Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ w Z w ~ u > u By Ron Schneiders One type of land that has theoretically remained available to motorcyclists is the desert land which is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Mangement. The BLM is actually a fairly small organization as government agencies go and it has extremely limited resources. But it also has an almost unlimited wealth of land, so much so that it doesn't even have a very good idea of how much land it "owns". This unlikely state of affairs is the result of one simple fact: The BLM land is probably the most wonhless land, in conventional terms, that anyone could reasonably conceive. For the most part, management of BLM land doesn't involve much. The land sits there quietly and nothing disturbs it. Miners will dig a hole once in a while, shooters will come out and put holes in anything they can draw a bead on, and ranchers will occasionally graze a few cattle on the land, if there is any kind of feed. The BLM might do something with some of the land if they had any money, but they don't even have enought to have it properly surveyed. Enter motorcyclists and the counties. The counties have passed ordinances forbiding the operation of motor vehicles on private land without the written permission of the owner. These ordinances are of doubtful constitutionalhy under the best of circumstances, but what about when they are applied to federal lands (which are in fact ours) and which are under the jurisdiction of the federal government? The BLM says that the counties cannot enforce the ordinance without the consent of the BLM and it has not given any consent. This means that if you are on BLM land and are cited, you could probably have the charges dropped or the case dismissed - if you could prove that you were indeed on public land. There's the problem. Nobody, including the BLM itself, really knows what land is BLM land, nor where it is exactly. So if you're cited for an infraction of one of these ordinances the first thing you're going to have to show is that you were riding on BLM land which you may, or may not, be able to do. A second problem is that even if you know that you're on BLM land, what is to stop the sheriff from hassling you? If he tells you to This caraVan of 4-wheel drive Jeeps carried the Land·Use committee on its inspection of the proposed riding area. is is a section marker. There are quite a few of them in the desert and they stick up out of the ground about 10". If you hit one going fast it will destroy your scooter, niight subject you to a' fine. take your scooter and truck and move out, what are you going to do? Appeal. to reason, or the BLM? Neither is likely to accomplish much when the other sides has guns and badges. Ever since there became some question as to our righ ts to ride the desert the BLM has veen very cooperative (with a few exceptions). When races were scheduled they only asked that they be notified in advance of the route planned so they could head off possible trouble. To my knowledge they have only flatly refused a permit to one club and that was because the club was going to run across private land for which it had no permission. The run was changed to aoother location and the permit was issued. The'one thing that the BLM has not been able to do is provide a map showins-the location of BLM lands for riders. Not only have they been unable to provide these maps, bu t I think they have been 'reluctant to do so as well. Some places on BLM land have ecological values that could be damaged cyclists. Each district, (Riverside and Bakersfield) has formed a committee consisting of about 20 members represen ting every in terest known in the desert. These interests include mining, ranching, cycling, ecology, the Sierra club, dune buggies, wildlife preservation, railroads and several others. The committee is given proposals by the BLM for some specific piece of land which the BLM owns, or mostly owns. The committee studies the proposal, goes out and visits the land and makes recommendations. The BLM studies the recommendations and then makes its decision. Currently under consideration by the Riverside district are two sites, both of them in the Barstow area. One is the area that lies between Barstow and the Upper Lucerne valley while the other is an area known as Johnston Valley which is roughly 50 miles east of Barstow. This past weekend I was invited to accompany the committee on its inspection 0 f the area south of Barstow, so I hopped on a Norton Commando that I had been roadtesting for Cycle News and rode a chilly 100 miles out to Barstow to meet the committte at9 a·.m. on Saturday. The event was very well organized. Jack Wilson, district head of Riverside BLM, had arranged for the Hill and PUCH WINS This charming contribution to desert beauty was not the' work of motorcyclists. Thank God! CMC MOTOCROSS Osteen's Park Jan. 24,1971 125 SENIOR 1st H. Everts - PUCH 2nd C. Gouverner - PUCH COMING ON STRONG Puch Dist. Co. 9825 Mason Chatsworth, Ca. 91311 (213) 882-8860 by subjection to mo lor vehicle use which, naturally, the BLM does not want. But if they issue a map showing all the places that bclong to llLM, how do they keep people off those areas that need protection? The thinking is that it's better if people are kept guessing until some of the questions are resolved. The recent ordinances prompted the BLM to act. They decided to "open" some large chunk of country for cyclists use. HO pen " means that they will define the area and encourage, through advertising, its use by cyclists. It does not mean that the land has been closed or that other BLM land is closed. It seems to me an unfortunate choice of word, but there it is. Acting with far greater wisdom than our various country governments who simply passed laws with no thought process whatever, the BLM formed an advisory committee which is charged with proviC;[ing feedback of feeling from various involved groups with respect to the use of different chunks of land by Gully Four·wheel drive club to provide transportation and had thoughtfully made Xerox maps of the area and the route that we were to travel. The plan was to make a loop of approximately 25 miles over the proposed area. Halfway around we would stop for lunch at Stoddard Wells. The start was at Harvey's resta·urant at the Lenwood Exit of Interstate 15. For the first!jl, of a mile we were 00 private land and Jack Wilson pointed out that something would have to be done to assure legal access to the land. In fact, under San Bernardino's silly ordinance, we could all have been arrested! The first few miles of the tour crossed a fairly flat area that Wilson envisioned !IS a camping/playbike/mini. bike area. Off to the left were some hilld that would be very inviting to trailbikers, but Wilson said that these were on private land and were out·of·bounds. Soon we came to a fairly good sized hill that was on BLM land. We went around it but it could have

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