ORV Effects in Pennsylvania
By Richard Whiteford, Sierra Club
Off-road vehicles, particularly 4-wheelers or all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs) and dirt bikes, are the new craze. The Evil Knievel look-a-likes go airborne over dirt piles, splash through puddles, streams and wetlands, do broad-slides on gravel, climb steep cliffs, and speed through forests and backcountry seeking the ultimate thrill. They are great fun, but many new riders in this rapidly growing pastime show no respect for private property or the environment.
Suburban sprawl is rapidly adding an influx of new riders while devouring land on which to ride. The results: many off-road vehicle riders flagrantly trespass on neighboring farms and state and federal forests. In some residential areas they smash through hedges, drive across people's lawns, and make quiet neighborhoods sound and smell like the Indi-500.
Respecting private property should go without saying, but respecting the environment is not something that most people, especially people with no compunction for trespassing, consider. In fact, few have any understanding of the magnitude of the environmental damage caused by off-road vehicles.
At a time when human activity is destroying natural ecosystems at an unprecedented rate and species are going extinct at a rate faster than in any period in ancient history, environmental concern should be our top priority. We are causing Earth's sixth mass extinction.
Pennsylvania has 1,122 species that are nearing extinction and 82 natural ecosystems that are on the brink of disappearing. Many of these ecosystems are various classes of wetlands, stream corridors, cliffs, and forests.
By fragmenting natural ecosystems with roads, developments, and other disturbances, we impede many species' ability to evolve and adapt to their changing environment. So, in addition to causing extinctions, we are preventing nature from progressing as creation intended. As an example, fragmentation is separating pollinators from their host plants causing both populations to crash.
Riding in forests seriously fragments the forest community and kills important plant, microorganism, amphibian, and reptile species that support the harmony that sustain nature's health and balance.
Fragmentation and habitat destruction has already driven 682 plant species to the brink of extinction in Pennsylvania. Fragmentation, soil disturbance, and the destruction of the natural plant community opens areas to invasive plant species such as multiflora rose and oriental bittersweet. These species invade disturbed areas, strangling and out-competing the natural plants and quickly dominate the area.
Bikers love riding on skidder trails in forests that were harvested by lumber companies. But responsible lumber companies spend a lot of money restoring the area before they leave. They build sedimentation ditches on sloped skidder trails to prevent water erosion. They also plant groundcover on the trails to prevent the intrusion of multiflora rose and other invasive plants.
Bikers speed on the skidder trails and ramp these ditches breaking them down allowing rainwater to erode the slopes. Riding on skidder trails also kills the ground cover allowing the intrusion of invasive plants. Lumber companies should block the skidder trails with large piles of tree slash to close the trails.
Noise from bikers clamoring through the woods scares neotropical birds from their nesting areas and the trails created by the vehicles fragment their breeding grounds. It is especially detrimental to ground nesting birds like ovenbirds, wood thrush, hermit thrush, veery, and other birds like grouse and quail.
Dr. Stephan Hames at Cornell Lab of Ornithology who studied over 2,400 breeding sites across the United States and Canada determined that habitat fragmentation caused a "five-fold decrease in the probability of attempted breeding."
In the spring, roughly from March through early May, temporary puddles, known as vernal pools, form from melting snow and spring rains. Frogs, toads, and salamanders breed and lay their eggs in these pools. Often, they use the same pool year after year. The eggs remain until they hatch and the tadpoles and larvae remain until they can leave the pool for their permanent home. Off-road vehicle riders splashing through vernal pools at top speed kill thousands of frogs, toads, and salamanders just for the thrill of a splash.
Driving through streams kills the benthic (bottom dwelling) life in the stream. Creatures like stoneflies, caddisflies, water pennies, damselflies, and mayflies; plus larger species like crayfish, fresh-water mussels, and snails play a critical and very complicated role in the stream ecology that maintains water quality at a level that supports the life of fish - and us.
Pennsylvania has 65 species of native fresh-water mussels. Stream degradation from pollution and stream-bottom disturbances forced seventeen species from Pennsylvania and another eighteen are considered critically imperiled. Eight are listed as Endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Also, almost forty percent of the fish species in the state are in danger of going extinct.
Powerline right-of-ways are also popular riding areas. Most are not policed and the utility companies are located elsewhere. A study done by a biologist, Jeff Hohman, for the East Kentucky Power Cooperative revealed the importance of undisturbed powerline right-of-ways as refuges for many species, including rare wildflowers like Dwarf Iris (Iris verna). A second yearlong study verified that 103 bird species, 12 amphibians, 6 reptiles, and 9 mammals depended upon powerline right-of-ways as habitat in an 8.5-kilometer stretch of the Baltimore Gas & Electric right-of-way. Powerline right-of-ways are not baron wastelands. If managed correctly, they become important feeding and nesting grounds for many species and should not be disturbed.
Wetlands are delicate ecosystems that are vital for water purification, flood control, and are home to over half of the endangered and threatened species. To date, Pennsylvania has lost over half of its wetlands. Wetlands are a favorite watering-whole for bikers who love splashing in the water and doing figure eights in the mud while annihilating the wetland vegetation. It is because streams and wetlands are such fragile ecosystems that state laws prohibit driving in streams or disturbing or driving in wetlands
Considering the environmental damage, the price paid by other living creatures, the total lack of respect for private property, and refusal to abide by regulations on state lands by a large majority of bikers, it is time to curtail their activities. There is legislation being reintroduced in Harrisburg to do just that. Please ask your representatives and Governor Ridge to support.
