Articles of Interest To The Off Road Community (continued)

Read This To See An Objective Observers View Point On ATVs
The outlaw riders he's referring to give all of us a bad name. If you see people violating the law, turn them in. If we help control these folks, it will help all of us in the long run.

BLM Closes More Riding Trails - These Are In The Uncompahgre Plateau In CO
The agency determined that unauthorized trails had caused damage to cultural sites, tree cutting and trampled vegetation. According to a BLM spokesperson, Monitoring is telling us that inappropriate off-route travel is endangering .... resources in several areas....., leaving us no choice but to act.” All of the affected areas were designated open to off-road use under BLM regulations as long as such activity did not damage the soil, vegetation, wildlife, wildlife habitat, or cultural resources. The agency has said that they have seen the creation of illegal trails increase during the past years.

California OHV Funding At Risk!
Study finding of gas tax recommends that California's funding source for OHV recreation areas be cut in half! Mount up California Offroaders and start contacting your representatives now to help head this off now. You can bet the greenies will be all over this! State parks officials say such cuts to gas tax revenues would be disastrous to the OHV parks and vowed to make no changes to the program until they have had a chance to examine the study results.

Venice, FL Utilities Director Makes Himself & Off-Roaders Look Bad
This is the type of publicity we don't need! Why do people do these types of things? One bad apple.....you know the rest.

Minot, ND An OHV Friendly Town!
ATVs, dirt bikes and snowmobiles should get road rights in Minot as long as operators meet predetermined requirements, Minot City Council’s Public Works and Safety Committee decided Wednesday.

Carolina Adventure World Opens - A New 2,600 Acre Motorized Recreation Park
New off road park opens in Fairfield County, SC

Morrow County Court Unanimously Votes To Expand OHV Park
Its buried down in the article, but the good news is there. The plans are to add almost 2,000 acres and this will lead the park to will expand into Grant County. This is some real good news for Oregon off road enthusiasts.

ORV Park Is Coming To Cullman County Alabama
According to Gov. Bob Riley’s press release Cullman county will receive $449,976 to help purchase land for an ORV park. It is projected that the county will be granted as much $2.5 million over five years for the park. The park will eventually encompass nearly 1,500 acres of trails for OHVs.

Environmentalists Attempt To Get Arch Canyon Area in Utah Closed to OHV Vehicles!
The Greenies are at it again! According to one county commissioner, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (can you say eco-extremists?) has been trying to close Arch Canyon for at least 16 years, and they just keep trying different ways to do it. According to the official, San Juan County is comfortable that the access road is a county road. One of the Green Wackos spokespeople said, "We understand that the BLM doesn't have the resources to do an inventory of the canyon. But until they know what's there, they need to protect those cultural resources and species until they have more information." Sound familiar off-roaders? Look for a lawsuit in the near future over this if the Greenies don't get their way. They will attempt to find some eco-loving judge that will bend and manipulate the law anyway they see fit to further the cause. It is exactly how the Greenies work!

Bakersfield, CA OHV Park Derailed!
According to this news station the panned OHV area was shut down because of problems with Valley Fever spores in the soil and no access to the site from current roads.

The Real Truth About the Bakersfield OHV?
This person has a different take than the press and we feel he is probably much more accurate in what really happened to this planned OHV park! Off-Road enthusiasts maybe its time for you to sue your state officials for not representing all of the public's interests.

Great Letter To The Editor About ORV
What say you wacko extremists and lawyers?!?

Texas To Start Enforcing Off-Road Decals
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department agents and other authorities will start enforcing a requirement for all qualifying trail vehicles to have a current Texas OHV decal mounted on their vehicles when using av available OHV public land in Texas.

Another Land Owners Versus Off-Roader Battle. This One Is In Southern Oregon
Read about the battle between local land owners and the Motorcycle Riders Association over the MRA's bid to purchase 730 acres at John's Peak.

US Forest Service Announced Friday in the Federal Register That Agency Can Apply Categorical Exclusions to Forest Plans
This rare arrangement between the U.S. Forest Service and US Bureau of Land Management for parts of Southwest Colorado will enable the Forest Service to utilize a different approach to planning and skip environmental impact statements on a designated planning process. It gives them more freedom in designating acceptable activities. Conservation groups complained that by applying a categorical exclusion to forest plans that the Bush administration was continuing a long-term effort to undercut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires agencies to conduct environmental impact studies and include public input in their decisions.

