Fossil Creek: Exploring a Wilderness Shangri-la

The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone...when the soils shall have been still further impoverished.... These questions do not relate only to the next century or the next generation. One distinguishing characteristic of really civilized men is foresight; ...and if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future!" - President Theodore Roosevelt

OFFROAD VEHICLES A Disquieting Look at a Major Environmental Threat

Your long-awaited vacation arrives at last. And you and your family are going to spend it in Arizona's great outdoors. Hiking, camping, picnicking, sight-seeing. Peace and quiet. Beautiful, restful scenery. You arrive at your chosen campground and prepare to relax-when, suddenly, bedlam! A racket akin to the sound of a squadron of motorized lawnmowers gone berserk shatters the stillness. Your quiet space has just been invaded by a posse of preteens on three-wheeled all-terrain vehicles. It's happening everywhere in the West. And we're rapidly running out of those quiet places. But noise, dust, intrusion

represent a mere fraction of the destructive impact all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and other off-road vehicles (ORVs) are having on the environment and on other recreational users of that environment. Herb Drinkwater, mayor of Scottsdale and chairman of the 1986 Governor's Task Force on Recreation on Public Lands, summed it up for this writer: "They [off-road vehicle abusers] do a tremendous amount of damage. They tear up the desert. They tear up the forest. And the damage takes years to repair. Sometimes it never repairs itself."

As destructive forces often do, this one began inauspiciously. Then, almost overnight, it seemed to overwhelm us. First mass-marketed by Honda in 1971, ATVs did not gain significantly in popularity until after 1979, when technical progress suddenly spurred sales. Today, more than 2.5 million such vehicles are on the land. The ATV and its cousins, however, are just a new slant on an old problem. Offroad vehicles have been around since the emergence of the World War II jeepthough jeeps always were quite limited in number. But with increasing demand, almost every auto and truck manufacturer eventually got into the four-wheel-drive business. And the wild lands of the nation have been paying an awful price ever since.

Just how awful is reflected in the following reports from Arizona's major landlords: the U. S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the State Land Department, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department which, in addition to its other tasks, keeps a watchful eye on animal and bird habitat.

National Forests

The Tonto National Forest is a vast domain of 2.8 million acres, much of it low desert. Lee Redding, Tonto's recreation staff officer, reports there is unregulated use of ORVs by unorganized users everywhere in the forest. Areas that have been especially hard hit are Sugar Loaf, once an idyllic camping destination on Sycamore Creek, just northeast of Phoenix, and vast greenswards along the lower Salt and Verde rivers that have become bleak tracts of tire-rutted sand where nothing will grow. Lee Poague of the Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona reports his mixed desert and mountain lands "can't tolerate vehicles going cross-country."

Recently, the Coronado forest closed an entire section near the town of Sierra Vista because its ecology was seriously strained by ORVs. "It's gotten to be a huge problem, and primarily three-wheelers are at fault," says Poague. "Those are usually young drivers, and not organized. The organized four-wheel clubs express no desire to go off the road."

Boggy meadows are being ravaged in the two-million-acre Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona, a region of extensive coniferous woodlands.

"These are crucial wetlands for wild-life," says Loyd Barnett, Coconino forest recreation officer. "Some areas like Bis-marck Lake, on the northwest side of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, have received severe damage. Vehicles churn up the mud, cut deep ruts, and rip out the vegetation that made the area so useful to animals." Another area hard hit in the Coconino is Cinder Hills near Sunset Crater National Monument. Here two, three-, and four-wheeled ORVs have created a dense network of tracks and scars that will be visible for years. In some places, the ORVs, especially three-wheelers, have carved ugly deep trenches in the cinder beds as they repeatedly race around curving routes with their knobby tires hurling cinders outward. ORV use on some of the roads in the Cinder Hills has made them virtually impassable to many of the vehicles that formerly used them to reach favorite camping areas. "Most of the people using these threewheelers," claims Barnett, "are youngsters who don't realize the damage they're causing."

Coconino, like other national forests, has closed some areas to ORVs because of damage to environment and habitat. But in at least one case-near Upper Lake Mary-signs and barriers placed at points "I believe that ORV damage to public land is the single most critical issue to be considered this year.... This is not just a desert catastrophe, however. The foothills and mountains of the West are feeling the pressure of thousands of four-wheelers, three-wheelers, snowmobiles, and dirt bikes. The erosion, aesthetic deterioration, and wildlife habitat damage caused by this uncontrolled use of our public lands is appalling." - Sid Goodloe, rancher of departure from the highway were forcibly removed repeatedly, and vehicles continued to damage the vulnerable grounds. Finally it was necessary to construct a mile of rail fence along the highway to protect the area. It is now on its way to recovery.

