the risk of erosion
and damage to sensitive, internationally recognized geological
karst formations. It also cites deficiencies in the road’s
environmental assessment about the potential impacts of the
road on bison, forest birds and woodland caribou.
“Parks Canada has a legal responsibility to manage
national parks to maintain their ecological integrity. In recent
years, Heritage Minister Sheila Copps has been responding to
public opinion and calls from CPAWS and other conservation
groups to put nature first in national parks. She passed a new
National Parks Act, a strong piece of environmental legislation
requiring ecological integrity of national parks be the first
priority in their management. Then, in one of her first major
decisions after its passage, the Wood Buffalo road was ap-
proved,” said Stephen Hazell, Executive Director of CPAWS.
The Mikisew Cree First Nation are also opposed to the road
and are taking legal action against the Minister and Parks
Canada. Some Mikisew Cree reside in the park near where the
road would be built and object to construction on their
traditional territory.
For further information please contact:
Sam Gunsch, Executive Director, CPAWS – Edmonton
Chapter 780-903-5990; 780-432-0967.
Alison Woodley, Federal and Northern Campaigner, CPAWS
613-569-7226.
Background & Photographs:
http://www.cpaws.org/woodbuffalo/
The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001
ORVs on the Oceano Dunes SVRA What You Can Do
The Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation
Area (ODSVRA) is a state park operated by the You can help by writing to California’s
Governor:
California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR)
and is about 20 minutes south of San Louis Obispo.
Honorable Gray Davis
The fragile Oceano Dunes ecosystem provides
State Capitol
habitat to several federally protected species and is a
Sacramento, CA 95814
playground to over one million motor vehicles every
year. A staggering 65,000 motorized vehicles were You also should write to California State
expected to use the dunes over the Labor Day Parks Director Rusty Areias and Deputy
weekend. Director Dave Widell of the Off-Highway
The ODSVRA is home to the California least tern Vehicle Division of State Parks:
and the western snowy plover, and contains three Least tern.
endangered plants within its borders: the Marsh California State Parks photo. California State Parks
Sandwort, the Gambel’s watercress, and la Graciosa P.O. Box 942896
thistle. The Oceano provides critical habitat for the Sacramento, CA 94296-0001).
threatened snowy plover and red-legged frog and provides important habitat for the
endangered California least tern. Arroyo Grande creek, which drains into the Pacific For more information contact Tarren
Ocean from within its boundaries, provides critical habitat for the threatened Collins at tarren@slocoastalliance.org,
southern steelhead. or leave a message at 805-543-8717.
The environmental impacts caused by the seemingly unending numbers of You can visit the California State
vehicles on the unique and fragile Oceano Dunes ecosystem is of great concern to Park’s website at:
citizens in the area. The extremely high vehicle use of the ODSVRA results in an http://www.oceanodunes.com.
unusually high mortality rate of terns and plovers. According to the Santa Lucia
Chapter of the Sierra Club, this year an entire generation of snowy plover chicks was Talking points for the letters
lost at the Oceano Dunes. * Currently, and for decades, DPR has
The vast majority of the over one million annual park visitors cross the Arroyo allowed vehicles to destroy the
Grande Creek by car or truck. In the process, they pollute the creek with petroleum Oceano Dunes, despite never having
and other toxic products, and can physically interfere with the annual migration of conducted any environmental review.
Steelhead. There has never been an environmental analysis of these impacts. * It is time for DPR to stop using tax-
The DPR also is operating without a valid incidental take permit (a specific payer dollars to promote recreational
exemption from the Endangered Species Act) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. vehicle destruction of our precious
As DPR’s §404 Clean Water Act permit has expired, the USFWS’s Biological Opinion is dunes and beach.
no longer in effect. DPR’s activities violate the federal Endangered Species Act, as * You support the Sierra Club and EDC’s
they have, and will continue to “take” the federally protected California least tern, efforts to protect the endangered
snowy plover, red-legged frog, and southern steelhead. western snowy plover, which has
The Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, represented by the Environmental suffered a dramatic decline in
Defense Center (EDC), has notified appropriate state and federal agencies that the population by 1/3 over just the last
five years, with less than 1000
group will file suit under the Endangered Species Act over the illegal take of protected
individual birds left in California.
species unless the DPR’s managers take necessary measures to satisfy the ESA.
* Demand that DPR be held accountable
Sierra Club volunteers and others have attended and spoke out at various
for allowing all but one of the 50
hearings regarding the ODSVRA and have organized protests. Sierra Club has also
snowy plover chicks that hatched
produced a 15-minute video, “Easing the Throttle,” to show why this inappropriate
this year to die at Oceano Dunes and
vehicular recreational activity is one of the longest running and most environmen- that they comply with the Endan-
tally destructive coastal tragedies. gered Species Act.
* Demand that DPR immediately close
the ODSVRA to vehicles.
* Demand protection for steelhead trout
in Arroyo Grande Creek from
millions of vehicle crossings every
year.
* Demand that the city of Grover Beach
and San Louis Obispo County stop
allowing the grading of the vehicle
ramps under their jurisdiction, and
that the County stop allowing
vehicles on beach property it owns
near the ODSVRA.
* Demand that State Parks protect the
public trust resources by immedi-
ately taking action to correct the
improper management practices
which result in a continual loss of
Red-legged frog. USFWS photo. endangered and threatened species.

