West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

3.3.2.6.6 Organized Competitive OHV EventsOHV Speed Events: Unless otherwise noted, most of the following impact discussionfor the Barstow-to-Vegas race was given in the Desert Tortoise (Mojave Population) RecoveryPlan USFWS (1994b) and Burge’s 1986 observations of the Frontier 500 Race. Burge (1986)found that the types of maneuvers that contributed to old and recent disturbances includedcircling in place, turning out, passing, backing up, parking, continuous paralleling of the road fora half mile or more, hill climbing, short coursing (short cutting), road widening, and leaving orjoining the course from across open desert.Competitive events have resulted in old routes being widened (1986, USFWS 1994b) andnew routes being formed (Burge 1986, USFWS 1994b). Burge (1986) reported that the Frontier500 Race resulted in stretches of existing roads that were widened 50 to 90 feet on each side.Burge (1986) and the USFWS (1994b) also identified straying from the designated course as aproblem with both races. USFWS (1994b) reported that, during the Barstow-to-Vegas Race,motorcycles and other vehicles strayed beyond the designated course by an average of 30 feet,and caused damage or loss of hundreds of acres of desert tortoise habitat in the eastern MojaveDesert. Burge (1986) found that race-related tracks showed a 103% increase compared to preracetrack counts, and that 38% of discrete tracks, and hundreds of overlapping tracks, extendedbeyond the allowable course width of 100 feet.Burge (1986) found that damaged shrubs were evident in every recent OHV track createdby the Frontier 500 Race, and that 1,170 shrubs were crushed and uprooted along one transectsurveyed after the event. Vollmer et al. (1976) reported that, in the course of one day, amotorcycle race in Kern County involving 700 motorcyclists, “devastated all vegetation in anarea approximately 1-2 meters wide and 5 kilometers long.” Prior to the Frontier 500 Race,Burge (1986) located and flagged 26 tortoise burrows, none of which was crushed, although sheobserved motorcycle tracks within one to two feet of several flagged burrows.Impacts have also been associated with races that were not directly attributable to eventparticipants. The USFWS (1994b) reported that non-event participants often camped inunauthorized areas, litter and garbage were often associated with such illegal campsites, andBLM and other monitors were unable to prevent or control these unauthorized activities.Stoddard to Johnson Valley Competitive Event Corridor: BLM currently allows theuse of the Stoddard-to-Johnson Valley Corridor, which runs through the southwestern portion ofthe proposed Ord-Rodman DWMA. Official use of this corridor for an organized event was lastauthorized by the BLM in 1994, when the “Stoddard Valley-to-Johnson Valley Point-to-PointCorridor Run” occurred.The event, which occurred on 26 November 1994, was sponsored by the AmericanMotorcyclist Association and monitored by the BLM and its appointees. Although the totalracecourse was 173 miles long, all monitoring was restricted to the 21.25-mile Stoddard-to-Johnson Valley Corridor. Prior to the event, LaRue (1994) found a total of 24 tortoise burrows,including 17 burrows that were located between 6 inches and 40 feet from the designated route.Chapter 3 3-135