Conservationist are coming to save us from ourselves

It’s less than two months before the Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno race, which is the biggest off-road race in the continental U.S. and the Bureau of Land Management has not issued the permits for the race.

What’s going on? It really is hard to tell, and of course it depends on who you talk to.

The BLM got itself into hot water because a BLM employee went to a watchdog organization called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a Washington D.C.-based watchdog group. This group says it helps employees out who feel their agency is off-course. Apparently there are one or more employees who are not feeling good about letting 300 off-road racers go through the new Basin Range National Monument.

But should they and the many conservationists be upset?

I am thinking not. I also believe the people who are upset with the BLM and Best in the Desert really don’t understand how this race is run. In fact, I will bet my life on it that they have never stepped out of their ivory towers or seen this race or know how it’s run.

I didn’t see it right away, but when I looked at this quote from the head of PEER, Jeff Ruch, I saw the light.

“The BLM is playing fast and loose with its legal obligations in order to let hundreds of vehicles roar through the fragile desert before the monument’s protections can be solidified,” said Ruch in the June 13 press release.

Well, it’s apparent that this man has not done his homework and doesn’t know how this race is run. The race is timed and not all the racers are released in a mass start. They are released one racer at a time and this means that not all the racers will be going through the “fragile desert” at one time or through the national monument at one time.

In fact, in a conversation with Jason Voss, last year’s winner of the race, he told me there are times in the race where he doesn’t see any racers for miles around.

And then look at the use of the phrase “fragile desert.” Shoot, it’s dirt. To quote a famous comedian, Sam Kinison, “THERE’S NOTHING BUT SAND IN THE DESERT…”

I know that’s simplifying things, but we are not talking Yosemite here. I really don’t think we need some Washington D.C. hacks to come out here and tell us we need saving and that we don’t know how to run our desert. I think we just have a failure to communicate.

What we have here are some people from Washington D.C. who are not race fans, not off-road fans, and have no clue what they are talking about. Go back to your ivory tower and go bug someone in California. Ruch is coming from the perspective of an organization that protects people. He is a whistleblower. His organization got a tip from a BLM employee that was upset and believed the BLM was not acting in the public’s best interest.

But I hardly think this race will break the desert. The roads may get some ruts in it, but I am sure nature damages these roads during the monsoon season far more than the racers ever will.

Casey Folks, organizer of the Vegas to Reno race, is a sportsman and a businessman and he is good at what he does. He runs a tight ship and I think in the end he is getting the short end of the stick. He has done what many have failed to do, and that is he has built a relationship with the BLM and has learned to navigate their red tape. He should get a medal for this.

I mean this thing could blow up in his face and go south pretty quickly. The BLM is not a sure thing by any means. But in this case, they have dealt with Folks for a long time in Nevada and I think they know what he is all about and I think they will come out with a permit.

Look, I enjoy this race, I will admit it. But if Folks ran a terrible organization and just tore up the land and destroyed it, I would say feed him to the wolves. But it’s not like that. I have heard nothing but praise for his organization, even from BLM rangers that worked the race. Folks has been doing this for decades. If he has been tearing up the desert do you think the BLM would issue him a permit?

And another thing, why is the BLM managing a national monument? They have a hard enough time managing the land here in Nevada. Did you know that the BLM manages 25 national monuments? Well they do, but probably shouldn’t be. The agency is way understaffed. Now they want to take on 704,000 acres of the Basin Range National Park, go figure.

If anything, PEER should be complaining about that, not the race.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com