September 1998 Newsletter
Awarded #1 Off-Road Club for 1998 by the California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission

NEXT MEETING
The October meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 6, at Giovanni's, 9353 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard at the corner of Ruffin Road. Their phone number is 619-279-6700. A buffet including all-you-can-eat pizza, salad and soft drinks will commence at 6:00 p.m., and the meeting proper will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!

CHAIRMAN'S CORNER
- Jim McGarvie

NUMBER ONE!

The California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission named the San Diego Off-Road Coalition the top volunteer OHV organization in California for 1998. This award is in recognition of what you, our members, have accomplished over the past several months. Seemingly small things like writing letters, attending meetings, and generally representing to others the best aspects of our wonderful sport. Congratulations!

EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS!

Inherent in our form of government is our right to vote for issues and leaders of interest to us. If we don't exercise that right, we have no right to complain. If we don't register to vote, we can't vote. If you have moved since you last register, you must register again before you can vote. We'll have registration forms available at SDORC meetings.

CARB GREEN STICKER UPDATE

We have it on good authority that the current difficulty in obtaining green stickers for OHV's manufactured after December 31, 1996 and not meeting CARB's more stringent emissions requirements may be eased somewhat in the near future. Apparently CARB will meet on September 3, at which time it is expected that they will approve the issuance of a new type of sticker to those vehicles. What we hear is that the new sticker will allow operation everywhere the current green sticker does, except for the L.A. and San Diego areas below 3000 feet elevation, and portions of the San Joaquin Valley. As a trade-off there will be no competition allowed in those areas during the months of July and August. The final ruling may vary from the above. All we can do at this point is wait and see. In any case it appears that the situation should improve significantly.

CARB AGAIN
We have apparently dodged a bullet. CARB had proposed regulations designed to reduce the amount of fuel spillage from gasoline cans/jugs when fueling OHV's. The consequences would have been, at the very least, prohibitively expensive. Fortunately - and somewhat surprisingly - reason prevailed. CARB decided to leave it to the discretion of the gasoline container manufacturers to improve upon the design of the nozzles.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN 300

Alan Klumph, my sons Darren and Sean, and I shared with over 100 other riders the wonderful experience of riding over 200 miles of beautiful Colorado forest trails in August. The Rocky Mountain 300 is an invitation-only dual-sport trail ride organized and sponsored by Parts Unlimited, Moose, Thor and other manufacturers and distributors of motorcycle parts and accessories. Colorado off-roaders enjoy an excellent relationship with the folks at the Gunnison National Forest, and work with them to keep open and maintain hundreds of miles of trails. The beautiful Colorado single-tracks made us wish for similar riding closer to home, but that is not likely to happen. Our forest, the Cleveland N.F., is much smaller than the Gunnison. More to the point, however, is that it is much closer to a much larger population base. The Cleveland simply could not withstand the kind of pressure that 50,000 off-roaders within a one- to one-and-one-half hour drive would apply. But we're working on it....

CHEMEHUEVI WASH RESTORATION PROJECT
- Alan Klumph, Director of Legislation and Natural Resources