Perhaps because it is not adjacent to a large population center, the Kaibab National Forest of northern Arizona has had only relatively isolated incidents with ORVS. Most noticeable is the damage to the forest's road system during the wet season, says Dennis Lund, Kaibab recreation officer, "when an ORV goes through and plows up the turf."

That isn't to say this 1,556,432-acre wooded expanse on both sides of the Grand Canyon hasn't had its share of problems. There have been road closures here, too, thanks to ORVs. Since the inception of an off-road-vehicle plan seven years ago, the North Kaibab has locked up almost fifty miles of back roads and trails. "These lead into critical wildlife areas," says Lund, "open meadows that are boggy during the wet season."

Since the closure, the area's wounds have begun to heal.

In the South Kaibab, cinder-cone areas were closed to traffic about the same time. And they too are healing, Lund says.

"Our primary impact area is around communities like Prescott and the expanding Verde Valley towns," reports Bruce Lamb, recreation officer of the Prescott National Forest, 1,231,061 acres of choice high-country terrain.

"We have closed several areas [to ORV traffic), but we have a difficult time with enforcement because of limited staff and the lack of vehicle licensing to aid in identification."

The principal damage reported by PNF is watershed destruction, the creation of new trails that then erode. "The deterioration is being caused by irresponsible three-wheelers," Lamb says. "A lot of enthusiasts use trails and old mining roads. We don't have a problem with that. We also have some enduros (timed motor-cycle events) in the forest. The sponsors must have a permit. If damage occurs, the sponsoring organization is obligated to correct the damage. We consider such events a valid use."

Lamb believes that organized groups generally police their members. "There are a lot of conscientious riders who use their vehicles in a responsible way. And then we have those who don't."

"We don't have a running gun battle with ORV operators," says Vearl Haynes,

'Education is the Solution'

In many cases, it's not so much the machines as some of the people who operate them who are drawing fire from conservation-minded individuals and organizations-and a vocal section of the four-wheel-drive community as well.

"Don't lump us in with the wild kids on three-wheelers intent on tearing up the countryside," insists this growing body of organized recreational four-wheelers. They also feel no kinship with beefy, beery brutes in souped-up, balloon-tired trucks who care nothing for the land they're abusing.

"That kind of stereotype [for organized four-wheelers] is as far from the truth as alleging Santa Claus is a child molester," claims Stu Bengson, past land-use director of the United Four Wheel Drive Association. "Most of our members are young families," he says. "Some go four-wheeling as part of a family or organized group, and others enjoy it as a means to get close to nature."

Bengson suggests today's typical recreational four-wheelers are vitally interested in protecting the environment. "Real four-wheeling involves 'driving with elegance'; for example, don't spin your tires, rather make your vehicle perform as a fine machine, not as a beast. Leave nature as you found it. Do not destroy or disturb anything."

Properly managed four-wheeling, he says, has little detrimental impact on the environment.

"We [members of four-wheel associations and clubs] are very much into maintaining the environment," adds Tim Ross, vice president of the Arizona State Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs, which has been praised for its volunteer environmental work. Its most recent project involved re-habilitating fragile areas around Roosevelt Lake in central Arizona that had been scarred by all-terrain vehicles.

"We call it our Adopt-A-Trail program," says Ross. "We contract with the Forest Service to maintain a section of road. We have now adopted in the neighborhood of 500 to 1,000 miles throughout Arizona."

Still in the planning stage is the association's "four-wheel-drive host program" scheduled for areas susceptible to serious ORV damage. "In effect," Ross says, "we plan to patrol such lands in cooperation with the Forest Service and try to manage ORV operators while we educate them."

The Phoenix Four-Wheelers, a local club of which Ross is a member, holds a special distinction in the development of environmentally aware four-wheel events. The club just celebrated its seventeenth year as sponsor of an annual "Four-Wheeler Round-Up."

"It's an unusual program," Ross admits, "perhaps the only one like it in the United States." It's held annually on a 160-acre BLM recreational lease near Wittmann, Arizona.

