Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. 1 M .... en N .. c: ::> .., ~ w Z W ..J U >- U Mark Cherry and Steve Bast skate by Ed Williams who pauses to inspect Cherry's rear tire. , by Ro n Sch n eid ers One of th e q ue sti o ns heard most frequentl y these d ay s is, " What's happening to our green st ickie m o ney ?" Another is, "Wh at is going to happen to R ed R o c k Cany on ?" I got a par tial an swer to both of th ese questions an d to several mo re that I hadn't th ough t to ask at a m ee ting of the Re cre atio n al Tr ai ls C ommitt e e ( a n adv iso ry co m m ittee to th e D c:par tmen t o f Parks and Recr eation ) in S acramento on May 24 th. T he me eting was held in an audi torium and was open t o the public. Press rel eas es announcin g it we re sent out. ' In addition to the two question s mentioned above , the re was to be dis cussion of th e 1974 Park Bond Act wh ich is to authorize the sp ending of some 250 million dollars by th e Department of Parks and Re creation, of the use of off road vehicles by minors in S tate Recreation areas, of the Mc:ndacino written pc:nnission law, and a host of other questions wh ich ar e importan t to motorcyclists. There were only ab o ut six people in th e audience, and only two of them (not co un tin g myself) co uld be said to be representing off-road vehicles. One of th ose was Jack Edwards, representing th e Cali fornia As so ciation of 4WD Clubs, and th e o the r was a youn g lady named Liza Barrigan represen ting C~llC. Ms. Barrigan has been aboard for abo u t th ree months now, rep orts to Harry Whal en, and is n ot yet familiar with Cycl e News. Don 't expect too much fro m th at comer. Ms. Barrigan left th e meeting before th e m ost important part " to atten d an o ther meeting. " God knows what co uld have been happening th at was more important to cyclis ts th a t day in Sacramen to . Motorcy clists were unrepresen ted in the afternoon session . T he Cal ifornia Recreational Trail s co mmi tte e is made up o f seven members repres enting seven areas of the state. This co m mi ttee is charged with the task of making recommendations to the Parks and R ecrea tio n regarding all types of trails and trail areas, and all prob lem s resulting from trail use. Since t hey must deal with all types of trails, in th eory they sbould have an equal interest in all types an d an inclingtion to be fair to all users. T his doesn't work ou t in p rac tice. I n fact each person on the committee has his own "thing" to which he (or she) reacts with great enthusiasm and everything else is delt with either impassively or with some degree of hostility. Represen ting us on the commi ttee is Mr . Richard (Dick) Brown , a cyclist with four dirt bikes in the family . He represents the L O S Angeles Area. I was not ab le to identify the pet enthusiasms of all the members of the committee but here are a few observations. Rem ember these men because th ey will be m akin g (o r killing) recommendations th at ar e very important to us. They are app ointed by the Governor and anyone of th em can be removed b y him is enough pe ople ar e unhappy with his p er forman c e . Mr. Doug Thamer bit b y Ron Sch neid ers represen 15 the nor thern coastal region. He see ms to be so me what sy m pathe tic to o ur need s an d he has been d irected to go t o th e ' Bo ar d of Supe rvisors of Mendacin o Coun ty and mak e th em aware o f the matchin g funds provi sion of the green st ickie law in an e ffo rt to ge t th em to repeal a written p ermi ssion ordinance which th ey just passed. Mr. Gerald Zimmerman and Mr. Ralph Goodson represent th e northern Sierra region and most of the eastern desert from . Mexico to approximately A uburn . Neither of them said or did anything to create any impression eithe r good or bad in this meeting. Per haps we'll dis cover more about th em in the June 20,meeting. Mrs . Geo rge O bern , represen ting the southern c o astal region, seems c o o l towards motorcyclists and off-ro ad vehicles, but does . se ern to be abl e to view things fairly objectively. Sh e reall y ligh ts up wh en bicycle trails ar e dis cussed . Mr. Wendell R o bie is an old horseman who appears to be jus t th is side of seni lity. He is extremely ho stil e toward motorcyclists and gives the impression of being a s kinny Teddy Ro o sevelt. Mr . George Dean , chairman o f the c ommittee, is also a h orseman and in the past has been a biased and bitter enem y of cy clists. In this meeting howev er he seems tohave come aro un d considerably . He seems to h ave realized that th e co mmi ttee must represent more than horseba ckriders and he is attempting to ch air th e comm ittee fairl y, even to the point of opposing his long time friend Robie on on e m atter concern in g our interests. Its going to take more than one me eting for me to be co nvinced that George Dean has decided to play square, but there seems to be ho pe now which I would not have believed possib le a year ago . Last year I thought the only way to deal with him would be to cut h is cinch, put a burr un der his sa d d le b lan ket and send hi m can to ring in to th e sunset - across the Interstate. Now I'm inclined to wa tch an d see if he is enough of a professional to mast er his p redjudice o n a lon g te rm basis. THE 1974 PARK BOND ACT This act has been passed by the legislature and must now go before the voters in November of this year. This act will raise about 250 million dollars to improve the State Park system, primarily by the acquisition of land. Assembly Bill 1009 (Z'berg) amends this act to spe cify allocation for off-road veh icle fa cilities. Dick Brown is going