I received a letter from the Bureau of Land Management Needles Field Office requesting volunteer support for National Public Lands Day activities on projects at lower Chemehuevi Wash near Havasu Landing on September 26, 1998. Sixty sites throughout the U.S. have been selected for projects on this 5th Annual National Public Lands Day. Chemehuevi Wash is a popular desert off-highway vehicle area and activities there will include trail maintenance and restoration, planting trees, replacing protective fencing, installing informational signs and other related tasks.
They would like to recruit as many as 200 volunteers and plan on providing lunch and an educational program on Leave No Trace, Tread Lightly, unexploded ordinances, GPS/map/compass orienteering and desert safety for adults and children. For more information on the Chemehuevi Wash Restoration Project contact Lesly Smith at (760) 326-7031 or (760) 326-7000 or visit the Needles web site at http://www.ca.blm.gov/needles/.
Lending our support to events like National Public Lands Day and other improvement, maintenance and restoration projects is very important for many reasons. In order for us to have a future in off-roading we need to do everything we can to help improve our image with the public and with government agencies. By being involved in these types of activities it shows that we really do care about the environment and the land we recreate on in a very strong way. Instead of us just saying that we care about the environment we have proof in the form of positive actions. It also provides a great opportunity for good public exposure in press releases on the event. Another important thing is that these activities give us all a chance to become better acquainted with the people running and working at the agencies that we need to deal with in keeping what we have open. As many of you know we face the reality of losing recreation areas everyday due to the efforts of the enviro-extremists. By working with the agency employees and expressing a positive attitude we gain their trust and respect which often leads to them being willing to work with us and that helps us get our way on decisions that affect our recreation areas. If we are constantly fighting against them it creates a negative relationship in which neither side is willing to give in.
I hope to see you at this or a future project at one of our local off-road areas.

COASTAL COMMISSION MEETING
- Roy Denner, Education Committee Chairman

YOUR LETTERS DO MATTER! On Tuesday, August 11th, the California Coastal Commission held an open hearing in Huntington Beach. One of the items on the agenda was a final determination on the closure of Black Sands Beach, in Northern California, to vehicular traffic, as was being recommended by the BLM. Black Sands beach is a three-mile stretch that has been open to vehicular traffic forever. If this stretch of beach were closed to vehicles, the only remaining beach area open to vehicles would be Oceano Dunes (Pismo Beach) and one other small area. The Coastal Commission already has an item on its agenda to review the carrying capacity to limit off-highway vehicle use at Oceano. Shouldn't off-roaders be allowed to enjoy their sport on a tiny piece of beach property when California has hundreds of miles of beach that are closed to vehicles?
At the opening of the discussion on the Black Sands Beach area, the Commission Chairman announced that he had about as many letters in support of keeping the beach open to vehicular traffic as he had in opposition. For once, numerous off-roaders responded to the request to write letters regarding Black Sands in spite of the fact that not many local riders have ever been there. The San Diego Off-road Coalition (SDORC), the California Off Road Vehicle Association (CORVA), and the OHV community thanks you for your letters. We are finally getting organized. You did write a letter, didn't you?
The OHV community backed up the written input by having about 20 representatives from OHV organizations from all over California speak to the Commission at the hearing. Of course, there were a similar number of environmental extremists there to encourage the closing of Black Sands. One loyal Sierra Club speaker actually said that the area needs to be closed to vehicular traffic since "Backpackers, with 50 pound packs, sink into the sand up to their knees, and are stuck there like beached whales, making a perfect target for vehicles racing down the beach." So, we have moved from the realm of murdering lizards to running down innocent backpackers. Linda Roush, a Bruce Babbit ally representing the BLM, was pushing for a decision, right now, to close the beach to vehicular traffic. Many speakers, including a Commission member who is a mayor in Humboldt County (where Black Sands Beach is located) were in favor of postponing the decision until next month, when the Commission is scheduled to meet in Humboldt County. The latter group believed that it would be useful to get more input from the people who live near the beach. The mayor said that she felt that more local input was necessary since she "was not aware of any conflict between any groups over Black Sands Beach." She hasn't received a single letter of complaint!
After a great deal of discussion, the Commission Chairman accused the BLM of making the Commission the scapegoat on this issue. By forcing a decision, he said that the BLM was making the Commission "take the heat." He said that, if the BLM forced the vote "right now", he would have to vote with this in mind. Many of the other Commission members agreed with him. This convinced Ms. Roush to back down and agree to allow the decision to be postponed until the next meeting. The Commission, with the exception of the vice-chairperson, Sara Wan, all voted to delay the decision.
Most OHV representatives in attendance agreed that the postponement will work in favor of the OHV community. One cannot help but wonder how the vote would have gone if forced at the time, considering how most of the Commission was against the idea that the BLM was forcing their hand.