Emery County Utah Officials Worried About OHV Problem
This Utah county struggles with off-road issues. As one county official puts it, the county is faced with a serious management challenge with regard to OHV use. The county is seeking a balance between protecting the environment, minimizing damage and allowing a good amount of access for OHV enthusiasts. They understand the importance of the OHV segment to the local economy, but, officials are intent on limiting illegal use. One of their considerations is dramatically increase the fines for illegal offroad use from the current $50.00 fines, which do not seem to have an affect, to future fines of hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.

Surprise Canyon Battle of Offroad vs. Environmentalists Gets More Coverage
Does a law mean something or when it becomes inconvenient for those with "issues" does it get stepped on? This battle is about more than offroad interests; it is about respect for private land ownership, legal precedence and a free society. What does it say about a society where individuals' rights are tromped in the face of "best for everyone"?

Environmentalists Use Lawsuit to Close Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Additional Federal Lands In Kane County Utah
Environmentalists and liberal judges are at it again using the court system to go against government administrators and agencies when they don't get what they want! This time the Kane County Commissioners folded under pressure from a lawsuit and have dropped an ordinance that allowed OHV use.

Headlines Dated December 2006
Bad News For California Off-Roaders!
A new state survey showed that spending in support of off-road (vehicle) recreation is double what the sport contributes to the State, which could mean cutbacks at off-road parks around the state!

Minnesota DNR's Plans To Develop 70-Mile ATV Trail Have Hit A Snag
Seemingly every proposed site meets with protest from locals and environmentalists. Same old song, same tragic results. Every place you look to put an OHV trail system there is something endangered or important there that will be devastated by ATV use. Wonder how many studies have been done on this? There are 1,000's of ATV riding areas across the country; can they prove one harmed species by an ATV area? I bet not or they would!

Meeting Over OHV Trail System In Stanislaus National Forest Has Some Good & Some Bad News
We're happy to report that there was a good turnout of offroad enthusiasts at the meeting, but the environmentalists were well represented as well. The proposals included some trail closures and cutbacks in some areas and expansion in others, but the whopper of the night was that a number of the roads used inside the Forest cross over private land and it appears that the Forest may not have the legal right-of-ways to use those roads.

Yet Another Negative Editorial Article Against ORVs
This time its in the Hi-Desert Star out of Yucca Valley, CA. Time to send in those letters to the editors folks defending ourselves.

Bad Legislation On The Table in West Virginia
As reported in the Charleston Gazette, a proposed bill would supposedly fine-tune safety regulations for ATVs. The pressure to do something is being brought on by critics and the deaths of 40 people from ATV related accidents in 2006 and 52 deaths so far in 2006. The proposed legislation would give each of WV's counties (there's 55 of them) the right to regulate operation of ATVs on any road except interstate highways. Lawmakers believe that by giving counties the regulation power for ATVs that the counties will be able to keep ATVs off of paved roads, where it is believed accidents are more likely occur. (Wouldn't the accident reports verify whether or not this is the case?) A spokesperson of the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America recommended that any legislation be statewide since different regulations from county to county would be confusing to residents, and especially out of staters. (Do you think? Where do they get these ideas? Let's have 55 different regulations for one activity, duh! People in West Virginia need to speak up and tell their representatives that they do not want this.)

Proposed OHV Trail System For Stanislaus National Forest To Be Discussed
The meeting is scheduled for 5pm, Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at the Sonora Oaks Best Western, Sonora, CA, and on December 14th at the Tenya School, 19177 Highway 120, Groveland, CA. OHV enthusiasts need to attend.

Where's The Beef
An article about the economic benefits of OHV riding areas.

How Do You Run A Successful Off-Road Park Out Of Business?
This article goes into the troubles an offroad park is going through in Burnt River, Ontario. The owners were required to completely fence the property because neighbors were concerned about people leaving the property and animals wondering onto the property and being hit. The park owners are asking for more time to erect the fence because of the extreme cost of doing so. It could put them out of business. The park's response to the "concerns" was that they have been opened for 2 years and had over 10,000 people at the park without incident. (Why state facts when we have those concerns? This is what drives me crazy. You have some folks who have concerns and want action to address their concerns even after the concerns have been shown to not be valid! This sounds awful familiar to what we went through in Kentucky!)

More Important Off-Road and OHV Articles