to attempt to get a resolution passed recommending th at th e bill be furthe r am ended to make a specific allocation for o ff-road vehicle facilities. I d on't kn ow if it's within our power to ge t this bill passed (bo nd acts haven't been fai ring too w ell recen tly ), but we n can definitel y defea t it . and we sh ou ld do so if no provisio ns are mad e for us. I'll keep close t ab s o n th is o ne an d report again in Augus t. ORANGE STICKlE LAW AB1421 This bill , introduced by Chapple, would require all vehicle not licensed o r r e g i s tered . with th e green sti ckle program to have an orange st ickie. T his bill is opposed by the Parks and Recreation who consider it to be me rely a harassment tool for the CHP . Parks and recreation would like the existing CHAP P IE .Z'BERG law of 19 7 1 amended to include cross co un try racing and enduro bikes, but they feel th at bikes operated solely on p rivate property should be exempt. Look for some enforcement incentives in the amended version as well . These are now lacking and are partially responsible for the failure of the green stic kle program. C u rrenll y there are approximately 8 0,0 0 0 bikes registered under th e program out o f an estim ate d 1.5 million. RED ROCK CANYON Accord in g to th e state park law to d at e, use of motor vehi cles has be en Iimi ted to "normal ingres s, egre ss and p arking." This phrase formed the chief o bjec ti on of off-road vehicle owners to th e classific a tio n of Red R ock Canyon as a Stat e Park . AB 868 (Ch ap pie) end o rsed by the Department of Parks and Re creation, would strike those words and substitute the phrase: "designated and maintained for motor vehicles." This 'is a simple so lution whi ch would allow the Parks Department to set up appropriate facilities for off road vechicles in parks and recreation areas that are suitable. However, AB 868 is n o t likely to p ass in this se nsible form due to the interference of th e Sierra cl ub. T hey wan t specific parks an d areas men ti on ed in th e bill and ve hicle use restric te d b y law to those .areas. It would t he n ta ke a further amend ment to add other other areas to t he list. There's a m illion o f y o u an d 2 0,000 Sierra Clu b members, bu t th ev write. FULE TAX BILL AB 1661 (Chappie) This bill, introduce d in April of this year, would require the Dep ar tmen t of Public works and the Department of Parks and Recreation to prepare a join t report on the estimated amount of fuel used by off-road vehicle. This report will be the basis for obtaining a transfer of funds to the State Park system for further park acquisition. We had better make sure th e f un ds are earmarked h owever, or our gas tax money w ill be bu ying horse trails in San Mateo County. se t but as a stagi ng ar ea lor more seri ous lon g d ist an ce t rail riders. A bi g p roblem with the se areas is that th ere is n ot sufficien t mon ey at the present tim e . Both ar eas ar e pri ced in the vicinity of 1,0 00,0 0 0 an d there is less than hal f a mi llion in green stic ky fun dsa as o f today . GREEN STICKlE FOR TOWED VEHICLES AB 1656 is a bill to allo w vehi cle s wh ich are used on ly off highway (p rimarily dune buggies and such ) to be towed on th e highway with only a green stickie inst ead of th e now-required license plate. It was recommended by the trails committee. These were some of th e more importan t items dis cussed in this meeting 01" the Re creational Trails Co m mitte e. The people on this committee, or at least so me of the, are trying to hc:lp us bu t they do n 't have a great deal of knowledge. Write to them an-I tell the m wh at you want. Yo u can send Ic:tters to Mr. Richard Brown, Roeme r and Hamwi, Suite 2618,3435 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90010. I t also suggests investigating th e possiblity of acquiring surplus military lands for our use and acquiring some rights of way on public utility lan d . Item B 3 is the on e I find most in teresting, however: "Examine and report on th e feas ibility of establishing a major continuous trail or series of trails for OHV recreational tr avel in th e State of California." A co mm endab le idea. Now if we can j ust ge t it passed the memo stage. PACIFIC CREST TRAIL FOR MOTORCYCLES ? There wa s a memorandum circ ulated at the me eting wh ich was addressed to Mr . Norman Hongola, who is in essen ce the person above Director Mott of Parks and Recreation Department. This memo was a sort of plan of action for off-highway vehicles in which various persons were assigned study areas with the end object being a very complete report with reco m mend ations. Attached t o th e mem o w as a two page docu me n t which is apparently 10 gui de those d oing the w ork, entitled ROLE O F T HE OF PA RKS AN D D EP T . RE C RE ATI ON IN T HE OHV FIE LD. In th is it is stated that trails will be listed in a b roch ure an d marxen , ana that OHV guided tours are envisio ned, BUYING RECREATION AREAS T he Recreational trails co mmittee has recommen ded that the Dep artmen t of Parks investigate two large parcels of lan d for possible acquisi tion as OHV parks. One is currently being operated at a private park and is quite a nice area ' near Hollister, California. The owner m ust sell it and we should encourage Parks and Recreation to buy it . The other is also a good ar ea, near Atamont. Atamont is unlikely to "go anywhere" so it seems to me that Hollister should receive priority. Its a much better site anyway and con tain ts acc ess to the National forest, which means it can not only serve as a pl ay a rea for the y o un ger

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