'Appalling' video captures driver wrecking ancient National Park forest

San Francisco Gate reports employees are searching for someone who appears to have illegally driven a car through the delicate bristlecone pines ecosystem of the Inyo National Forest.

“Adam Leidy, Inyo National Forest’s off-highway vehicle and over-snow vehicle program manager, posted two videos to his Facebook account in late May — one flagging tire marks on the wrong side of some ‘no motor vehicles’ signs and another one showing a Subaru on the move,” reports SF Gate. “Leidy asked anyone with information about the driver to contact Inyo’s dispatch at 760-873-2405.”

“Scientifically, I’m appalled,” said Jeff Holmquist, a researcher for the White Mountain Research Center, told SFGATE. “In my view, it’s obscenely damaging and extremely unfortunate.”

Home to some of the oldest trees on earth, the alpine region of the Inyo National Forest has remarkably vulnerable soil. Between the revered, ancient trees lies a fragile biocrust, a thin layer of living material consisting of algae, moss and lichen that binds the topsoil and protects it from harsh highland wind and sparse rain.

“Vehicle tires can compact soils and damage root systems — making it more difficult for plants to absorb water and nutrients — and also leave behind seeds of invasive species, according to a park spokesperson. “In high-elevation settings — especially in Bristlecone Pine forests and alpine tundra — this damage is particularly severe,” Inyo National Forest personnel told SFGATE. “These plants grow extremely slowly. A single vehicle driving just a short distance off-road can kill or damage hundreds of small plants and shrubs. Recovery of soils in these ecosystems can take decades or even centuries.”

Car tires carousing though restricted sections can damage slow-growing seedlings, or blast roots that would sooner rot away than recover. They certainly damaged the fragile biocrust, said the park spokesperson.

“My guess is that the tracks that this vehicle left will be there for the rest of my life and probably yours, too,” Holmquist told the paper. “… It’s a horrible thing, and I say that both as somebody who has a real reverence for the natural world and as a scientist. We’re ants compared to these ancient trees, in terms of size but particularly in terms of longevity. It’s such a peaceful, serene place. You have a sense of deep time as you sit at the base of these trees.”

Despite the destruction, SF Gate reports the citation for driving a vehicle off the road in a way that disturbs land, wildlife or vegetation only comes with a $250 fine. The agency’s main tool for against degrading the precious environment and filling it with invasive bramble is education, starting with clear signage.

“We also install physical barriers — rocks, bollards, and other structures — to discourage off-road driving,” the spokesperson told SFGATE. “And we invest in public education, because most visitors want to recreate responsibly; they just need clear guidance.”