Environmental Effects of Off-Highway Vehicles

This book and its associated appendixes compile and synthesise the results of a comprehensive literature and Internet search. The literature search was undertaken to uncover information regarding the effects of off-highway vehicle (OHV) use on land health, or natural resource attributes , and included databases archiving information from before OHVs came into existence to May 2006. Information pertaining to socioeconomic implications of OHV activities is included as well. The literature and Internet searches yielded approximately 700 peer-reviewed papers, magazine articles, agency and non-governmental reports, and internet websites regarding effects of OHV use as they relate to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) standards of land health. Discussions regarding OHV effects are followed by brief syntheses of potential indicators of OHV effects, as well as OHV-effects mitigation, site-restoration techniques, and research needs.