"We get anywhere from 1,000 to 1,400 people out there from Arizona, California, Texas, Washington, Colorado, even Florida," Ross says. Included in the week-long family event is at least one road trip each day, a ladies' trail ride, four-wheel-drive games, pot luck dinners, and dancing.

Barry Burkhart, The Arizona Republic outdoor editor, attended the 1986 Round-Up: "They prove that four-wheelers are nice people," Burkhart concluded in his newspaper column, "not maniacs out to destroy the environment....All of us who care should turn our attention to the yahoos destroying the environment in the name of fun. We must get that stopped."

Tim Ross thinks education is the solution to the ORV environmenta! abuse problem. He wants to take the word to high schools.

"We [association volunteers] could go into high schools and talk to kids who are out there in their vehicles and start an associated club, take them out on runs and let them see what four-wheeling is really all about, implanting the importance of staying on existing trails and maintaining the environment.

"We need to educate these people that just because physically they can take their machines anywhere, it doesn't mean they have the right to go anywhere."

Recreation staff officer at the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. "Most of our ORV damage is pretty localized. We know where the problem areas are. For example, we have a series of cinder knolls across the forest that contain very fragile soils. That's one of the hard-hit areas. Around Woods Canyon Lake is another. There are several boggy meadows that are suffering damage. In the Heber district, we've issued citations for ORV damage in boggy meadow areas. Those are the primary areas in terms of resource impact.

"We also get some user conflicts around developed recreation areas when abusive ORV riders fail to respect other users."

Four-wheel-drive vehicles and three-wheeled ATVs are both involved in the resource damage to Apache-Sitgreaves, according to Haynes. "With three-wheelers, we have more user conflicts, and they are also the ones damaging the wet bog areas. With the four-wheelers, the problem we find is that they are creating new roads by going cross-country."

BLM Lands

The Bureau of Land Management in Arizona is responsible for 12.5 million acres of land, from high plateau to low desert. Bob Abbey, recreation coordinator, says that "four-wheel-drive vehicles, like pickup trucks and jeeps, for the most part stay on existing roads or desert washes. Three-wheel vehicles are a little harder to control. Some of the users are minors, and they are not educated in the proper use of motorized vehicles."

Like other public landlords, BLM is experiencing ORV damage, but, says Abbey, "in an emergency we go in and close an area to ORV use. We've done that in the past."

Recent closures on BLM lands have been in the newly acquired San Pedro River area near Sierra Vista and the Beal Slough north of Lake Havasu City, along the Colorado River.

Game and Fish Department

Just how serious are all these ORV incursions? Arizona Game and Fish found the situation catastrophic, as they spelled out in a February, 1986, report.

There has been, the report says in part, destruction of wildlife habitat and abandonment of habitat due to vehicle disturbance; and direct damage to vegetation, which in turn affects the food and cover needs of wildlife, resulting in decreased populations.

The vehicles also cause soil disturbance and the establishing of weedy vegetation; destruction of soil crusts, exposing plant roots to drying and damage; soil compaction, inhibiting regeneration of plant life, One of the great weaknesses in a state such as Arizona, where the growing population increasingly is made up of people with roots elsewhere, is that it tends to be a gathering place for strangers with not much sense of tradition or historic perspective on their new home. Without those values, newcomers tend to lack the spirit to preserve, to protect, and to perpetuate qualities that attracted them here in the first place." - Pat Murphy, Publisher, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.

which in turn affects animal habitats; disturbance and pollution of water sources and the destruction of aquatic life; and disruption of animal habitat with gas and oil pollution.

The list of ORV-caused disasters goes on to mention the negative effect of ORVS on game birds, which lose food and cover as well as nesting sites.

In forested areas, the Arizona Game and Fish report concludes, vehicle traffic disturbs some species of wildlife, and heavy ORV use reduces the amount and quality of habitat available to all species. Disfiguring tracks made by off-road vehicles spiderweb our fragile land in many parts of Arizona and the West. Such environmental abuse need not continue. If you drive such a vehicle, you can help protect our natural environment (and gain better acceptance of ORVs) by observing a few common sense rules of conduct.

Etiquette Off the Pavement

Report ORV Abusers: 1-800-VANDALS

One action-oriented approach to dealing with the problem of ORV abusers is to report them to the proper law enforcement authority. The Commission on the Arizona Environment (formerly the Governor's Commission on Arizona Environment) has a program that makes this action relatively easy. Its 1-800-VANDALS telephone reporting campaign offers the public an easy way to report illegal activity.

