The West Mojave route closures remain one of CORVA’s highest-priority BLM advocacy issues, even though the matter is not currently in a traditional public-comment phase.
In January 2026, a federal court decision resulted in the closure of approximately 2,200 miles of designated routes—roughly 37 percent of the West Mojave route network—affecting more than one million acres of public land. These closures have significant consequences not only for OHV recreation, but also for access to historic destinations, dispersed camping areas, mining districts, memorial sites, and communities throughout the Mojave Desert.
CORVA has been working closely with Ecologic Partners, a coalition of motorized-recreation and access organizations, to coordinate a unified response. Through this collaboration, CORVA is helping evaluate legal, administrative, and policy options while ensuring that the impacts on recreationists, local communities, and desert businesses remain part of the discussion.
One of the most important components of this effort is supporting business owners in and around Randsburg and other affected desert communities whose livelihoods depend heavily on public access and recreation. When routes are closed, the impact does not stop at the trailhead. Fewer visitors can mean fewer customers for restaurants, fuel stations, lodging, stores, repair businesses, vendors, and other small businesses that depend on OHV tourism and public-land recreation.
Ecologic Partners has authorized legal counsel to evaluate and prepare a potential intervention on behalf of affected Randsburg-area business owners. The objective is to ensure that businesses suffering direct economic harm from the route closures have an opportunity to establish their own legal interests and, where appropriate, demonstrate the type of concrete injury necessary for standing in federal court.
CORVA’s role includes helping connect affected businesses with the broader coalition, documenting the economic and recreational consequences of the closures, gathering information from local stakeholders, and ensuring that the voices of those who live and work in these communities are not overlooked.
At the same time, CORVA continues to track the broader federal response, including the Department of Justice and Department of the Interior appeal, proceedings before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, BLM implementation of the closure order, route signage and enforcement, potential intervention by affected businesses, and possible administrative remedies that could restore access where legally and environmentally appropriate.
CORVA is also watching closely for any new BLM environmental review that may result from the litigation. If BLM initiates a new NEPA process, supplemental environmental analysis, route evaluation, or land-use planning action, a new public-comment opportunity could open quickly. CORVA will be prepared to participate and encourage its members, clubs, businesses, and recreation partners to submit meaningful comments.
This issue demonstrates why CORVA’s advocacy extends beyond simply opposing route closures. Our objective is to protect the integrity and connectivity of the entire recreation network, support the communities that depend on public-land access, and ensure that federal agencies consider recreation, economic impacts, historic access, and responsible multiple-use management when making decisions about California’s public lands.
<a href="https://corva.org/donate" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to donate directly to this effort. Use the drop down menu and select West Mojave - Ecologic Funds.
WEMO is not just about 2,200 miles of closed routes. It is about access to more than one million acres of public land, the survival of rural desert businesses, and whether responsible motorized recreation will continue to have a meaningful place in the West Mojave.&nbsp;

I am writing about a gap in the process behind the January 2026 WEMO route closures — one that should concern anyone who cares about sound public policy, regardless of how they feel about off-highway recreation.

The decision closed more than 2,200 miles of designated routes across the Western Mojave. The environmental questions received extensive analysis over many years of litigation. But there appears to have been no corresponding analysis of the economic consequences — no study of what the closures would mean for Historic Randsburg, for the businesses of Ridgecrest and California City, or for the jobs and tax base of the surrounding region. The communities most affected had no meaningful voice in the outcome.

Good governance requires weighing all the consequences of a decision, not just some of them. When access restrictions can determine whether a 130-year-old town's economy survives, that impact deserves to be studied, understood, and considered — before the restriction takes effect, not after the damage is done.

This is a fixable problem. Interim ingress and egress routes can reconnect Randsburg to the designated trail system while the broader WEMO process continues, and future decisions can be made with complete information.

I respectfully ask you to:
1. Support efforts to restore legal ingress and egress routes that reconnect Historic Randsburg to the surrounding designated trail system while the WEMO process continues.
2. Ensure that any future public land decisions include a comprehensive economic impact analysis evaluating the effects on Historic Randsburg and other affected desert communities.
3. Support a collaborative, stakeholder-driven process that protects sensitive natural resources while preserving Historic Randsburg, its economy, and responsible public access to our public lands.


Balanced decisions require complete information. Thank you for working to ensure rural communities are counted.

Save Historic Randsburg — Protect a California Landmark

California Off Road Vehicle Association

I care deeply about protecting the desert tortoise and preserving the Mojave Desert for future generations. I also believe conservation should be balanced with the needs of the communities that have coexisted with these public lands for generations.

The January 2026 court decision closing more than 2,200 miles of designated routes throughout the Western Mojave has had unintended consequences that extend far beyond recreation. It has severely impacted Historic Randsburg, a California mining town that has welcomed visitors for more than 130 years and whose economy depends heavily on tourism and responsible outdoor recreation.

What concerns me most is that there appears to have been no meaningful economic analysis of how these closures would affect Randsburg's businesses, employees, residents, or the surrounding communities. Decisions of this magnitude should consider not only environmental impacts, but also the real-world consequences for the people whose livelihoods depend on continued public access.

Historic Randsburg is more than an OHV destination. It is a living piece of California history. Its restaurants, stores, lodging, museums, and small businesses rely on visitors who come to experience the town and responsibly enjoy the surrounding public lands. Restricting legal access without fully evaluating the economic consequences places the future of this historic community at risk.

I believe we can protect sensitive wildlife habitat while also protecting Historic Randsburg. Responsible recreation, designated routes, education, monitoring, and adaptive management have demonstrated that conservation and public access can work together. A collaborative approach involving land managers, wildlife agencies, local governments, scientists, business owners, residents, and recreation organizations offers a far better path forward than policies that unintentionally threaten the survival of an entire community.

