Great Basin Group, Sierra Club
Conservation Committee
The Conservation Committee represents the Sierra Club on conservation and environmental issues in northern Nevada,
generally within the area defined for the Great Basin Group. Conservation Committee meetings are irregular -- email the conservation chair
using the link to the left if you are interested in conservation activities and would like to be added to an email list for conservation alerts.
Alerts are sent roughly once a week concerning issues you can take action on.
December 2008 Topical Issue: ORV (Off-Road Vehicles) Impacts.
ORV (see below for definition) damage to Nevada landscape is evident to even the most casual hikers traversing the Great Basin. The increasing number of such vehicles (year over year sales increases for ATV's, for instance, are often in double digits) alone means that designated trails will be more heavily used, but these increasing numbers are too often forging new "user-created" trails and "playgrounds" on our public lands. Due to inadequate resources within the federal agencies, ORV abuse seldom draws fines. Active self-policing by the ORV community is very welcome but falls far short to curb the independent riders who are responsible for most of the abuse.
The US Forest Service Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest is beginning to revise "travel plans" all across the national forest land of Nevada. This is an important process that will deal with the current, on-the-ground situation regarding user-created trails. The overall policy will be to have forest lands closed to motorized travel except on specifically designated roads and trails. The contentious part of drawing the designated routes will lie in what "user-created" trails will be accepted into the official route system.
The national Sierra Club has a policy on ORV use . Your club is dedicated to preserving our public lands, and locally you can contribute by 1) formally commenting on the new federal agency travel plans, 2) reporting ORV abuses to the USFS and BLM, and 3) supporting the upcoming state legislation developed by the Nevada Conservation League to license ORV's. Contact David von Seggern for more information.
Definition: An ORV (off-road vehicle), is defined as "a motor-driven off-road recreation vehicle capable of cross-country travel without benefits of a road or trail, on or immediately over land, snow, ice, marsh, swampland, or other natural terrain. ORV includes, but is not limited to, a multitrack or multiwheel drive vehicle, an ATV, a motorcycle or related 2-wheel, 3-wheel, or 4-wheel vehicle, or an amphibious machine."
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