Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125841
They don't care hovv they do it in California To check or not to check You may participate in th e 1976 Preside ntial Elec tion Campa ign Fund by checking the box on your tax form 1040 or 1040A. This will designate $1 (or $2 on a joi nt return) to a nonparti san fun d. If you did n't do so last year, you can also check a box for 1972. This wi ll not reduce you r refun d or inc rease your tax. ~ @il~ ~ Intemal Revenue Service ~UL..T=C= Bulta co Internati onal Lt d. P.O . Box 62547 Virgin ia Beach . V A 2 3462 ~::;;,&~~ stroke cares. Also conversions for alcohol & nitro fuels. 18 Is t he land management sce ne any d ifferent in Utah ? Yes! And it's a good thing! Story and photos by John D. Ulrich The first thing I noticed about Utah was the overwhelming lighting. Driving from LA on Interstate 15, the crossing over the Utah border near St. George is soon heralded by freew ay lights so bright they hurt your eyes . A glance to the left reveals the St. Ceorge Mormon Temple. rising snow white above t he city in the glow of floodligh ts . And as the rest of t he country worries about something called "energy cris is," t he streets of Salt Lake City at Ch ristmas time are decorated with a fantastic dis play of lights that bum both day and night. The reason electricity is so abundant in Utah. according to Craig Bigler of the State Planning Office . is that Utah wisely planned and executed the utilization of hydroelectric power to the point of having a surplus even in these days of shortages. It makes sense. But, even more refreshing to a Californian. the situation pertaining to Land Management. specifically off-road vehicle (ORVJ use management. is also different in Utah. The differences start with the State Division of Parks and Recreation. which administers an ORV registration program similar to the one California has. In California. after I ~ years of registering ORVs (most of which are motorcycles), the biking public has see!' few of the many promised benefits to be financed from the 15 fees . The state had promised to use the money to open up new riding areas for OR V users. They did - sort of. To date. California has seen the opening of one new riding park under the program. McCill Cycle Park in Sa cramento County. The only reason the park was started was because Sa cramento County had the foresight to take up the option of using state funds to b uild su ch areas u nder the " Creen Stickie" program. It's a nice park . O f course, mos t of the bikes are in Sout hern California, about 500 miles south, but it's still a nice park. And then there's the fin e example set by th e cities of San Jose, and Lakewood. Both seem to think th at the best way to co mb at the extreme ( Lo rd have mercy !) problem of youngsters wanting to ride (Heaven save us!) motorcycles on vacant lots [Oh , Lordy !) is to chase them away. That's how those cities used the state money they applied for and got under the program. Then you have the case of Utah. The sta te has bigger in heren t problems than California has in its program. Caiifornia has over 1.3 million ORVs from which to extract 15 each every two years. Utah has about 30,000. and charges only 510 for the same two year period. Of those. California has registered about 75.000 (m o re than twice Utah's total ORVs), and Utah has registered a mere 3.000. Additionally. Utah is hindered by a provision in their Recreational Vehicle Act whic h requires people to pa y a property tax on their ORVs before t hey can register them un d er the program. This extra 520·$50 tax is enoug h to persuade mo st ORV owners to kee p their vehicles street legal and register them as such. th us not needing the O RV plate. But Utah still delivers mo re than California. Already two bike parks have been opened. 18 more are in the planning stage. and admission to the parks is only possession of an ORV registration. T he parks are designed to provide riding for the motocrosser , the trials rider. the trail rider. and everything in between . Not only that. but. ac cording to Boating and Recreation Vehicles Chief Tedd Tuttle. neighborhood parks where ki ds can push their bikes after school and ride are also foreseen . The same program will. as more registration money is taken in, provide sanitation facilities at ORV races held throughout the state. too. But the most amazing thing about the program is that Tuttle actually "lobbies" on behalf of motorcyclists with other governmental agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management (8LM) . Many times a year Tuttle organizes "field trips" where he takes four or five of the 25 bikes the Division owns and BLM. Forest Service, and Park Service people out for a ride. The result ? They better understand why people like to ride motorcycles. What makes the Utah program wo rk so we ll? The biggest reaso n is Tedd T uttle, but o ther reasons stand out a lso. Three years ago, when wo rd of the program first started filtering o ut, Tuttle had never ridden a bike. But instead of speculating. like so many government d udes do, on why biking was so popular and meant so much to so many people, Tuttle dove right in to find out. Now. in 1974. he can stand out in front of his office in Salt Lake City, point to the many mountains to the east, and say. "I've been on top of most of those peaks with my bike," Tuttle is n ow very in vo lved wit h ridin g. and sees it as a positive wa y for you ngsters to entertain themselves. Of course, that's something you've probably known for a long time, but when you hear it from a government spokesman, it's news ! Anyway, T uttle is dedicated to the growth and acceptance of motorcycling in Utah. Other differences also co u n t. In Utah . the money co llected is directly used by th e st ate to provide benefits for those people char ged registration fees. It is not disbursed through County and City governments lik e it is in California. Thus. there is less chance that non-understanding local fat cats will divert the bikers' money to the general fund. People who know and unde rstand bikes and bikers control the 1001. T uttle has became involved with the sport h is agency regu la tes. He knows how it is. He has the knowledge necessary to d o the job. While Utah has a low relative number of bikes. it has a high proportion of bike owning fa milies. One out of every fo u r Utah families owns a bike. T he Sierra Club is not the great political force in Utah that it is in Ca l i fo rnia. In fact. t he Wasa tch Mo u ntain Club (a Salt Lake City area concentrated group) is m o re active. b ut both seem to ca use the state li ttle concern. In California the Department of Parks and Recreation actually co nsults with the Sierra Clul:i on how to spend mo ney . In Utah. that just d oe sn' t hap pen . In Utah. almost a feeling t hat has to be described as "govern ment trus t " prevails. I t seems tha t the people trust the state government m o re than any other place. The government also gives the impression of being more "above-board" than that of California. California State Department of Parks and Recreation Director William Pen n Mort, Jr. never even answered my letter when I requested an interview d u rin g my political in terview binge last year. In con tr as t. Tuttle almost fell over himself in his sincere effort to be helpful during my trip to Utah . There also seems to be a remarkable degree of trust and cooperation between the state government (T uttle) an d th e m o tor cy cl ist groups in Utah. We 'lI take a closer look at that ne x t week. - • • from the capKol By Russ Sanf ord Hot Dog T his is an exact copy of a docume nt that has been p repared by the Bureau of Reclamation and is on file for the whole wo rld to see. Cut this out. put it in your billfold or purse, and the next time that someone proceeds to give you trouble about motorcycle riding area noise, give him this . Gentlemen: The Department of Parks and Recreat ion and the Bureau of Reclamation have bee n studying the suitability of a portion of the future Auburn reservoir area for trail b ik e recreation . Sound level field t ests w er e recent ly p er f o rm ed as part of the environmental evaluation of th e area. A co py o f t he report for t hese tests fo llows. It co ncl ud es that no ise is not likely to be a significant negat iv e enviro nme ntal factor for t he proposed t rail bi ke recreatio n area . G . R aymond R ol i n Pro j ect Constru ction Eng in eer Bureau of R ecl am at io n Sub ject : Ccdfish -Pcnderosa T rail Bike R ecreat io n Area - Sound Level T est s- A ub ur n -Fo lso m South UnitCentral Valley Project The California Department of Par k s and R ecreat ion wishes to develop as early as possible a number of off -road vetucte recreation areas throughout the state. The Department is involved in planning the recreation fac ilities for the Auburn -Folso m