Could someone "in-the-know" please comment of the status of the SNORE calendar for 2002 and beyond? The article (pasted below) makes it sound like this season is over already. I haven't seen any threads here about it, and go-desert's "Checkpoint" has been off-line for a few days. My team planned on doing the April race plus the night race.
-----------------------------------cut and paste from Las Vegas Review-Journal-----------------------------
Public lands managers are caught in a bind between the Endangered Species Act and a group of off-road desert racers who say their sport will become extinct if the Bureau of Land Management yanks their permits for a year because of violations during a recent race near Laughlin.
"That's a death penalty. It would put us completely out of off-road racing," said Don Dayton, past director and longtime member of Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts -- a nonprofit group that has held races in the Mojave Desert for 30 years.
BLM officials say they were left with no choice but to penalize the group for repeated violations or face a mandate from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would prohibit off-road racing for all groups permanently.
But Dayton, group President Kenny Freeman, and longtime member Roger Gaskill argued that race sponsorship would dry up after a year without holding their seven annual races, and hotel businesses in Jean and Laughlin would be hurt.
Mike Gaughan, vice president of Coast Resorts, confirmed one of their fears.
"We're now in a spot where it will affect a race in two weeks. They'd have to cancel 200 rooms," he told the Resource Advisory Council, a citizens panel that makes recommendations to the BLM but is not a decision-making body.
On Friday, the panel recommended that a previously scheduled closed-door meeting between the BLM and the group be moved up one week to Wednesday and that the parties continue talks.
"Our manager is still in consultation with staff on what sanctions will fall out," BLM spokesman Phillip Guerrero said Friday.
The discussion Thursday and Friday centered on a letter Freeman received this week advising him that permits for holding off-road races are suspended for a year for violations BLM officials observed during the Avi 250, a race held in mid-February near Laughlin. The race included dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles.
Dayton and many from the group of 85 at Thursday's meeting said BLM officials failed to communicate the seriousness of the violations at the time.
Also, Dayton said that some incidents, like minors and adults "riding all over the desert, including cross country during and after the event," might not have been linked to the 64 entrants in the race.
In all, rangers said they observed violations of eight of 14 wildlife guidelines the BLM is required to follow to allow speed races while affording habitat protection for desert tortoises, a federally protected threatened species, and other species.
David Barajas, an outdoor recreation supervisor, noted that a prerace field check conducted with Freeman's group on Feb. 14 found that the landscape at start, finish and main pit areas had been bladed in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
In order to allow the race to go on, arrangements were made for the group to offset the impact by paying mitigation fees to the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan and rehabilitate another part of the desert.
BLM Associate Field Manager John Jamrog, said he tried to work with the group before the race to prevent any misunderstandings like those surrounding violations at an event last year that resulted in the BLM suspending one of the races the group had planned.
"I don't feel there was a communication problem," Jamrog said.
On Thursday, Dayton said he had a different view of the situation at the Avi 250.
"John Jamrog, he is not on our side," Dayton said, standing before the panel and wearing a sweatshirt that depicts a desert racer with the words, "Endangered Specie" over him.
Dayton complained that the stipulations on desert racing "cannot be met 100 percent, even by the BLM ... without a big fence to keep everybody out."
Panel member Patrick Chicas, who represents permitted recreation interests on public lands in Southern Nevada, said, "The two sides need to sit down at the table, absolutely as soon as possible."
During a break in Thursday's meeting, Dayton said he feared the group's positive impacts on Southern Nevada wildlife will be lost if races are prohibited for a year.
"We go out and repair about 330 water guzzlers for wildlife," he said, referring to tanks near spring areas that bighorn sheep, wild horses and other animals depend on during summer droughts.
Barajas said he advised Jamrog to suspend the group for one to three years, but "Mr. Jamrog felt one year was sufficient to bring SNORE (Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts) into compliance," he said.
"I think communication has gone forward. I think SNORE is not able to manage their races," Barajas said.
Happy motoring, Tim
-----------------------------------cut and paste from Las Vegas Review-Journal-----------------------------
Public lands managers are caught in a bind between the Endangered Species Act and a group of off-road desert racers who say their sport will become extinct if the Bureau of Land Management yanks their permits for a year because of violations during a recent race near Laughlin.
"That's a death penalty. It would put us completely out of off-road racing," said Don Dayton, past director and longtime member of Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts -- a nonprofit group that has held races in the Mojave Desert for 30 years.
BLM officials say they were left with no choice but to penalize the group for repeated violations or face a mandate from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would prohibit off-road racing for all groups permanently.
But Dayton, group President Kenny Freeman, and longtime member Roger Gaskill argued that race sponsorship would dry up after a year without holding their seven annual races, and hotel businesses in Jean and Laughlin would be hurt.
Mike Gaughan, vice president of Coast Resorts, confirmed one of their fears.
"We're now in a spot where it will affect a race in two weeks. They'd have to cancel 200 rooms," he told the Resource Advisory Council, a citizens panel that makes recommendations to the BLM but is not a decision-making body.
On Friday, the panel recommended that a previously scheduled closed-door meeting between the BLM and the group be moved up one week to Wednesday and that the parties continue talks.
"Our manager is still in consultation with staff on what sanctions will fall out," BLM spokesman Phillip Guerrero said Friday.
The discussion Thursday and Friday centered on a letter Freeman received this week advising him that permits for holding off-road races are suspended for a year for violations BLM officials observed during the Avi 250, a race held in mid-February near Laughlin. The race included dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles.
Dayton and many from the group of 85 at Thursday's meeting said BLM officials failed to communicate the seriousness of the violations at the time.
Also, Dayton said that some incidents, like minors and adults "riding all over the desert, including cross country during and after the event," might not have been linked to the 64 entrants in the race.
In all, rangers said they observed violations of eight of 14 wildlife guidelines the BLM is required to follow to allow speed races while affording habitat protection for desert tortoises, a federally protected threatened species, and other species.
David Barajas, an outdoor recreation supervisor, noted that a prerace field check conducted with Freeman's group on Feb. 14 found that the landscape at start, finish and main pit areas had been bladed in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
In order to allow the race to go on, arrangements were made for the group to offset the impact by paying mitigation fees to the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan and rehabilitate another part of the desert.
BLM Associate Field Manager John Jamrog, said he tried to work with the group before the race to prevent any misunderstandings like those surrounding violations at an event last year that resulted in the BLM suspending one of the races the group had planned.
"I don't feel there was a communication problem," Jamrog said.
On Thursday, Dayton said he had a different view of the situation at the Avi 250.
"John Jamrog, he is not on our side," Dayton said, standing before the panel and wearing a sweatshirt that depicts a desert racer with the words, "Endangered Specie" over him.
Dayton complained that the stipulations on desert racing "cannot be met 100 percent, even by the BLM ... without a big fence to keep everybody out."
Panel member Patrick Chicas, who represents permitted recreation interests on public lands in Southern Nevada, said, "The two sides need to sit down at the table, absolutely as soon as possible."
During a break in Thursday's meeting, Dayton said he feared the group's positive impacts on Southern Nevada wildlife will be lost if races are prohibited for a year.
"We go out and repair about 330 water guzzlers for wildlife," he said, referring to tanks near spring areas that bighorn sheep, wild horses and other animals depend on during summer droughts.
Barajas said he advised Jamrog to suspend the group for one to three years, but "Mr. Jamrog felt one year was sufficient to bring SNORE (Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts) into compliance," he said.
"I think communication has gone forward. I think SNORE is not able to manage their races," Barajas said.
Happy motoring, Tim
