Watchdog organization raises concerns about off-road race

A watchdog group is raising concerns about public lands that are scheduled to be used for the Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno race this year.

Washington, D.C.-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is accusing the Bureau of Land Management of mismanagement of public lands in regard to the race.

“The fact that the BLM started the process on issuing the permit without publicly saying anything means they were trying to hide something,” said Jeff Ruch,executive director of PEER.

PEER believes that the BLM was coordinating with Casey Folks, the organizer of the Vegas to Reno race, as far back as last year.

“By early August (2015), race organizers said they had been coordinating with BLM staff to route the ‘most aggressive part of the race’ through the newly-designated monument, altering the race route used in the prior 10 years,” Peer said in a June 13 press release.

The BLM, according to PEER, had redirected the course of the Vegas to Reno race through the newly-established Basin and Range National Monument just days after the park was established on July 10, 2015.

The BLM said the race will run through 40 miles of a new national monument “in the southern portion of the monument.” The race will not run in the open desert, but on existing dirt roads.

“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.

Manager of the new Basin and Range National Monument, Alicia Styles, was not available for comment.

Folks said the off-road race will go ahead as scheduled on Aug. 19.

“Contrary to some misinformation you may have read or heard, this great race and tradition will be held as originally planned,” Folks said in his press release.

This year the race celebrates its 20th anniversary and will start from Alamo, instead of Beatty, and run 640 miles to Reno, with an overnight in Tonopah. Folks bills this as the longest off-road vehicle race in the continental U.S. About 300 motorcycles, trucks, dune buggies and other all-terrain vehicles are expected to compete this year.

According to Best in the Desert, the race is a timed race and there is no mass start. Racers are released one at a time. This means 300 racers will not be hitting the national monument all at one time.

BLM public affairs specialist for the Ely district, Chris Hanefeld, said his district started processing the application for the permit on June 17 for the race.

“No decision has been made regarding a potential race route,” Hanefeld said by email. “An environmental assessment analyzing alternatives is being prepared and will be available soon for public comment.”

According to Hanefeld, the BLM must prepare and complete environmental assessment for the permit, which is being worked on now.

“After that, the BLM will make this assessment available to the public for review and comment,” he said. “At the moment we don’t have a date for that yet.”

He said the BLM will evaluate the comments from the public and then make corrections based on those comments.

“After all that a decision will be issued,” Hanefeld said.

Best in the Desert was keeping quiet about the whole process.

Ruch said his organization was at the mercy of the BLM and couldn’t do anything until they released their decision.

“They will issue on the Fourth of July the 30 days of public comment, because that’s what they do,” he said. “Public comment will close on August 1, just two weeks before the race. And then they will release their decision on August 16, which is one day before the race. This gives us no time to file a lawsuit.”

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com