The use of off-road vehicles is associated with roads and tracks which frequently involves driving across untracked areas where there are no roads, as in the case of viewing animals in savanna environment or beach driving. Off-road vehicles allow people to penetrate remoter areas or sites which many other people cannot access. This creates potential for camping impacts, wildlife disturbance and pollution to occur at more remote and relatively unused sites. The use of off-road vehicles has been found to impact on soils, vegetation, wild-life and social conditions. This leads to the degradation of the environment which destroys and may cause future climatic disasters in the environment. Impacts of the natural environment can be divided into a number of categories according to whether they are direct or indirect. Offroading vehicles are described as an indirect impact on the environment which n most cases causes erosion and scarring of the environment. In a study of off road vehicle impacts on arctic tundra, rickard and brown (1974) considered aspects of environmental sensitivity and the factors influencing the degree of biophysical impact caused by off-road vehicles.
These impacts may include aesthetic impacts, disturbance and damage to vegetation, destruction of plant cover and soil compaction leading to soil erosion and finally sufficed peat disruption and subsidence of frozen ground and the ponding of water. In the tropical environments the impacts may be less significant due to the rapid recovery of the vegetation. Other impacts may be apparent as in the case of the aesthetic impact of numerous track lines that detract from the wilderness experience of visitors to the Masai Mara in Kenya. Wildlife disturbance is also a problem associated with off-road vehicles in various setting around the world this may occur directly as a result of habitat alterations.
In the case of arid lands off-road activities has been researched and according to a report stating that a reduction in the cover of annual plants was related to only low levels of off-road vehicle induced soil impaction. Edington and edington (1986) summarizes the ecological consequences of off-road vehicles in desert ecosystems. This include direct and indirect impacts on the biodiversity which mostly affects the wildlife in this case causing an influx in the feeding patterns as the flora is diminished by this environmental impacts. In simple terms the ecological and environmental impacts of the off-road vehicles in the environment affects both human and animal development. For humans with such degradation of resources there is the shortage of food and an increase in global warming.
Research also shows how the networks of seismic trails and trails of other off-road vehicles cause concern because of the damage they do to vegetation. Studies on these effects have shown that more research is required to improve on the visibility of the seismic data acquisition through satellite. Off roading activities in this case need to be well mapped out to be able to find solutions to the damages caused to the environment of the flora and fauna. This damage to the ecosystem may be devastating to the environment vegetation leading to soil degradation which in heavy rainfall areas the possibilities of a landslide is higher. Such damage is detrimental to the ecosystem as such damage may be reflective to other areas including the fauna that may in many cases lack food. This may cause a reduction in the number of animals in the ecosystem. This type of damage may take longer to recover in certain environments which include the arid environment and the arctic tundra.
Off roadong affects ecotourism in many countries a case study in which the mammoth cave attracts over 2 million visitors annually studies show that this mountain areas are also subject to the ever increasing access by all terrain vehicles. This adverse effect on environment impacts on the sols and rock formation. The destruction of such areas like the canyon country of southern Utah which was once an Indian prehistoric site that attracted millions of tourist is now an influx of tourist activities that come to explore the region by both pedal and motor powered terrain vehicles. This goes to show how the destruction of its prehistoric attributes and major Indian cultures have been modernized by the offroading activities.
In this case humans also need to be responsible for their ecosystems by been able to safeguard the wild lands and keeping off the areas adapted for the animals. Human beings and managers of the wild lands require well organized time frames to make the ecosystem friendlier. The wild land management will be required to come up with a system in which they maintain a natural site environment in which human impact and influence are minimized as much as possible while still allowing for recreational use. The manager’s role in this case is not to halt change within the wild land but to manage for acceptable levels of environmental change. Management may use the aspect of carrying capacity which refers to maximum number of animals a given unit of land can support without the destruction of the resource base.
Conservationists are calling on the Forest Service and BLM to enact the following five regulations to manage off-road vehicles: Limit ORV use to designated roads and trails; prohibit cross country travel. Designate ORV routes only where it has been shown that use of a route will not cause adverse environmental impacts. Allow ORV route designation, construction, and upgrading only following analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Prohibit ORV use unless monitoring and enforcement are fully funded and implemented. Prohibit ORV use in proposed wilderness areas and road less areas.The use of the environmental policy act helps derail the aspect of destruction of the wild lands and the environment as a whole. By recognizing such effects the managers and humans roles in the preservation of the environment are distinct as this may result to worse consequences in the future. If all the lands were well looked after effects of global warming would deter this is because the vegetation on the land will be well protected. Another aspect of the lands is the fact that vegetation is important especially in preserving of moisture in the environment.
The consequences of offroading continue to exert pressure on the environment making humans enemies to conservation of the ecosystem. This requires a lot of educating and learning which will safeguard the existence of flora and fauna and decreasing on the aspects of the ecosystem. By doing so we will be saving the future of the environment.
Works cited
buckley, Ralf. Environmental Impacts of Ecotourism. CABI, 2004.
David Newsome, Susan A. Moore, Ross Kingston Dowling. Natural Area Tourism: Ecology, Impacts, and Management. Channel View Publications, 2002.
National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope, National Research Council (U.S.), National Research Council (U.S.). Polar Research Board, National Research Council (U.S.). . Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope. National Academic Press, 2003.
Newsome, David. Geotourism. Routledge, 2012.
William E Hammitt, David N cole. Wildland Recreation: ecology and Management. John Wiley & sons, 1998.
