OHV Recreation, Tourism, and Land Trusts

Every once in a blue moon, some good news comes to the OHV community. According to a Wall Street Journal article today, a growing number of counties and states are warming to OHV/ATV/UTV tourism and are designating trails and access corridors to facilitate said use.

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Photo is of ATV/UTV Tour Program at

Kipu Ranch in Hawaii - Don and Ellen Amador drove a UTV on this tour

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WSJ Article (quote from BRC)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124831007584074147.html#mod=todays_us_page_one

The General has long believed that managed OHV recreation can bring real dollars to local economies and is an activity that should be encouraged by lawmakers, users, and government officials.

Another concept that should be embraced by the OHV community is the development of
a recreation-oriented land trust that can acquire and/or manage high quality lands that are coming on the market (i.e. surplus timber lands and other properties). The goal of the conservation/recreation land trust would be to acquire/manage lands in a manner that protects resources and critical habitat while allowing some form of recreation (motorized and/or non-motorized as appropriate) and public access to occur. The land trust could also act as a holding entity until a government agency could get legislation passed and monies appropriated to purchase the property.

In the midst of all the gloom, maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

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