By Richard Whiteford, Sierra Club
Off-road vehicles, particularly 4-wheelers or all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs) and dirt bikes, are the new craze. The Evil Knievel look-a-likes go airborne over dirt piles, splash through puddles, streams and wetlands, do broad-slides on gravel, climb steep cliffs, and speed through forests and backcountry seeking the ultimate thrill. They are great fun, but many new riders in this rapidly growing pastime show no respect for private property or the environment.
Suburban sprawl is rapidly adding an influx of new riders while devouring land on which to ride. The results: many off-road vehicle riders flagrantly trespass on neighboring farms and state and federal forests. In some residential areas they smash through hedges, drive across people's lawns, and make quiet neighborhoods sound and smell like the Indi-500.
Respecting private property should go without saying, but respecting the environment is not something that most people, especially people with no compunction for trespassing, consider. In fact, few have any understanding of the magnitude of the environmental damage caused by off-road vehicles.
At a time when human activity is destroying natural ecosystems at an unprecedented rate and species are going extinct at a rate faster than in any period in ancient history, environmental concern should be our top priority. We are causing Earth's sixth mass extinction.
Pennsylvania has 1,122 species that are nearing extinction and 82 natural ecosystems that are on the brink of disappearing. Many of these ecosystems are various classes of wetlands, stream corridors, cliffs, and forests.
By fragmenting natural ecosystems with roads, developments, and other disturbances, we impede many species' ability to evolve and adapt to their changing environment. So, in addition to causing extinctions, we are preventing nature from progressing as creation intended. As an example, fragmentation is separating pollinators from their host plants causing both populations to crash.
Riding in forests seriously fragments the forest community and kills important plant, microorganism, amphibian, and reptile species that support the harmony that sustain nature's health and balance.
Fragmentation and habitat destruction has already driven 682 plant species to the brink of extinction in Pennsylvania. Fragmentation, soil disturbance, and the destruction of the natural plant community opens areas to invasive plant species such as multiflora rose and oriental bittersweet. These species invade disturbed areas, strangling and out-competing the natural plants and quickly dominate the area.
Bikers love riding on skidder trails in forests that were harvested by lumber companies. But responsible lumber companies spend a lot of money restoring the area before they leave. They build sedimentation ditches on sloped skidder trails to prevent water erosion. They also plant groundcover on the trails to prevent the intrusion of multiflora rose and other invasive plants.
Bikers speed on the skidder trails and ramp these ditches breaking them down allowing rainwater to erode the slopes. Riding on skidder trails also kills the ground cover allowing the intrusion of invasive plants. Lumber companies should block the skidder trails with large piles of tree slash to close the trails.
Noise from bikers clamoring through the woods scares neotropical birds from their nesting areas and the trails created by the vehicles fragment their breeding grounds. It is especially detrimental to ground nesting birds like ovenbirds, wood thrush, hermit thrush, veery, and other birds like grouse and quail.
Dr. Stephan Hames at Cornell Lab of Ornithology who studied over 2,400 breeding sites across the United States and Canada determined that habitat fragmentation caused a "five-fold decrease in the probability of attempted breeding."
In the spring, roughly from March through early May, temporary puddles, known as vernal pools, form from melting snow and spring rains. Frogs, toads, and salamanders breed and lay their eggs in these pools. Often, they use the same pool year after year. The eggs remain until they hatch and the tadpoles and larvae remain until they can leave the pool for their permanent home. Off-road vehicle riders splashing through vernal pools at top speed kill thousands of frogs, toads, and salamanders just for the thrill of a splash.
Driving through streams kills the benthic (bottom dwelling) life in the stream. Creatures like stoneflies, caddisflies, water pennies, damselflies, and mayflies; plus larger species like crayfish, fresh-water mussels, and snails play a critical and very complicated role in the stream ecology that maintains water quality at a level that supports the life of fish - and us.
Pennsylvania has 65 species of native fresh-water mussels. Stream degradation from pollution and stream-bottom disturbances forced seventeen species from Pennsylvania and another eighteen are considered critically imperiled. Eight are listed as Endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Also, almost forty percent of the fish species in the state are in danger of going extinct.
Powerline right-of-ways are also popular riding areas. Most are not policed and the utility companies are located elsewhere. A study done by a biologist, Jeff Hohman, for the East Kentucky Power Cooperative revealed the importance of undisturbed powerline right-of-ways as refuges for many species, including rare wildflowers like Dwarf Iris (Iris verna). A second yearlong study verified that 103 bird species, 12 amphibians, 6 reptiles, and 9 mammals depended upon powerline right-of-ways as habitat in an 8.5-kilometer stretch of the Baltimore Gas & Electric right-of-way. Powerline right-of-ways are not baron wastelands. If managed correctly, they become important feeding and nesting grounds for many species and should not be disturbed.
Wetlands are delicate ecosystems that are vital for water purification, flood control, and are home to over half of the endangered and threatened species. To date, Pennsylvania has lost over half of its wetlands. Wetlands are a favorite watering-whole for bikers who love splashing in the water and doing figure eights in the mud while annihilating the wetland vegetation. It is because streams and wetlands are such fragile ecosystems that state laws prohibit driving in streams or disturbing or driving in wetlands
Considering the environmental damage, the price paid by other living creatures, the total lack of respect for private property, and refusal to abide by regulations on state lands by a large majority of bikers, it is time to curtail their activities. There is legislation being reintroduced in Harrisburg to do just that. Please ask your representatives and Governor Ridge to support.