ACTION ALERT - SPEAK UP FOR COASTAL ACCESS IN CA

LOSS OF HISTORIC MOTORIZED ACCESS IN KING RANGE

 

SPEAK UP FOR COASTAL RECREATION ACCESS -  According to the CA State Coastal Conservancy,  NOAA will hold two virtual public meetings on Tuesday, August 11 and Wednesday, August 12, 2026, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. PT. NOAA will conduct the virtual public meetings via Adobe Connect. Each person who wants to attend either virtual meeting must electronically register by August 10, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Attendance at each virtual public meeting will be limited to 1,000 individuals; therefore, NOAA requests that individuals attend only one meeting, on either August 11 or 12.

 

NOAA will call on speakers on a first come/first served basis through the raised hand function of Adobe Connect. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak. NOAA will adjourn the meeting at 5 p.m. PT or when all participants have spoken, whichever is earlier. NOAA retains discretion to extend the virtual public meetings if appropriate and feasible. To register for either virtual meeting, use the following link: https://noaabroadcast.adobeconnect.com/e23ewcr5d65q/event/event_info.html

 

NOAA will prepare written transcripts of the in-person and both virtual meetings which will be available via email request to czma.california-evalution@noaa.gov. Written comments may be submitted to NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management by email at czma.california-evaluation@noaa.gov

 Include ‘‘Comments on Performance Evaluation of the California Coastal Management Program’’ in the subject line. Written comments received by 11:59 pm PT on August 22, 2026, will be accepted.

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OUTLINE OF AMADOR’S TESTIMONY FOR AUG. 11 NOAA MEETING

  I will be speaking as a CA North Coast Humboldt County native who spent much of his life exploring, documenting, and working on California's coastal public lands.

 

I will highlight that for much of the twentieth century, motorized recreation was one of many accepted ways Californians accessed and experienced the coast—alongside fishing, camping, hiking, horseback riding, surfing, wildlife viewing, and other activities.  But over the past fifty years, those motorized opportunities have steadily diminished.

 

Places where people once legally drove onto beaches and dunes have been closed or substantially restricted. Today, Oceano Dunes remains the only state-managed coastal beach where motorized recreation continues as a principal use, while the BLM's Samoa Dunes provides an important federal example of continued coastal OHV access.

 

While I am not suggesting that every historic riding area should be reopened. I will be asking NOAA to look at the “cumulative trend” and determine whether the full balance envisioned by the Coastal Act is still being achieved.

 

I will point out that California has demonstrated that conservation and recreation do not have to be mutually exclusive.

 

For an illustration, Oceano Dunes and Samoa Dunes provide examples of monitoring, habitat protection, restoration, visitor education, designated use areas, and collaboration being used to manage recreation while protecting resources.

 

Also before permanently eliminating an established recreational opportunity, I believe agencies should fully examine whether measurable environmental objectives can instead be achieved through adaptive management.

 

I will share my experiences and concerns with planning efforts where narrow scopes and predetermined sideboards prevent stakeholders from addressing interconnected problems as I have seen this in recent federal forest planning, where recreation, transportation, and post-fire recovery were difficult to address within narrowly defined planning frameworks.

 

After decades of working with agencies, conservation organizations, recreation interests, and local communities, I have learned that durable solutions come from bringing people together early—before positions harden and before the range of alternatives has been predetermined.

 

Here are my requests to NOAA:

 

Please evaluate not only what California's Coastal Management Program has accomplished, but how it makes decisions.

 

Use a process that is sufficiently broad, collaborative, science-based, transparent, and adaptive to address today's changing conditions?

 

Recognize that conservation, public access, recreation, local communities, tribes, and stewardship continue to have a meaningful place at the table.

 

QWR REPORT 2026-1 - A Policy Review of Recreation, Public Access, Adaptive Management, and the Implementation of the California Coastal Act and Federal Coastal Zone Management Act

https://ohv.parks.ca.gov/pages/1140/files/QWR%20Policy%20Report%20No.%202026-1.pdf

 

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