The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001 13

 Natural Trails and Waters Coalition
SUPPORT WILDERNESS IN NEW JERSEY
OPPOSE H.R. 896
Sierra Club ♦ The Wilderness Society ♦ Wilderness Watch ♦ Audubon ♦ Defenders of Wildlife ♦
National Wildlife Refuge Association
Background
Amid the hustle and bustle of the Garden State Parkway and New
Jersey Turnpike, there are few wild places to experience solitude
and wildlife in their natural habitat. The Holgate seashore in the
Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge provides New
Jerseyans an unrivaled experience to see birds including piping
plovers, brown pelicans, great blue herons and peregrine falcons.
This Wilderness area on Long Beach Island was set aside to host
thousands of shorebirds that migrate and feed along the coast of
New Jersey. This area is so critical that from April through
August the Wilderness is completely reserved to allow piping
plovers, a federally threatened species, time to nest and migrate.
Moreover, this area remains a prime area for migrating shorebirds
through the fall months.
Close to 300 species including Atlantic brant and American black
duck have been sighted by birdwatchers in the Holgate area
alone. The Wilderness designation provides added protection and
encourages the recovery of threatened and endangered species.
Holgate beach is the only wild space that affords New Jerseyans
and all visitors an opportunity to enjoy bird watching and fishing
free from the sounds, smells, and wildlife harassment caused by
off-road vehicles.
Illegal tracks can be seen throughout the Edwin B.
Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
♦♦♦♦♦
The Natural Trails and Waters Coalition includes more than 70
conservation, recreation, hunting, and other groups (including the
Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Watch) working
to protect and restore all public lands and waters from the severe
damage caused by dirt bikes, jet skis and all other off-road vehicles.
Problem
Illegal off-road vehicle use is violating Holgate beach’s
federally designated Wilderness status and is most likely
harassing migrating birds during their critical migration
seasons. In the United States only 4.4 percent of the land
is preserved as wilderness and only two- percent of the
land in New Jersey enjoys this status. In New Jersey, over
two dozen beaches allow beach buggies and other off-
road vehicles to drive along the shoreline. On Long Beach
Island, off-road vehicles are allowed on nearly 18 miles of
beaches. Only 2.5 miles of undeveloped beach in the
refuge are restricted to vehicles.
Beach buggies and other off-road vehicles carve tracks
in the protected Wilderness of the Refuge.
Solution
Protect New Jersey’s wild shore and enforce the
Wilderness Act of 1964 by prohibiting beach buggy and
other off-road vehicle use. We urge the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to explore alternative ways of getting
people to the tip of the beach.
Take Action
New Jersey Rep. Jim Saxton has introduced legislation
(H.R. 896) that would undermine Wilderness protections
by amending the boundary of Holgate beach on the Edwin
B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge to allow beach
buggy and other off-road vehicle use. Support New
Jersey’s Wilderness by opposing H.R. 896.
♦♦♦♦♦
For more information contact:
Kristen Brengel, (202) 429-2694
Bart Semcer, (202) 675-6696
 Membership and Order Information
Printed Materials On-Line Resources
Road-Ripper's Handbook ($20.00, $30 non-members) —A com- Visit our Web Site: www.wildrockies.org/WildCPR. You’ll find
prehensive activist manual that includes the five Guides listed educational materials, back issues of The Road-RIPorter (in-
below, plus The Ecological Effects of Roads, Gathering In- cluding all our bibliography, legal and field notes), and cur-
formation with the Freedom of Information Act, and more! rent action alerts.
Road-Ripper's Guide to the National Forests ($5, $8 non-mem-
bers) —By Keith Hammer. How-to procedures for getting Also at the site, we’ve got a link to an ORV Information Site with
roads closed and revegetated, descriptions of environmental an interactive map-based database on each National Forest’s
laws, road density standards & Forest Service road policies. ORV Policy.
Road-Ripper's Guide to the National Parks ($5, $8 non-mem-
bers) —By David Bahr & Aron Yarmo. Provides background Now available on our site: Ecological Impacts of Roads: A Bib-
on the National Park System and its use of roads, and outlines liographic Database (Updated Jan. 2001) — Contains approx.
how activists can get involved in NPS planning. 6,000 citations — including scientific literature on erosion,
Road-Ripper's Guide to the BLM ($5, $8 non-members) —By fragmentation, sedimentation, pollution, effects on wildlife,
Dan Stotter. Provides an overview of road-related land and aquatic and hydrological effects, and other information on
resource laws, and detailed discussions for participating in the impacts of roads.
BLM decision-making processes.
Road-Ripper's Guide to Off-Road Vehicles ($5, $8 non-mem-
Subscribe to our on-line list-serves. Check the boxes below on
bers) —By Dan Wright. A comprehensive guide to reducing
the member form and receive Skid Marks and/or our Activist
the use and abuse of ORVs on public lands. Includes an ex-
Alert over E-Mail.
tensive bibliography.
Road-Ripper’s Guide to Wildland Road Removal ($5, $8 non-
members) —By Scott Bagley. Provides technical information
on road construction and removal, where and why roads fail,
and how you can effectively assess road removal projects.
Refer a friend to
Trails of Destruction ($10) —By Friends of the Earth and Wild-
lands CPR, written by Erich Pica and Jacob Smith. This re-
Wildlands CPR!
Send us the names and addresses of friends
port explains the ecological impacts of ORVs, federal funding
you think may be interested in receiving
for motorized recreation on public lands, and the ORV
membership information from Wildlands CPR.
industry’s role in pushing the ORV agenda.