I respectfully ask you to:
1. Support efforts to restore legal ingress and egress routes that reconnect Historic Randsburg to the surrounding designated trail system while the WEMO process continues.
2. Ensure that any future public land decisions include a comprehensive economic impact analysis evaluating the effects on Historic Randsburg and other affected desert communities.
3. Support a collaborative, stakeholder-driven process that protects sensitive natural resources while preserving Historic Randsburg, its economy, and responsible public access to our public lands.


California should not have to choose between protecting wildlife and protecting historic communities. We can — and should — do both.

Thank you for your consideration and for your commitment to finding balanced solutions that protect both our natural heritage and the people whose lives and livelihoods depend upon it.

Protect Historic Randsburg: Address the Economic Impacts of the WEMO Route Closures

I am writing about the economic harm the January 2026 WEMO route closures are causing to Historic Randsburg and the desert communities that surround it.

Randsburg's general store, saloon, restaurants, shops, and lodging have served visitors for generations. Those businesses — and the families they employ — depend on people who travel through the surrounding public lands to reach the town. The closure of more than 2,200 miles of designated routes has cut off many of the access corridors those visitors have used for decades, and the effects ripple outward: travelers to the Western Mojave buy fuel, food, parts, and groceries in Ridgecrest, California City, Johannesburg, and Bakersfield.

To my knowledge, no economic impact study was presented before these closures took effect. No one evaluated what losing this access would mean for the small business owners, employees, and residents who had no role in the litigation but are now bearing its consequences. These are not wealthy communities with diversified economies — recreation and heritage tourism are their lifeblood.

I don't believe anyone intended to put a 130-year-old town's survival at risk. But that is the practical effect, and it deserves attention and action from the officials who represent these communities.

I respectfully ask you to:
1. Support efforts to restore legal ingress and egress routes that reconnect Historic Randsburg to the surrounding designated trail system while the WEMO process continues.
2. Ensure that any future public land decisions include a comprehensive economic impact analysis evaluating the effects on Historic Randsburg and other affected desert communities.
3. Support a collaborative, stakeholder-driven process that protects sensitive natural resources while preserving Historic Randsburg, its economy, and responsible public access to our public lands.


Rural communities should not be an afterthought in public land decisions. Thank you for standing up for them.

Randsburg's small businesses need your help after the WEMO closures

Randsburg is one of California's last living gold mining towns. Founded in 1896 in the original Rand Mining District, it has survived boom, bust, fire, and 130 years of desert hardship. Families visit to walk the same streets miners walked over a century ago — and its museums, shops, and restaurants keep that history alive as a working community, not a museum behind glass.

The January 2026 court decision closing more than 2,200 miles of Western Mojave routes has cut off many of the historic access routes that connect visitors to the town. Randsburg's roughly 45 residents and its small businesses depend on those visitors. Without them, one of the most authentic pieces of California history still standing faces a genuinely uncertain future.

What troubles me is that this consequence appears never to have been weighed. No meaningful economic analysis evaluated what restricting access would mean for the town, its businesses, or the surrounding communities before the closures took effect. Protecting the desert tortoise is a goal I support — but protecting sensitive natural resources and protecting historic communities should not be mutually exclusive. Thoughtful planning can accomplish both.

Once a historic town dies, it does not come back. Randsburg deserves a seat at the table before decisions that determine its survival are finalized.

I respectfully ask you to:
1. Support efforts to restore legal ingress and egress routes that reconnect Historic Randsburg to the surrounding designated trail system while the WEMO process continues.
2. Ensure that any future public land decisions include a comprehensive economic impact analysis evaluating the effects on Historic Randsburg and other affected desert communities.
3. Support a collaborative, stakeholder-driven process that protects sensitive natural resources while preserving Historic Randsburg, its economy, and responsible public access to our public lands.


Thank you for helping preserve California's living history for future generations.

Historic Randsburg's future should not be decided without its community

Public land decisions should evaluate impacts on the communities they affect

I support protecting the desert tortoise and the health of the Mojave Desert. I am writing because I believe the January 2026 WEMO closures, as implemented, do not serve that goal well — and they are placing Historic Randsburg's future at risk in the process.

Closing more than 2,200 miles of designated routes without evaluating the economic consequences has severed the access that connects visitors to a 130-year-old community whose businesses depend on heritage tourism and responsible recreation. Meanwhile, experience across California's public lands shows that designated routes, education, monitoring, and adaptive management allow conservation and public access to succeed together. Blanket closures, by contrast, can push use into unmanaged areas and erode the local goodwill that conservation ultimately depends on.

The better path is collaborative: land managers, wildlife agencies, local governments, scientists, business owners, residents, and recreation organizations working together on solutions that genuinely protect sensitive habitat while keeping Randsburg connected to the trail system and the visitors who sustain it. The off-road and outdoor recreation community is ready to be a partner in that work.

I respectfully ask you to:
1. Support efforts to restore legal ingress and egress routes that reconnect Historic Randsburg to the surrounding designated trail system while the WEMO process continues.
2. Ensure that any future public land decisions include a comprehensive economic impact analysis evaluating the effects on Historic Randsburg and other affected desert communities.
3. Support a collaborative, stakeholder-driven process that protects sensitive natural resources while preserving Historic Randsburg, its economy, and responsible public access to our public lands.


California should not have to choose between protecting wildlife and protecting historic communities. We can — and should — do both.

We can protect the desert tortoise and Historic Randsburg

WEMO — West Mojave Route Closures