New Trail Ideas Highlighted at 2012 NOHVCC/INOHVAA Conf.

It was great to attend the 2012 NOHVCC/INOHVAA annual conference held this year in Great Falls, MT.

The National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council and International OHV Administrators Association worked hard to provide an informative and productive forum for professionals and volunteers involved in OHV recreation management.

 

The conference had representatives from land agencies, industry, trail contractors, and user groups.  Those OHV stakeholders included the BLM, FS, NOHVCC, MIC, SVIA, ROHVA, SVIA, Federal Highway Administration, ARRA, AMA, BRC, QWR, NOHVCC state partners, Trails Unlimited, RecConnect, Tread Lightly!, and many others.

 

Presentations covered a lot of interesting trail-related issues including a joint effort by the trail professionals at “GreatOHVTrails” to pen a new trail construction manual specifically designed for OHV use.  They urged users and others to contact them with ideas and suggestions for their new book.

 

John Mueller was there from Sutter Equipment to discuss their new Tier 3 EPA certified Trail Dozers and also daylight efforts to design a new narrower trail dozer for constructing single-track trails.  Gary Lambert was there from the new Nevada OHV Commission with info on trail projects in the Silver State.

 

Steve Pretzel, the Director for Trail Bike Management in Australia, gave a presentation on how users and the government are going from unmanaged OHV recreation to managed use.  It was interesting to see how similar the land issues, challenges, and solutions are in that country in comparison to the USA.

 

ROHVA presented a segment on side by side related safety training programs.   BRC gave a presentation on new 21^st Century congressional land-use designations.  Paul Turcke was there from The Cascade Project a new 501 (c) 3 non-profit recreation-oriented land trust.  That website should be up in a week or so.

 

Finally, it was nice to touch bases with old friends from the OHV community to discuss where OHV started from and where it is going.   Based on feedback from those attending the conference our future looks bright.  However, it was pointed out that we must remain ever vigilant to promote and protect responsible OHV recreation on public and private lands.

Here are some links to the aforementioned groups.

 

GreatOHVTrails

www.GreatOHVTrails.com
 

RecConnect

http://www.recconnect.biz/
 

Trails Unlimited

http://www.fs.fed.us/trailsunlimited/
 

NOHVCC

http://www.nohvcc.org/
 

BRC

www.sharetrails.org

MIC

http://www.mic.org/
 

ROHVA

http://cbt.rohva.org/
 

ARRA

http://www.arra-access.com/site/PageServer
 

AMA

www.ama-cycle.org
 

Sutter Equipment

www.sutterequipment.com

 

Tread Lightly!

http://www.treadlightly.org/
 

Trail Bike Management AU

www.tbma.com.au
 

SVIA

http://www.atvsafety.org/

 

 

 

Volunteers Needed for Post-Fire Recovery at Stonyford

QWR, a volunteer on the Mendocino, wants to give you an update on the Mill Fire.  As you know, the 2001 Trough Fire did not impact that much of the trail system, but it did destroy the various OHV camping and staging areas at Fouts Springs.  On the other hand, the Mill Fire spared the Fouts Springs campgrounds but fried about 80% of the popular trails between Fouts to Lett’s Lake and back down to Little Stony.

 

Link to Current Mill Fire Closure Order and Closure Map

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5382658.pdf

QWR believes that trail volunteer efforts will play a key role in getting this area back online.  QWR is planning to play an important role in helping the agency facilitate and work on volunteer trail efforts.  If you love Stonyford we are asking you to fill out and send in a volunteer agreement to Paige to help with future volunteer projects. (see  volunteer agreement below)

 

Here is an announcement from Paige

Thank you for eagerly extending a helping hand for the process of cleaning up the devastation of the Mill Fire.

We are currently awaiting the full report from the BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) Team.

As soon as we get permission to enter the area and start closure & rehabilitation work, I will email you with some dates.

The first project in order will be to secure the perimeters of the fire.  Access to the trail system will need to be closed with signs and straw bales along the intersections of M-10, 17N02 & Goat Mountain.  Theses main roads hopefully will be opening soon.  Not until the fire is called out, which most likely will be after we get rain, will we be able to start trail rehabbing.

I have attached a volunteer agreement which will need to be completed prior to any volunteer work that you do for the Forest Service.

Thanks again and I will be in touch soon!

~Paige

  

Paige Makowski

Mendocino National Forest
Grindstone Ranger District
O.H.V Recreation Technician
(530) 963-1328

Here is the link to the volunteer form

http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/Volunteer_FS_agreement.pdf


Send form to:

Paige Makowski
Mendocino National Forest
825 N. Humboldt Ave.
Willows, CA 95988

If you would like to sponsor or support QWR’s post-fire recovery work (e.g. travel, supplies, seed money for matching grants, etc.) you can donate at:  *ID it for "Stonyford Fire Recovery"

http://www.quietwarriorracing.com/Sponsorships.html

Thanks in advance for your support in helping get Stonyford reopened for public use.