"This is an effort to protect natural resources," says Alicia Bristow, executive director. "ORVs are destroying resources, native plants, and archeological sites. Now if a home owner, outdoor enthusiast, or utility worker sees someone misusing an ORV on public or private lands, he or she can act by calling 1-800-VANDALS."

Arizona Game and Fish dispatchers receive the call and alert an appropriate enforcement agency-county sheriff's department, state land office, Forest Service, BLM. The program is being promoted through both schools and community service agencies.

Arid Land Studies

But that's not the end of the story. Dr. Kennith Foster, director of the Office of Arid Land Studies in Tucson, has found that desert soils are very susceptible to both water and wind erosion, particularly where there is ORV traffic.

"Primarily what you get," says Dr. Foster, "is a compaction of the soil, a deterio-ration of vegetation, and then severe erosion."

The most serious examples of this kind of destruction, he points out, develop where there are vehicle tracks going up the sides of mountainous areas, as in many places around Tucson. "Once this starts, you get gullying and erosion that's very hard to control."

In the long term, these areas tend not to recover, the soils specialist says. "Many of the old wagon trails created in the 1800s are still visible. That indicates to us that the rutted, gutted, and compacted trails may take 50 to 100 years or longer to recover."

Low desert, Dr. Foster says, is where the greatest evidence of ORV damage occurs -areas of low but intense rainfall. Here "the ability of vegetation to recover or even be healthy over long periods of time is not very great. And the ability of annuals to regenerate is quite slim."

State Lands

Federal lands are not the only Arizona real estate impacted by ORVs. The State Land Department has its own share of horror stories. Hardest hit areas, says M. Jean Hassell, state land commissioner, are around the major metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson.

"In north Scottsdale, for instance, along Scottsdale Road, a flat creosote area is all but wasted by three-wheelers and dirt bikes," he says.

Enforcement is a fundamental problem, and there are no hard and fast solutions. However, Daryl Drake of the Arizona Desert Racing Association has his own idea of how it might be accomplished. Though a bit extreme, it brings a gleam to the eyes of many anti-ORVers: "A lot of people have a Captain Kirk syndrome: to boldly go where no man has gone before. When someone goes into a boggy meadow or a riparian area with a big truck or an ATV, we ought to confiscate the vehicle. If we confiscate the machines and auction them off to pay for the reseeding of damaged areas and publicize it-I think people will catch on pretty quick."

Forest Management Plans

While Forest Service officials in Arizona "We used to kid ourselves into thinking that only five percent of outdoor users were slobs. If you still feel this way, just look around you the next time you go afield. I think you will be shocked.... We all have a personal responsibility to get involved. We need to save what we have... to make it better for the next guy. It's simple: the responsibility for appropriate behavior rests with each of us.... If you violate your conscience or the law, go home and look in the mirror, and introduce yourself to the All-American Jerk, the Outdoor Slob." - Steve Leggans, Wyoming Game and Fish Department They might well wish they could do just that, in reality they are restricted to a policy that accepts the vehicles as legitimate equipment in the forest-at least as the policy is currently interpreted. Until such time as more control can be applied, the national forests are countering with new management plans in which the general public and ORV users alike are invited to participate. Primarily the plans call for back-road and trail closures, with user education projects following as a close second.

Along with educating ORV drivers about the fragility of the environment, Dennis Lund of the Kaibab forest will be trying a new approach in his signing of areas closed to vehicle travel. "The new signs will be more of gentle persuasion, giving reasons why a particular road or trail has been closed. It's worked elsewhere," he says, "so we're going to give it a try."

Prescott National Forest's Bruce Lamb responds that PNF roads are considered open unless they're signed as closed. "We have a signing program throughout the forest, and free ORV maps are distributed showing areas in the forest open to ORV traffic."

Tonto National Forest's goal in the next year is to designate ORV routes not subject to erosional problems. In the policy for the desert areas, Forest Service roads will be closed except where designated as open. "We will use a signing system," says Lee Redding. "If the signs are removed, as is so often the case now, it will mean the road cannot be used, the reverse of an earlier procedure."

Before their forest plan is finalized, Tonto officials will ask for input from user groups-as do all federal landlords. After that, maximum effort will be made to educate and then patrol, with the state Game and Fish Department sharing in patrolling and enforcement.

