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Off-road vehicle damage in the Sagebrush Sea in Utah - Sierra Club, Ogden Group
Roads, fences, and utility corridors fragment wildlife habitat throughout the Sagebrush Sea. Roads accelarate the invasion of exotic species into sagebrush steppe; serve as pathways for predators; facilitate human access into sagebrush habitats; and increase fire risk. Less than five percent of existing sagebrush habitat is more than 1.6 miles from a mapped road. [1]

Fences are obstacles and hazards for animals like pronghorn. Utility poles and powerlines provide artificial perches for raptors and corvids that prey on sage grouse adults, chicks and nests, and other vulnerable wildlife.

Off-road vehicles have also damaged habitat and and wrecked watersheds across the Sagebrush
Road-killed sage grouse in Wyoming -
Carel Brest van Kempen, rigorvitae.blogspot.com, www.cpbrestvankempen.com
Sea. Approximately half of publicly owned Bureau of Land Management lands are open to unrestricted off-road vehicle use, with another 44 percent designated for limited access and only six percent of BLM land closed to off-road vehicles. [2] Some 36 million Americans now own off-road vehicles, up from five million in 1972. [3]

Recreational use of the Sagebrush Sea intensifies near towns and cities in Colorado, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon, where some of the country's fastest growing communities are located.

[1] Connelly, J. W. et al. 2004. Conservation Assessment of Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats. Western Assoc. Fish and Wildlife Agencies: ES-2.

[2] Strittholt, J. R., N. L. Staus, M. D. White. 2000. Importance of Bureau of Land Management roadless areas in the western U.S.A. Conservation Biology Institute. Corvallis, OR.

[3] Pegg, J. R. "Forest Service proposal fuels off-road vehicle debate." Environment News Service (Sept. 7, 2005).

These pronghorn were killed on a road that services a natural gas development field in pronghorn winter range in Wyoming. The driver, driving a one-ton truck, hit a few of the animals and the rest plowed into the side of the moving vehicle in panic. Wyoming Game and Fish officers were forced to shoot some pronghorn injured in the collision. A total of 21 pronghorn were killed in this incident. - Images and information provided by John Amos, SkyTruth, and Linda Baker, Upper Green River Valley Coalition, respectively. Click here for larger images

This greater sage-grouse cock has collided with the barbed wire fence behind him. Blood can be seen trickling freely down his neck. Sage grouse are powerful fliers that often fly at high speed just over the sagebrush. At such velocity, a single strand of barbed wire is difficult to see, and often deadly to hit. Fences that cross popular flyways kill a high number of birds. - Carel Brest van Kempen, rigorvitae.blogspot.com, www.cpbrestvankempen.com
Pronghorn evolved in wide open spaces. Fences are usually an impassable barrier to pronghorn movement. Pronghorn cannot jump fences, and they rarely successfully duck underneath the lowest strand of barbed wire. There are hundreds of thousands of miles of fences strung across the Sagebrush Sea. This pronghorn was tangled and died in a fence on the Green Mountain Common Allotment in Wyoming. - Lance & Jill Morrow