The comment made by the director of the California State
Parks Foundation, Elizabeth Goldstein, about off-road recreationists being her
“Children” is really one of the most astounding and arrogant comments I have
heard in the last 25 years during my work in the land-use arena.
July 27, 2012 LA Times Article on State Park Budget
Scandal with Goldstein’s Comment
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-parks-20120727,0,3856220.story
Karen Schambach’s comment in the same article about the
OHV program having large reserves is equally insulting and disingenuous. What Karen does not tell you is that her
group and other anti-OHV organizations and their local counterparts have
successfully blocked efforts by the OHV Program and OHV Commission to site new
OHV parks throughout the state to meet their legislative mandate to provide high
quality motorized recreation for the users.
During the 1990s when I was on the OHV Commission, we
worked hard on finding locations in various parts of the state. New SVRAs were proposed in Humboldt and San
Diego Counties and everywhere in between.
However, green NIMBY groups blocked us every step of the way. Greens
continued their blocking efforts during the 2000s.
Riders should not be fooled by the faux outrage being articulated
by Elizabeth Goldstein, Karen Schambach and other anti-OHV groups and their
supporters in the legislature. The
Sustainable Parks Initiative was a not so cleverly disguised direct attack on
the OHV Program with a particularly sharp hit on the grants program… all
designed to degrade management of OHV recreation to a point where Karen and
PEER could then sue to have the area shut down.
(e.g. Carnegie SVRA, Eldorado NF,
etc.)
Although OHV recreation continues to grow and prosper in
other states and regions of the country, motorized recreationists have a very
tough fight ahead of us in CA. The good
news is that I believe anti-OHV groups, on a national basis, have already
reached their zenith (circa 1990s) and are on the way downhill in their ability
to kill motorized recreational activity.
The battle in CA will require OHV leadership to think and
act outside of the box and to focus sharply on more effective ways of defeating
our political opponents.
Thanks for your continued diligence and support!
Posts
I wonder what she will say about horses?
ReplyDeleteJohn Keyes: CET&LC
Elizabeth Goldstein was on a public radio talk show last week her in No. Calif. With regard to the $53M: "... I trust legislators will 'do the right thing' with the money and allocate the entire amount to keep the state parks open...". No mention that $33M is OHV money. The public is expecting all $53M will go to parks. The term 'OHV' is rarely mentioned in mainstream media on this DPR issue.
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I can't express how frustrated I am about Eldorado NF closing 42 routes. Our club had long planned months in advance to run one of the now-closed routes...gorgeous high-country where the route is actually hard to follow in spots. I'm hiker too, and I can point to many 'non-mechanized' trials where meadows are crossed and multiple ruts have developed... even more than many OHV routes. Will the anti's shut down hiking trails too?
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My eyes, and my checkbook, have now opened up in a big way due to the continuous assault by antis. Many Calif legislators have heard from me. I hope it has helped.
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Why is OHV targeted so much? These anti's have residences or vacation homes in the forest too, what's their impact on the forest environment?
Found your blog a few months ago and it's top notch. Keep up the good fight.
Paul
Paul
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining and supporting the fight. We will prevail... and I may have some very good news today that wiil improve your spirits.