Lee Poague says Coronado would like to close the forest to ORV traffic entirely. Development of a forest plan is now in its final stages. Coronado also is heavily involved in public education, the distribution of road maps, and road signing to indicate which routes are open to ORV traffic. "But this doesn't always work," Poague admits. "The signs have been moved around in the past."

At the Coconino forest, a management Also now at work creating new resource management plans to supervise ORVs on public lands is the Bureau of Land Management. Policy at this agency dictates “a common sense approach which will provide off-road vehicle access to public lands while establishing guidelines to protect the landscape and resources from damage.”

Recreation Coordinator Bob Abbey advises that the majority of BLM lands in Arizona will be designated as “limited” when it comes to ORV use, meaning re structions will apply as to vehicle type, season, and route.

Abbey suggests that ORV users planning to explore BLM lands contact the agency for detailed trail information before starting out.

At present there are only three designated “open,” unrestricted ORV areas on BIM property in Arizona. One is east of Ehrenburg, and the others are near the Parker Strip. The “open” designation means vehicle use is permitted both on and off the roads. The vehicle must be operated responsibly, in a manner unlikely to cause resource damage. Other open areas may be established in the future.

Within its Habitat Protection Program, Arizona Game and Fish plans to develop two projects to help it deal with growing ORV traffic on sensitive lands. A public information program will stress education in the proper use of equipment. The second project is habitat assessment and protection, which includes evaluating the impact of ORV usage on wildlife habitat and enforcement of regulations designed to protect it.

“If we have to have ORVs, let’s put them in special places,” was the gist of the view taken by members of the recent Governor’s Task Force on Recrea tion on Public Lands.

chairman, told this writer: “We recommended to... [then-Governor Babbitt] and the Legislature that the state and the federal government look very seriously at restricting the use of ORVs to dirt roads only, and not let them go off road except on specific trails marked for them in designated areas.” The group also recommended that the state begin enforcing the law against driv ing a motorized vehicle without a license. “Make sure the operators have driver’s licenses. That would take care of a lot of the problems, “Drinkwater insisted. (Na tional forest roads are subject to state laws. Both vehicle and operator must be licensed to operate legally on forest sys-tem roads in the state of Arizona.)

“We don’t have an ORV problem. The tribe has banned all off-road vehicles from the reservation.” - John Caid, Assistant Director, White Mountain Apache Fish and Game Department

Asked if he felt the committee was too soft on ORVs, Drinkwater-in whose town of Scottsdale, where he is mayor, ATVs are subject to confiscation - said: “You have to compromise. All of us [the Task Force members] have very strong feelings about off-road vehicles. But they are a source of enjoyment to a lot of people; still, those people don’t have the right to ruin the environment. If we have to have them, let’s put them in special places. [The final report] would have been stronger if we could have been stronger. Compromise had to be reached.”

Afterword

While research for this article uncovered much to be gloomy about, there were bright spots, too. For instance, we spoke at some length with representatives of Suzuki of America Automotive Corpora tion when, in 1986, the company intro duced the Suzuki Samurai four-wheel drive vehicle to the public. We told Diana Van Alstine and Scott Sandsberry about the severe en-vironmental prob lems thoughtless four-wheelers were creating by going off the roads. They were sympathetic and asked what they could do. We suggested promoting “rules of the road” for ORV drivers, and Bob Farrell, Arizona High ways’ associate editor, prepared a concise guide that underscored the magazine’s concern for protection of the land. A short time later, the Suzuki representatives told us the guidelines would be made a key part of the company’s information packet for Samurai buyers.

Later, we had the opportunity to discuss ORV-caused environmental problems with Chevrolet Motor Division’s J. M. Kelley and the editor of the company’s fledgling publication Chevy Outdoors.

“We heartily agree with your position on the environment,” wrote Kelley, “and very much appreciate your taking the time to visit with us. I expect you’ll see a response in Chevy Outdoors.” About a month after that, a letter and phone call from Editor Tom Morrisey in formed us the magazine would be pub lishing our guide for ORV drivers in a forthcoming issue. It appeared in Septem ber, 1986, over the by-line of Highways’ Bob Farrell.

Minor victories, perhaps; but they do seem to indicate that with proper com munication and education, solutions can be worked out that will benefit both the land and those seeking to use the land for recreation. We here at Arizona Highways are working toward that goal.