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Desert monument area to ban off-roaders

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PHOENIX — The federal government has announced a temporary off-road-vehicle ban on one of Arizona's most prized parcels of public land because of severe environmental damage.

Starting in June and lasting two to three years, the federal Bureau of Land Management will ban motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles on 55,000 acres of popular wilderness in the Sonoran Desert National Monument.

The area, which includes nearly 89 miles of vehicle routes, will be open only to hikers and equestrians.

Land-use officials and conservationists said the action is necessary because reckless riders have torn up the soil, ripped up native plants and marred the desert landscape with illegal dumping.

"There are places in this closure (area) that look like a moonscape because the recklessness of these vehicles has been so extensive," said Daniel Patterson, Southwest director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "There is no plant life there at all."

The Sonoran Desert National Monument covers nearly 500,000 acres of public land about one hour's drive northwest of Tucson.

Visits to the area skyrocketed as populations grew in the nearby communities of Gila Bend and Maricopa.

Land officials said they hope to restore the wilderness by evening out the vehicle tracks and planting new vegetation.

"Basically, much of what we do is manual labor, hand labor, because we don't want to use equipment that will cause more damage than it actually repairs," said Karen Kelleher, acting field manager for the BLM's Lower Sonoran Office.

Off-roaders said the ban was not a surprise.

Don Hood, vice president of the Arizona Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition, said his organization understands that a lot of damage has occurred in the area.

"The explosion of off-highway vehicles has led to an increase of people out there who think this is just a game," Hood said. "They don't know the rules, they don't know where to go, they don't know right from wrong, because no one has ever taught them."

Those who violate the order by heading into the closed area with a motor vehicle could face a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison, said Pamela Mathis, BLM public-affairs specialist.