Primary Areas of Concern

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Through an evaluation of the data collected in our route survey, Friends of the Inyo has identified 14 areas of critical concern on the Inyo National Forest.  We ranked these "hotspots" by considering 3 factors: 1) the severity and 2) the extent of resource damage present and 3) the potential for future resource damage. Severity, or the quality of damage (i.e. how bad was it?) was considered the most important factor in identifying a critical area. Thus, the severity value was weighted (multiplied by two) to reflect its importance in our consideration.  Gauging the extent of the damage involved estimating the quantity of the damage (i.e., how much area did the damage cover?).  To rank an area on the potential for damage, we assumed a continuation of current management practices (with no changes, either positive or negative) and, based on data about the effects that ORVs can have on resources, extrapolated into the future to estimate the level of further damage.  We rated each factor (on a scale of 1 to 5) for each area and took the cumulative effect of the 3 factors to determine the total number for an area. The following chart consists of the name of each area, its location by USGS 7.5" quadrangle, the resource damage issues, a summary of our ranking system and suggested recommendations for improvement.