Desert Race and Tortoises

Your editorial (“Let’s Make This the Last Race,” Nov. 21) regarding the Barstow to Las Vegas motorcycle race is both unfair and inaccurate. Your constant “bashing” of motorcycles riders and off-road users is biased and irresponsible.

To blame the motorcycle and its rider for all the problems of the desert tortoise is a lie. You have blamed us for the egg and baby-eating ravens, coyotes and snakes. The respiratory problem of tortoises has even the experts baffled as to its cause, yet you point the finger at us. Now you say that running a race on a route consisting mainly of existing dirt roads, sand washes that change with every rain, and hillsides will be the death blow for the tortoise. This statement is laughable.

Motorcycle riders do not build power lines, oil and gas lines, telephone cable lines, graze cattle or dig mines in the desert. We do not build roads across the desert like the county, state and federal governments. Nor do we bomb and strafe thousands of acres as does the military. Could these be harming the tortoise?

In the past 20 years I have raced and engaged in recreational riding in the desert and have seen only two tortoises outside their preserve at California City. My friends and I have never hit or ridden over a tortoise.

DONALD E.L. BETSWORTH

Torrance