Public Comments for CA OHV Grants Ends on April 7, 2014 - Send in a Comment Now

The Recreation HQ wants to send out a simple reminder about the public comment period for the CA OHV Preliminary Applications for the 2013/14 Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program that ends on April 7, 2014.

This is your chance to submit a comment letter. HQ believes it is important for local users to review the preliminary grant applications and offer your views.   It is a great time for your club to weigh in with a support letter for those land agencies that are trying to offer the OHV community some high quality managed motorized use on roads, trails, and areas.

Please go to the CA OHV Grant website below and follow the directions.  You will see that many units have not yet received a single comment letter.

CA OHV Grant Website

http://ohv.parks.ca.gov/

You don’t have to comment on every single grant, but please try and comment on the riding areas that you like to frequent.  Agency recreation staff and leadership read each one of these letters and I believe it is important for us to let them know that we appreciate their effort.

Thanks for your review of this request.

Review/Comment on CA OHV Grants including NEW OHV Park in Yolo County

OHV Bridge on FS Lands Supported by CA OHV Grant Program

 

The Recreation HQ wants to alert riders in CA (and riders from other states who visit CA OHV areas) to submit a comment on grants where you ride.   BRC issued an ACTION ALERT today with easy instructions on how to find and review your favorite grants and hopefully make a comment.

 

BRC ACTION ALERT ON 2012/2013 OHV GRANTS

http://www.sharetrails.org/alerts/2013/03/13/california--ca-ohmvr-division-accepting-comments-20122013-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-program

 

As you know, establishing a NEW riding area is almost as rare as a Blue Moon.  However, Yolo County has submitted a planning grant for a new 80-100 acre OHV riding area outside of Woodland, CA.  Getting some legal riding opportunities in this part of the Central Valley is very important.

 

Yolo County is having a public meeting on March 20 at 6:30pm in Woodland.  It is important for

OHVers to attend and show support for new riding opportunities in this area of the state.  PLEASE share with your rider networks.

 

Yolo County Public Meeting Announcement

http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/Yolo_county_March_20meeting2013.0001.pdf

 

 

March 20, 2013

Yolo County Admin. Building

625 Court Street

Woodland, CA 95695

*Meet in Atrium Training Room B02

 

Hope to see you there.

 

As the Stomach Turns - The CA Budget Fight

TV soap operas are where make believe people try and solve torrid love affairs, financial woes, and family tragedies.   The good news - at the end of the day - is that the aforementioned issues are all phony and are simply there for your viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately, the CA “budget soap opera” being played out in Sacramento is all too real.  As I talk with my political contacts in the Capitol, it is my fear that not only is the CA OHV Program in potentially grave trouble, but many non-park related state programs, government employees, and public services will face the budget axe in the near future as well.

HQ believes it is fool hardy for lawmakers to propose an increase in taxes as a tool by which the state can be rescued from running off the proverbial cliff.   Appropriating funds from successful self-funded user-pay/user benefit programs such as OHV is one of the surest signs that the legislature is mentally bankrupt and is not able or willing to make the cuts needed to bring California back from this fiscal crisis.

Basing California’s future on the current fiscal house of cards (increased taxes, taking money from programs such as OHV, etc.) only acts as a catalyst that motivates a growing number of residents to leave the state for greener pastures.     

Be assured that HQ is acutely aware, engaged, and monitoring Parks (will Ruth Coleman stay or be replaced and by whom) and OHMVR (will Daphne come back or who will take her spot)? Will the OHV grants program become a casualty in this budget fight?   There is a lot that will shake out in the next few days and weeks.

This political soap opera is all too real and nobody that I know of (including Donstradamus) has a crystal ball.

Celebrate OHV Green Sticker Money Going for Trails

Often you will hear The General remind riders to undertake the difficult task of searching for - and celebrating when found - good news in the midst of these gloomy economic and land-use times.

Just such good news exists in the form of the OHMVR Division releasing their Notice of Intent to Award various trail, restoration, law enforcement, and safety grants. As some of you know, the OHV commission had been taken over by an anti-access majority (circa 2000). That body then enacted their closure agenda by developing the early route designation process (circa 2002/2003) that not only birthed the National Travel Management Rule but defunded most OHV trail projects on FS and BLM lands for 7 years.

After a lot of work in 2007 by OHV leadership and the ecologically-balanced OHMVR Division with support from the Governor’s Office, a new OHV program was authorized in SB742. One part of the bill was development of a new grants program that had the majority of “Green Sticker” funds going to support trails and trail facilities.

Please review the OHV NOI to Award at:
http://ohv.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=1164

I would urge you to review these proposals to see if your favorite riding area is recommended for funding. The General also thanks all of you who sent in letters during the public comment period for this grant cycle.

Please take a minute or two and celebrate this victory.

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Comment on OHMVR Grants by April 6 - It's YOUR program

The April 6 deadline is rapidly approaching for submitting public comments on the OHMVR preliminary grants. As you know, in 2007 the OHV leadership and others were tasked with getting reauthorization of the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle
Recreation Program. At stake was the sunsetting of the “Green Sticker” program which would have closed SVRAs, zeroed out funding to Forest Service and BLM OHV Areas, and impacted other important OHV efforts as well.

One of the many success stories in getting SB742 passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor was that it took the “politics” and “public theatrics” out of the grants process. The OHV grants process is now similar to other state park grant programs and is more business like and matter of fact.

The old “grants circus” -- which depended on approving grants at the tail end of the decision-making process – has been replaced with a new streamlined grants process that depends on quality information submitted by the grant applicants at the front-end of the process.

Part of the users’ responsibility is to review the grants online and then submit support or non-support comment letters or offer other critiques of the preliminary grants. There are some very good grants and some real stinkers.

The General is disappointed with an apparent lack of public participation so far via the small number of public comments currently posted online for display. The CA OHV Program is YOUR program. At the minimum, take some time and review grants that pertain to your local riding area. (Thank you if you have submitted comments!!!)

Unlike the last “7 years of lean” (remember that most trail funding to the FS and BLM had been zeroed out between 2001-2007), the current program has a substantive amount of monies for trails (i.e. ground operations, etc.). There is also a restoration funding pot that was designed to use OHV funds to restore OHV routes that have been closed in a legal manner via a public NEPA process or legislation. State and federal law enforcement agencies are also submitting grants. There is money for education and safety grants as well.

Funding Pots for the 2009 Grants Cycle
http://ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1164

In 2009, $27.1 million will be available for distribution among four funding categories:

Operations & Maintenance - $13,000,000

Restoration - $7,600,000

Law Enforcement - $5,200,000

Education and Safety - $1,300,000

To Access the Grants Program and Specific Grants go to:
http://134.186.25.134/User/home.aspx

To Read Public Comments already submitted go to:
http://ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25740

Remember this is your program. The General believes your involvement honors
the hard work and collaborative effort by OHV leadership, OHMVR Division, Governors Office, and OHV and Green Lobbyists to develop SB742 and to see it become law. It is YOUR duty to be involved – Do it today!

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