YOLO OHV UPDATE - Packed House at Yolo County OHV Park Public Meeting

County Park Staff Present OHV Park Info 

***ACTION REQUIRED – Take Surveys***

Because of the many alerts and flyers posted by OHV organizations and local government, over 40 people from the OHV and conservation communities attended the Yolo County OHV Park Informational Session on February 21, 2019 in Woodland, CA.

Besides the large number of attendees from local and state OHV organizations, it was impressive to see the high level of commitment by Yolo County Parks and Recreation staff to locate a new OHV recreation facility (or facilities) in their jurisdiction.

Several important factors were cited by local government staff or noted by the audience as the reason for this renewed effort to site a new OHV recreation area in Yolo County and those tenets include:

• Direction from Yolo County Board of Supervisors to find new OHV recreation opportunities
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• Permanent reauthorization of the CA OHV Program in 2017 via SB249
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• Support from the Yolo County Sheriff
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• Stable CA OHV Grant Program
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• 2018 County OHV Survey has most participation of any public survey in county history
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• Support from local/regional conservation organizations
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• Support from diverse OHV recreation interests
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• OHV Recreation is important to rural economies

Again, Yolo County is applying to the CA OHV grant program to fund a market analysis to ascertain if there is enough community and stakeholder support for new OHV opportunities. 

Yolo County OHV Park as Gateway to Federal OHV Recreation

Pic: BLM's Knoxville OHV Area

Two options for new county OHV facilities surfaced at the meeting and those are:

One - Locate a large “destination-type” OHV area in the western rural part of the county that could serve as a gateway park to federal riding opportunities such as the BLM's Knoxville OHV Area.   The county park amenities could include camping for small and large RVs, water, restrooms, youth track, MX track, 4x4 obstacle course, and trail opportunities for both small and large OHVs.  The site could also host a sheriff or 1^st responder substation.

Two - Locate a small (less than 150 acres) OHV park nearer to town for day-use riding.  The site could also be used by the county sheriff to hold OHV training classes for the public.

There are two surveys that OHVers should take (if you have not done so already) to provide more input into the decision-making process and those are the Yolo County OHV Planning Survey and the Yolo County Strategic Plan Survey.

YOLO COUNTY OHV SURVEY – This is where you can provide OHV specific comments about the new park - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ohvyolo

YOLO COUNTY STRATEGIC PLAN SURVEY – This will guide county planning for the next 3-5 years - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/yolostrategicplan

Both of these surveys are important and they only take a few minutes each to fill out online.  I took them and they are easy to navigate. 

Take these surveys now as they will help the county in the decision-making process. 

Also, watch for additional opportunities to comment after the Yolo County OHV grant application is submitted on March 4, 2019.