'Obscenely damaging': Video catches off-roader in California's ancient forest

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/inyo-national-forest-bristlecone-pines-22293407.php

Videos

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2010193112916187/?referral_source=external_link&surface_type=tab&in_reels_tab_context=TRUE

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1352785026771195/?referral_source=external_link&surface_type=tab&in_reels_tab_context=TRUE

'Obscenely damaging': Video catches off-roader in California's ancient forest

The bristlecone pines
of Inyo National Forest, considered some of the oldest trees on Earth, are royalty even among California’s myriad ecological treasures. Now, an Inyo employee is searching for someone who appears to have illegally driven a car through this ancient ecosystem.

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. Leidy asked anyone with information about the driver to contact Inyo’s dispatch at 760-873-2405.

In the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains, some of the gnarled, twisted trees might have lived for about 5,000 years. The footage of the car so near the majestic pines drew scorn from some.

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