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The Mojave Desert is a hot spot for off-roading: Why a judge shut down more than 2,200 miles of trails
- February 26, 2026 at 12:40 PM
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The desert tortoise, a once-resilient reptile, is a keystone species in the Mojave Desert, where other animals depend for their survival on the burrows it digs. But it is imperiled in California thanks in part to an unusual predator: off-road vehicles that race through thousands of miles of trails—official and unofficial—that crisscross millions of acres of tortoise habitat.
Originally published at Phys.org