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/128229
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team, although it is expected to be
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James Dobb, Paul Cooper and Stephen
Sword. Italy will field a relatively weak
team in the defense of the title it won in
the 2002 Motocross des Nations. With
Claudio Federici getting surgery in the
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off-season, Italy will have Manuel Monni,
Andrea Bartolini and Alessio Chiodi,
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although Chiodi is also looking at
surgery in the off-season, and he may
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be replaced by Thomas Traversini. Due
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to Marc De Reuver's being out with
injury, Holland will run with Erik Eggens,
Oscar Vromans and Remy Van Rees.
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Attack Suzuki's Josh Hayes is slated
to take part in his first international road
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race this coming weekend - the German
round of the World Endurance Champi-
onship. If he performs well enough in
practice, Hayes will join Jason Pridmore
on the Phase One Suzuki team for the
24-hour race. Prior to heading to
Europe, Hayes was also slated to serve
as a guest instructor at Pridmore's Star
school.
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California Speedway in Fontana, Califor-
The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Barstow (California) Field
Office has announced that it will impiement a Recreation Fee
Demonstration Program for four popular desert off-highway vehicle
riding areas effective October I, according to Mike Ahrens, off-highway vehicle coordinator for the Barstow BLM_
Ahrens said the riding areas to be included in the recreation fee
progra.m are Dumont Dunes with 10,000 acres; Johnson Valley, the
world's largest designated OHV area, with 188,000 acres; Stoddard
Valley, with 53,000 acres; and EI Mirage, with 25,000 acres. The
22,OOO-acre Rasor riding area will continue to be a free area. Nearly
one-half million OHV entllusiasts visit these areas each year,
according to the BLM.
"Clearly, this was not an easy decision for the Bureau," Ahrens
said, "but with a projected shortfall of more than $2.5 million each
year, we simply can't provide quality services for our visitors. Funding from the federal government and California OHV trust fund have
continually decreased over the past decade, so these new fees will
prOVide riding opportunities and services requested by our customers."
Under the recreation fee program, visitors will be charged $20 for
a weekly pass or $60 for an annual pass for their primary vehicle.
Ahrens said the pass would be accepted at all four OHV sites.
"While we are still working out some of the collection method
details," said Ahrens, "we can ·say we are planning off-site colle.ction
via the Internet and various vendor locations. Weekly passes purchased off-site will be discounted $5, passing along the reduced collection cost to the visitor. We will cDntract to have self-pay
machines, handheld card readers and vendors at on-site entrance
stations for those choosing to purchase weekly passes at the riding
areas.>!
Congress authorized the Department of Interior and its subordinate agencies such as the BLM to initiate the Recreation Fee
Demonstration Program in 1996 in, order to keep pace with the rising
costs of managing recreation sites, according to the BLM release.
"This recreation fee demo program stands out among all of our
collection programs becaus.e all of the revenues are retumed to the
sites to improve ·the quality of visitor experience," Ahrens said.
Some of the services to be provided by the additional funds will
include increased law enforcement at EI Mirage and Dumont Dunes
and increased law enforcement staffing for speCial events at all of
the sites. Additionally, the funding will provide for additional emergency medical technicians/park rangers at EI Mirage, Dumont
Dunes and spedal events as well as more maintenance personnel
for maintaining OHV access roads, maintenance on the toilets, signing and kiosk repairs and. litter removal.
"Over the past several years, we have sought input from the public by holding open houses and public meetings to find out exactly
wllat kind of opportunities they would like to have and what
improvements are needed," said Ahrens. "So, we can say our customers have been very involved in determining how the money will
be used.
"The Bureau's management of this new recreation fee demonstration program can only succeed with participation and support of '
the off-highway vehicle community," Ahrens said. "The fee demon- .
stration program provides the recreating public the opportunity to
invest in local BLM facilities and our public lands."
In response to the BLM's planned implementation of user fees
and other important issues that involve some of the popular riding
areas in the Southem Califomia desert, AMA/District 37 has schedlolled,! series of public meetings -to assist all interested parties in
making comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report and
Statement for the West Mojave Plan, according to Dave Oakleaf,
AMA/District 37 legislative officer.
The plan will govem management decisions for the West Mojave
region of the Cal.ifornia dese.rt for the next 30 years_ The dr