VOLUNTEERS' REWARD
- Roy Denner, Education Committee Chairman

"I can't tell you how good this makes me feel. I didn't think that people, in this day and age, really cared any more!"
This was Herman Schneider's comment after a crew of volunteers from SDORC spent a few hours one recent Sunday morning cleaning up Herman's back yard. Yes, we took some time off from destroying flora and fauna to help a fellow SDORC member who has contributed a lifetime, working as a volunteer without pay, to advance the causes of the OHV community. As was reported in last month's newsletter, the BLM is naming the new bridge at Gordon's Well "The Herman T. Schneider Bridge." Congratulations Herman!
For those of you who don't know, Herman Schneider, former Legislative Representative for the SDORC is ill with cancer. We are certainly going to miss his help.


MATT FONG FOR U.S. SENATE
- Roy Denner, Education Committee Chairman

On Tuesday, August 25, the Southern California off-road community sponsored a fund raiser breakfast for Matt Fong at the City of Industry Sheraton hotel. Mr. Fong has been treasurer of the State of California since 1995. He is currently running against Barbara Boxer for the position of U.S. Senator from California. As you should know Boxer is no friend of the off-road community and was a major supporter of SB21, the "Desert Protection Act" that closed over seven million acres of Southern California desert to motorized recreation.
At the meeting, Matt Fong declared his support for keeping public lands open for the public and, more specifically, for off-road recreation. He suggested that he, like most off-roaders, is in favor of protecting endangered species but wants to protect our rights as well. He is pushing for a method to take species off of the endangered list after their population has recovered. He feels that, currently, once a species gets on the endangered list, it stays there forever. He suggested that, after the election is over, he would like to bring his family to the desert and enjoy our form of recreation. Mr. Fong proudly announced that, at this point in time, he is 5 percentage points ahead of Barbara Boxer in the polls. In a nutshell, a few of his major campaign issues are:(1) To do away with the IRS as we know it and replace it with a new tax system; (2) Completely revise our education system so that graduates can read and write and reward teachers who do a good job with higher pay; (3) Rebuild our military into a strong national defense; and (4) Take a hard line against criminals and stop nominating liberal federal judges.

MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
- Bill Quackenbush, Membership Chairman

New members joining us this month are the Berman Family, the Nicholls Family, George Collwy, and Mark Payton.
Renewing members this month are the Peterson family, the Karasek Family, the Bell family, the Tietz family, the Linz family, H.P. Tietz and Stan Palmer.
Renewing business memberships this month are Duncan Racing and The Fun Bike Center.

A new business member joined us this month. Alba Yamaha. They're at 12255 Poway Road, in Poway. Not only did they join SDORC, they are also giving, at their expense, a one year membership in SDORC with every OHV sold! Our thanks go out to them for their generous support.

Need a membership form? They are available online at http://www.sdorc.org/join.html. Membership questions? Contact me at billq@san.rr.com

PREFERRED MERCHANTS

Just a reminder to support our Preferred Merchants, as they support us with their discounts, donations and contributions.

Alignment & Brake Specialties
Lemon Grove Motorcycles
Aros Trailers
Off-Road Warehouse
Rhino Linings of El Cajon
County Motor Parts
Fun Bike Center
Webb's RV Supply

CLASSIFIEDS

VW MOTOR PARTS AND DRIVE TRAIN PARTS: Engine cases, heads, crankshafts, camshafts, carbs, manifolds, rocker arms, push rods, oil pumps, transaxles, CV joints, axles, wheels, and much more. CHEAP! Call Roy Denner 619-443-9101.

FLAT BED TOY TRAILER: 12'x7 1/2' bed, 12" rails, tongue jack, ramps. Brand new! Asking $800. Call Sean at 619-561-8161.





Last Updated September 15, 1998