Steens Mountain threatened by BLM travel decision

The wide-open spaces of Steens Mountain are in danger. A new travel plan for the mountain threatens the unique solitude and unfragmented sagebrush habitat of the iconic desert mountain, according to the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA). In a lawsuit filed today, the group argues that the new plan will permanently establish illegal off-road driving routes that threaten proposed wilderness areas, fragment critical wildlife habitat and open the mountain to weed infestations.

The plan, prepared by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), permanently establishes motorized travel on 519 miles of routes within this congressionally-protected area in southeast Oregon’s fragile high desert. But ONDA surveys show hundreds of miles of the routes have virtually disappeared into the sagebrush and grassland through nonuse over the years. BLM’s decision to allow motorized exploration of these areas violates a federal law prohibiting off-road travel and creation or re-establishment of new vehicle routes on Steens Mountain. Almost all of nearly 10,000 public comments that BLM received about the proposal favored closing a large proportion of these routes.

“The indiscriminate use of off-road vehicles on our public lands is one of the most serious threats to Steens Mountain,” said ONDA executive director, Brent Fenty. “If implemented as proposed, BLM’s travel plan will threaten proposed wilderness areas throughout this remarkable, nationally significant landscape.”

The Steens Mountain Travel Management Plan (TMP) governs about a half million acres of public land, including the 170,000-acre Steens Mountain Wilderness Area. According to ONDA, BLM’s plan violates federal laws requiring the agency to “comprehensively” and simultaneously plan for both motorized and non-motorized use, prohibiting off-road travel, creation of new routes and destruction of wilderness values, and requiring BLM to manage sagebrush habitat for the benefit of Greater sage grouse, a species under consideration for listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

ONDA argues the agency’s decision cements a network of motorized routes on Steens Mountain, leaving almost no area more than a couple miles from a road. BLM admits it cannot even locate some of the mapped routes on the ground. An administrative board within the Department of the Interior already has invalidated 36 miles of so-called “Obscure Routes,” agreeing with ONDA that opening these areas to motorized use violates several laws.

“The idea of designating routes that have not been used for decades and cannot be found on the ground as open for motorized use defies common sense,” said Fenty.

In field surveys conducted between 2002 and 2007, ONDA inventoried hundreds of miles of routes to be managed under the TMP. ONDA gave BLM a report summarizing route conditions and recommending which routes should be left open, closed permanently or limited to administrative use or use by individuals holding federal permits to graze livestock. ONDA recommended that routes that were overgrown, impassable, redundant or obsolete, or causing resource damage, should be closed or converted to hiking trails. Largely ignoring the report, BLM instead prepared a travel plan focusing solely on motorized use.

 “BLM’s decision to give priority to motorized recreation is inconsistent with Congress’ decision to protect Steens Mountain as a national treasure,” said Fenty. “It also ignores the Steens Act’s clear requirement that BLM plan for motorized and non-motorized use at the same time to achieve a proper balance that will protect the ecological integrity of the mountain.”

In 2000, Congress passed the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act. The law created a 428,000-acre protected area called the Cooperative Management and Protection Area (CMPA). The BLM must manage the CMPA to conserve and protect the “long-term ecological integrity of Steens Mountain for future and present generations.” Congress directed the BLM to prepare a “comprehensive” transportation plan to manage roads and trails within the CMPA, by October 30, 2004. In June 2007, a federal judge agreed with ONDA that the BLM’s first effort to create a “transportation plan” failed because it did not address non-motorized travel and consider closing roads to create hiking or equestrian trails. Following that decision, BLM completed the TMP. ONDA argues in its lawsuit that the TMP suffers from the same legal flaws identified by the federal court in 2007.

“Our hope is that the BLM will reexamine transportation issues on Steens Mountain and ensure that hikers, equestrians, anglers, hunters and other non-motorized users are given an equal voice in this process,” said Fenty.

Steens Mountain is situated deep in southeast Oregon’s high desert. It rises more than 9,700 feet from broad sagebrush steppe interspersed with juniper woodlands, aspen groves, and relic fir stands. The 60-mile long mountain began taking shape 18 million years ago as the earth’s crust began to stretch east to west. On its east side, a mile-high escarpment overlooks the ancient Alvord Valley below. The mountain’s various habitats and more than 100 miles of federally-designated Wild and Scenic Rivers support a diversity of fish and wildlife species.

Among the hundreds of bird species on the mountain is an important population of sage grouse. Once numbering more than a million birds across 16 western states and 3 Canadian provinces, sage grouse have declined severely over the last 50 years. Sage grouse depend on intact sagebrush habitat to provide roosting, cover and food. Oregon’s “sagebrush sea” provides almost 20 percent of the species’ remaining range. Because Oregon contains some of the largest expanses of relatively intact sagebrush habitat in North America, conservation and protection of sage grouse in Oregon is extraordinarily important to the species’ survival and recovery range-wide.