Don Amador Enjoying Visit to Prairie City SVRA
Op-Ed
Dec. 28, 2017
By Don Amador
*Permission to reprint or repost is hereby given. Photos of Don Amador avail. by request
2017 - CA OHVers CHART THEIR OWN DESTINY
Reflecting back on the hard fought “SB249” victory including
tough negotiations which - at the 11th hour of the legislative session
– produced an amended bill to basically reauthorize the current CA OHV program and
give it permanent status by removing the sunset clause, I am reminded that our
success was actually the result of a two-year process where State Park
leadership started to substantively engage with the OHV community in November,
2015.
The genesis of that early engagement was the Park
Transformation Process. Agency
leadership actively sought input from OHV enthusiasts, club leaders,
professional consultants, and partners such as the Forest Service and BLM. Often that input was gleaned from large
turnouts by OHV enthusiasts at various transformation public meetings.
That information and feedback helped State Park
leadership better understand how the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle
Recreation (OHMVR) Division and its team of knowledgeable, professional and
dedicated scientists, administrators, engineers, trail specialists, law
enforcement, and planners manage a holistic and sustainable motorized recreation
program that is often cited as a national model.
During the SB249 effort, OHV enthusiasts responded en
masse to various legislative alerts to send letters, emails, or make phone
calls to their elected representatives in Sacramento. OHV user engagement was largely responsible
for making “Save the OHV Program” the number one political issue in the Capitol
Building.
Based on my 28 years of OHV advocacy working on
legislation, land-use campaigns, commissions, resource advisory councils, etc.,
I have listed the key tenets in the order of the role they had in turning SB249
around and ensuring that the OHMVR Division and its skillsets were not lost in
the transformation process.
One – Having an engaged State Park leadership team (with
support from the Governor) over the last 2 years that networked with OHV
enthusiasts, partners, consultants, and lobbyists.
Two – Having grassroots activists, clubs, and individual OHVers
send in comments and make phone calls when asked - may be the most important
key as they made “OHV Recreation” the number issue noted by legislators and
their staff in Sacramento over the last 12 months.
Three - Having a professional OHV team of consultants,
OHV commissioners, lobbyists, and grassroots leaders that embraced the
challenge and utilized user engagement to champion our OHV program before
legislators, conservation leaders, media, and the administration.
2017 shows that active participation by local OHV clubs
and individuals is a critical element in the land-use equation. 2018 will require similar dedication by the
OHV community to ensure the park transformation process honors its commitment to
keeping the OHMVR Division intact and to address a myriad of other local,
state, and federal recreation planning processes, legislation, and legal
challenges.
2017 proves that now more than ever, you are in charge of
your own OHV destiny.
# # #
Don Amador writes from his office in Oakley, California
on OHV recreation and land-use issues.
Don has 28 years of experience in OHV-related recreation management and
advocacy. Don is President of Quiet
Warrior Racing, his recreation consulting business. Don is a contractor to the BlueRibbon
Coalition/Sharetrails.org where he serves as their Western Representative. Don was a 2016 inductee into the Off-Road
Motorsports Hall of Fame. Don may be
reached by email at: damador@cwo.com
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