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Joseph A. Burns CWB
National Threatened and Endgangered Species Program Leader
Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, Rare Plants
1400 Independance Ave SW - MS1121
Washington, D.C. 20250-1121
(202) 205-0919
jaburns@fs.fed.us

 

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OHV Library

OHV Library

The USDA Forest Service is engaged in planning efforts to better manage Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) use. While most of these roads and trails falling under these plans are much smaller in size and traffic volume than hard-surfaced highways, the impacts to natural resources can be substantial. The Forest Service’s Region 6 collaborated with the Pacific Southwest Research Station to conduct a literature review and to create a database of publications on the effects of OHVs on natural resources, particularly wildlife.

The OHV Library contains citations on off-highway, forest roads, roads, fragmentation, disturbance, and species habitat needs, where appropriate. The last literature search occurred on June 1, 2008; the last update occurred on June 9, 2008.

Canned Searches

These documents contain ‘canned’ citations for the following topic areas:

“Must Read” Documents on OHVs - HTML with PDF Download Available.

The publications are available internally to USDA Forest Service employees. Contents are stored in several formats available to most Forest Service users, including Endnote software and MS Word. Contents of the Endnote library can be sorted by record number, author, year, or title. All contents can also be searched by keyword search. Many citations have associated abstracts; all have keywords associated with them.

Page Last Modified: April 07, 2017


Additional Information

bull elkElk Image courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

OHV use impacts many species of wildlife, from elk to salamanders.

Generally, fewer species are adversely affected with smaller, lower traffic trails and roads, and more species are impacted as road width and traffic volume increase.

Mitigation measures vary greatly by road size and traffic volume as well. For example, seasonal closures can be effective as a disturbance avoidance measure for small roads and trails but are not typically possible for hard-surfaced highways.