WILDLANDS CPR MEMBERSHIP/ORDER FORM

I want to join (or renew my membership with) Send me these Wildlands CPR Publications:
Wildlands CPR:
Qty: Title/Price Each: Total:
$250 $100 $50 business
/
$30 standard $15 low-income Other

Type of Membership: Individual Organization

/
Name
Total of all items:
Affiliation
Prices include shipping: for Priority Mail add $3.50 per item;
Address for Canadian orders, add $6.50 per item.
International Membership — $30 Minimum . All prices in U.S. Dollars
Ask about reduced rates for items ordered in bulk.

Check here to receive our new ORV and road E-mail

Phone/E-mail newsletter, “Skid Marks,” every few weeks.

Check here for our E-mail Activist List.

Please send this form and your check to:
Wildlands CPR • PO Box 7516 • Missoula, Montana 59807 Please remember to include your e-mail address!

The Road-RIPorter September/October 2001 15

Morning glory vines overtaking logging road in Sabah, Malaysia. Bruce Howlett photo.

Non-profit Organization
US POSTAGE
PAID
MISSOULA, MT 59801
PERMIT NO. 569

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads

P.O. Box 7516
Missoula, MT 59807

"What does accessibility mean? Is there

any spot on earth that men have not
proved accessible by the simplest
means–feet and legs and heart?"
–Ed Abbey, in “Desert Solitaire”

The Road-RIPorter is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, process chlorine-free bleached paper.