Raley's Supermarket to Rescue CA State Park Budget Mess?

Official HQ/BRC Land Use Battle Wagon

The Recreation HQ was encouraged recently when it read about Raley’s effort to raise funds to help keep regular California State Parks in the black.

Fresno Bee Article on Supermarket Fundraiser
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/02/2451584/raleys-to-donate-a-nickel-to-california.html

For several years, HQ has been encouraging California State Parks that the best way to keep regular parks open is to think out-side-of-box and make their program more relevant and self-sustaining. HQ also cautioned state park leadership and the legislature against continuing to lean on OHV Trust Fund monies as a “fiscal crutch.”

March 10,2010 Blog on Encouraging Parks to Become Relevant and Use Creative Ways to Stay Open
http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/2010/03/california-state-parks-initiative-18.html

Please take the poll in the upper left hand corner of this blog page. The idea for ads and coupons that could be placed in state park mailings came to me as an idea when I opened some correspondence from the U.S Postal Service and they had a number of local ads. Several of which I intend to take advantage of.

Feel free to share your ideas on how State Parks can stay in the black.

Thanks in advance for your service and ideas!

EPA - Violates Public Trust at Clear Creek

I know a lot of riders are still trying to figure out just what the heck is going on behind the scenes regarding the BLM’s closure of CCMA. The General continues to believe the closure is politically motivated and is where the agency used flawed science and a non-artful public flim-flam to effect their desired outcome.

PHOTO: BRC's Don Amador (left) and SRMC's Ed Tobin riding trails at CCMA when it was open.

As some of you already know, BRC and other public interest groups occasionally file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on federal agencies to obtain documents not otherwise available for public scrutiny. This information is then used to help BRC and its members and other stakeholders understand how federal agencies make decisions.

As The General gets ready to attend the BLM CCMA DEIS public meeting in Santa Clara on Wednesday (having already attended the Harris Ranch meeting), he asks the question, “How can the public have any confidence in this public process when the EPA denies a FOIA request – when in fact there has been correspondence between EPA and other parties for a number of years?”

EPA FOIA Case Study Regarding CCMA. – Sent to both EPA/Wash and EPA Region 9
http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/FOIA_EPA_CCMA_Case_Study_20100001.pdf

Full archive of BRC BLM/CCMA FOIA documents
http://www.foccma.org/foia/index.php

General EPA FOIA Information
http://www.epa.gov/foia/

Fortunately in this case, the BLM fulfilled their legal requirement to daylight information via a similar FOIA request and BRC obtained some EPA related documents. The same cannot be said about the EPA which - in The General’s opinion - violated the public trust.

The EPA’s refusal to share information with the public regarding their decision-making process at CCMA does not reflect kindly on the agency. It also undermines their credibility as the primary science-arm of the federal government.

Not Preaching to the Choir - New Age Meets Off-Road

One of the side benefits of BRC attending

the 24 Hours of Electricross was the opportunity to have a discourse with new age or eco-groups
that had an interest in quiet OHV recreation.

The General has often been encouraged by riders to engage those non-motorized stakeholder groups that do not understand the OHV community or traditional motor sports.

Just such an opportunity presented itself at the 24 Hours of Electricross where Don Amador was interviewed by David Herron, an internet journalist for a new age website. I think the interview/video was a good chance to share
our commitment to the resource via OHV sound education with folks who are not familiar with the BlueRibbon Coalition or the OHV community.

*********************************************************

Photo to right is of the famous KAZBUS. The General was raised in
Humboldt County in Northern California in the late 1960s/early 1970s

and seeing this bus was fun, since the concept for such “modified vehicles”

was actually created or born in Humboldt County

*********************************************************

In the following video, David Herron shares his perspective (about 8:16) of the video
and then switches over to Don Amador for his views on the electric motorcycle, potential for creation of new urban OHV parks, sound being a public lands issue, etc.

Link to Herron’s Video Interview with Don Amador
http://www.7gen.com/blog/20090412/25538-podcast


In Herron’s narrative, you see him talk about (w)ilderness or is it (W)ilderness?
Although BRC has advocated for continued use of existing routes via cherry-stems in Wilderness designations, its main purpose is to champion responsible use of non-Wilderness public lands where OHV recreation is an allowed or prescribed use. I think that distinction may have
gotten lost in the translation. However, that may be a difference without a distinction since in modern day Wilderness bills you have lands next to county garbage dumps
being proposed for Wilderness.


While preaching to the choir may be something we do a lot of…The General feels that
getting out to new venues and sharing our land use views with non-traditional news sources is a good thing.

# # #