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Outdoor Life: OHV trust fund hijacked
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Anonymous user Tue Mar 7, 2006 14:59:16 PST
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0 responses 0 comments As some of you may know, I take great pride in the fact that Cheryl and I raised our kids to be environmentally responsible while enjoying the beauty of our great outdoors on a dirt bike, quad or 4x4. And most all who also enjoy off-highway vehicles do, in fact, recreate in a responsible fashion. OHV recreation is a wholesome family activity and certainly deserves to be preserved for future generations. I didn’t come up with that idea, by any means. A division of the California Department of Parks and Recreation has as its mission that principle. It’s the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division. There is a seven-member advisory commission that oversees much of the spending within the division. According to the California State Parks Web site, the duties of the commission include “allocating funds for OHV capital outlay expenditures and OHV grants and cooperative agreements; certifying environmental impact reports; considering adverse impacts on property in the vicinity of State Vehicle Recreation Areas (SVRAs); and recommending measures to the division to reduce those impacts. The Governor appoints three of the members, and the Senate Rules Committee and the speaker of the Assembly each appoint two. The commission membership is required to represent a broad range of disciplines relevant to off-highway recreation. There are millions of dollars collected each year and deposited into the OHV Trust Fund to be used to provide for and enhance OHV recreation opportunities. The monies come from OHV registrations and a portion of the excise tax on fuel consumed by OHVs. In 1971, the Chappie Z’Berg Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Law was signed by Governor Ronald Reagan. This legislation included the following: “Legislation is urgently needed to satisfy the demand for adequate recreation facilities for such off-highway vehicles and to provide the restraints, which are necessary to ensure recreational compatibility on public lands between the various user groups.” The OHMVR Program is the source of funding and management for the Bakersfield SVRA. The integrity of our local project has been kept intact mostly as a result of local oversight of the project. But there are problems with the OHMVR Program statewide. Last year, an audit of the entire OHMVR Program was one of the most thorough ever completed by the state auditor, but it was also one of the most blistering. Some of the problems revealed in the audit: 1) Key commission members display anti-OHV recreation bias, make decisions based on personal agendas, ignore public comments, and have little or no OHV recreation experience. 2) OHV funds have been inappropriately committed to non-OHV efforts like funding of non-OHV parks, salaries of State Parks officials, and the charter of private aircraft. 3) $1.9 million of OHV Trust Funds were used to purchase “buffer property” that is 4 miles away from the SVRA it is supposed to buffer. 4) The OHMVR Division is agreeing to buy 5 acres of mitigation property for every acre purchase for OHV recreational use; much more mitigation than other types of developments even though SVRAs are mostly open space. And the list goes on and on. The Schwarzenegger administration inherited these OHV problems from their predecessors. The OHMVR Commission continues to ignore the findings of the audit and to get its act together. It’s time for the OHMVR Commission to go away and time for us to take back the OHV Trust Fund. People often ask me what they can do to impact the process. Writing a simple letter demanding the abolishment of the OHMVR Commission is a great way to start. Please send letters to: Office of the Secretary, California Resources Agency, Attn: Mike Chrisman, 1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311, Sacramento, CA95814. Happy Trails! E-mail Dick at rdtusmc@msn.com

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