A federal judge has ordered off-highway vehicle riders to steer clear of more than 2,200 miles of proposed routes through California’s Mojave Desert that’s home to the threatened desert tortoise.
In a blow for both four-wheelers and the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that blocking access to the critical habitat for protected species was a suitable remedy for the agency having violated several federal statutes.
“Studies in the administrative record show that closing areas to [off-highway vehicles] is beneficial to the desert tortoise, and the agencies have long recognized that OHVs cause numerous negative impacts on the protected animal,” Illston wrote in her opinion issued Friday.
Even with the closures, Illston added, 63 percent of the designated area’s potential off-highway vehicle routes would remain available and 271,661 acres designated as “open areas” would still be accessible.
