BLM may close Mojave Desert trails Meeting Saturday 8/4 to discuss potential closures

[NIKAL]

LUCERNE VALLEY • The public will have a chance to comment Saturday on a Bureau of Land Management plan that could prohibit the use of off-road trails throughout the Mojave Desert.

Some of the estimated 5,000 miles of remote dirt roads and trails in the region could be permanently closed to public access.

The Desert Advisory Council (a volunteer citizens’ advisory group) will hold an open house from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday at the Lucerne Valley Community Center and will provide maps of the local areas in question.

“Overwhelmingly, most citizens who come to our meetings are concerned that road closures are escalating” said Dinah Shumway, chair of a DAC task group holding the meeting. “(But) I suspect we’re going to have people on both sides, people for closing roads and people for keeping them open.”

The DAC is gathering community input about revisions to the West Mojave Plan, a BLM policy which aims to protect habitat for the desert tortoise and other wildlife on federal land. Environmental groups sued the BLM, alleging that the plan favored off-highway vehicle use over habitat conservation, and a judge ruled last year that the BLM would have to reevaluate the trail system.

Acting BLM Barstow Field Office Manager Mickey Quillman said meetings like Saturday’s will give the BLM a chance to get public input before making the revisions.

“The people have areas they like to go to for recreation, or areas that they are concerned about,” Quillman said. “This meeting will be mainly a fact-finding, informational meeting, and that information will come back to us.”

The West Mojave Plan affects 9.3 million acres in the western Mojave Desert, which includes the greater Victor Valley. The plan will not directly affect designated off-highway vehicle zones such as the Johnson Valley or Stoddard Wells OHV areas, but it could affect trails leading to and from those areas. Residential dirt roads will not be closed.

Quillman said this particular meeting would focus mainly on nearby areas — including Juniper Flats and Wonder Valley — but he said anyone is welcome to also submit information and opinions on trails outside of the immediate local area.

The Lucerne Valley Community Center is located at 33187 Old Woman Springs Road (Highway 247), just west of Pioneer Park.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles...ve-trails.html

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[Ol' Curmudgeon]

Doesn't affect the NEW Expanded and Improved 29 Palms Marine Training Base in Johnson Valley?

[CMA GUMBY]

I will be attending, and let you know what I find out.

[JPBart]

When we lose JV a lot more people will want to use the limited use areas. Great timing that now they want to close a lot of those before JV gets closed. Do it now before people realize it's really even there.

[sirhk100]

Seems so simple... Don't get your way, sue and claim they favored the other side. It's the American way!

[kim]

For those of you who plan on going to Lucerne Valley tomorrow for the DAC meeting, may I suggest leaving a little early and making your first stop the Johnson Valley Imporvement Association. Every Saturday the NON-PROFIT homeowners association puts on a breakfast at the community center. For $5.00 you get your choice of Ham, Bacon or Sausage, two eggs, potatoes, pancakes or toast and coffee and orange juice.

The money made stays inside JV and boy do they need it. Here is the link to the association with its address. Its right off 247 just before or after Boone Road depending on what direction you are coming from. http://johnsonvalley.com/jvia.html

I'll see you at breakfast and then onto the meeting. I'll be wearing the red "Rescue" tank top. Please say "HI"

Kim

[NIKAL]

Since no one on here has posted about going to the meeting I will post what I found on the RZR Forum.

From DuneRider;

Made the last two hours of the DAC meeting today at LV, they had nice full size color maps you could clearly read with red for closed trails and green for open trails. The members had answers for their trail proposals of three specific areas, fourth to come. Everything from Afton Canyon, Bowen Ranch, Juniper Flats, El Mirage and more, basically all OHV riding in the high desert. If you get on the DAC website they have more meetings scheduled to review the maps. Tim Donnelly and Greg Imus were on site with advisors to help answer questions. Tim and Greg have our recreation rights in mind and we need these guys in Washington to represent us since Jerry Lewis has retired. Tim is already a member of the 33rd Assembly, we need to get Greg on board so remember them both when Nov comes around. We briefly chatted about AB 1595 and I was told there is no way Cook will be able to amend the bill before 2013. They maybe able to get something put together in 2013 but it wont take effect until 2014, swell. He authored the bill along with Kawaski so he knew exactly what the bill covered. Anyone representing the high desert knows why everyone lives here. With over 5000 mi of trails it doesnt take a genius to figure it out. Its evident Cook doesnt have a clue, yah sure we all want more laws telling us what we need because we dont know any better . Thanks for eveyones support, keep calling and bugging your reps.

From Sandlot;

I was at the meeting and found that my area was not part of the discussion yet. I am concerned with the area north of I-15, north of Yermo. The jest of the meeting was for people to identify the trails (by the BLM numbers) that they are concerned with and express there reasons for them remaining open. If you know of a trail not on the map, you drew it in and, again express your views on why it should remain open. This is a screwed up way of doing business. We have to come up with reasons to keep trails open. The environmental fascists just need to set back and watch us fail. One of the gentlemen that I talked to said that my area would be discussed in September. He also said that I could write my list of trails and concerns and email them to the Barstow BLM office before the meeting in September. Here is a link to the BLM website that has maps and more information on this. West Mojave (WEMO) Plan Amendment Activity http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/cdd/w...ave__wemo.html
I am very disappointed that this isn’t getting more traction on these sites. We all seem to be distracted my AB 1595, but soon we may have no where to ride and we will wish that all we had to do was put on a helmet! I double posted this to another area of the forum just to try to up the vision on this land grab and closure. We are going to get hosed by this, and soon!

[kim]

Nikal - I must have just missed you. I left right before 10 am having been there since 8. I was able to introduce Tim to a few key people in the room and yes, you're right he does have our back. He and I speak at least once a month regarding happenings in the Off Road community. Our next job is to get Greg Imus elected as we continue to help save Johnson Valley, fight AB 1595 and preserve trails under WEMO. Anything else on our list of things to do?