Court Backs Decision to Allow Mojave Motorcycle Race

Rejecting arguments by environmentalists, a federal appeals court Friday upheld a 1983 decision by the federal Bureau of Land Management that allowed resumption of the annual Barstow-to-Las Vegas off-road motorcycle race.

The decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling by a Los Angeles federal judge, who said the bureau acted properly in allowing the race to resume.

This year’s 130-mile race is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 30, bureau officials said.

The Sierra Club and other environmental groups sued to stop the race, arguing that the federal agency had not taken enough safeguards to protect the Mojave Desert and its wildlife.

Gained Popularity

The race was first staged in 1967 and gained popularity among off-road enthusiasts, attracting as many as 1,000 motorcycle riders each Thanksgiving weekend. However, environmentalists convinced federal authorities in 1974 to halt the American Motorcycle Assn.-sponsored event, because it was adversely affecting the desert.

After the 1974 bureau action, disgruntled motorcyclists carried out illegal rides across the desert each year to protest the race’s cancellation.

Citing new studies, bureau officials in 1983 concluded that the protest rides caused more harm to the environment than the association-sponsored race. As a result, the bureau gave the go-ahead for the event that year, after portions of a management plan for the desert were amended.

The environmentalists sued, however, contending that the amended rules would result in “severe and, in some cases, irreversible damage” to the desert.

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima, however, ruled in favor of the bureau and environmentalists appealed his decision.

In its ruling Friday, the three-judge appeals panel said the amended management plan was a proper way for the bureau to allow the resumption of the race.

Ecological Concerns

“It seeks to balance desired use and ecological concerns through the imposition of permit and mitigation requirements,” said the decision by Judge J. Blaine Anderson. “While there is little doubt that negative impacts resulted from the 1983 (association-sponsored) race, so is there little doubt that harm would result if uncontrolled ‘protest rides’ were to continue.”

Attorneys for the Sierra Club were unavailable for comment on Friday’s ruling.