Off-roaders have been run down and chased away by environmentalists nearly everywhere. In Southern California’s Imperial Sand Dunes, a hotspot for the off-road circuit, the BLM closed much of the dunes in order to protect a threatened plant species called Pierson's milk vetch.

As if refugees, the off-roaders fled places like California, which were filled with ‘extremist environmentalists’. The answer became the last place in America where freedom is truly free. Off-roaders began turning to the giant Sand Mountain at the end of the loneliest road.

The problem with the California exodus means weekends like this – thousands of off-road vehicles. Heavy traffic.

Sand Mountain is the only known home of a subspecies of the Pallid Dotted-Blue Butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens). The contentious violence-inducing butterfly offshoot is called the Sand Mountain Blue Butterfly.

Extensive off-road use, possibly in addition to invasive plant species; maybe even drought, means the landscape of Sand Mountain is changing rapidly. But what's clear is that off-roading has been directly responsible for decreasing the habitat of the blue butterfly.

So obvious, that the same environmental group that had been forcing off-roaders from the dunes in other southwestern states are back again, getting fired up to....sue the BLM. The country's most aggressive environmental organization, The Center for Biological Diversity is a small group from Tucson, Arizona whose mission is keeping any endangered species alive. Their chosen method, lawsuits.

I ask Dean, isn’t it completely nuts that these environmental groups actually sue your agency?

Dean says, “The reason they might sue us is that the BLM is not supposed to authorize any actions that would allow a species to get listed on the endangered species act."

Dean is precise in his words, and as a public officer, he never reveals personal feelings, like a soldier he serves. He says, "The BLM should not authorize any recreation if it degrades the habitat. On the other hand, other groups could equally say that the BLM is not managing this public land on a multiple use basis. You see, the Bureau of Land Management is charged with the task of managing the multiple use of public land, so we are supposed to allow recreational activities while protecting cultural resources as well: wildlife, wildlife habitat and planned diversity. They sue us because they feel we are not doing the job we are supposed to be doing.”

Great Basin Escalante Desert Going solo in the lonely canyons of Escalante The Loneliest Road A journey across the Nevada's Great Basin and the Loneliest Road in America. We follow the struggle between off-roaders, Great Basin Indians and conservationists over the fate of a blue butterfly. Summer Lake Part II of a conversation about travel writing, this episode continues into the southern Oregon Desert. Rachel, Nevada and Area 51 Area 51 is a dusty set of hangars at the bottom of a dry lake bed. The Owyhee River Part I of the Oregon Testament.Follow us to Leslie Gulch, where we stumble upon a yet undiscovered Native American site. The Alvord Desert Part II of the Oregon Testament. Fishing under the Steens Mountains, and wandering the alkali flats of Alvord Lake. Mono Lake They are twisted, trollish, ungodly, like a woman turned to stone East Oregon High Desert Wandering the High Desert of Eastern Oregon The White Mountains By the accidents of geologic history, this land has remained relatively unchanged. Zion Canyon Zion Canyon as a launching point for discussion on the politics of sin. Glen Canyon What Creatures will Roam Glen Canyon? It's the question I had to ask, even as I rolled into America's most lurid town.