Help Create the FIRST OHV National Park

[fortysixandtwo]

I'm robbing this from my FB post but I will link to all the information about this historic chain of events in the OHV community. Please read and donate if you can!!! The RC Crawling/offroad world is a virtual copy of the 1:1 offroad sports. By creating the first National OHV Park, this would be a huge step towards preserving awesome areas like JV for both 1:1 and 1:10 rig owners alike!

Johnson Valley OHV area, AKA "The Hammers" is a world-famous piece of public land in California that is home to one of the most hardcore offroad races in the world, the King of the Hammers.

Unfortunately, we have been in an uphill battle to preserve this area for the public against a costly and unnecessary expansion of the 29 Palms USMC base that borders it. The outdoor/offroad community may be for all intensive purposes small, but we fight hard to preserve what OHV-accessible land is still out there. Public landuse warrior badass Jeff Knoll recently went before Congress to present the Barlett Amendment, which would require the Marines to do further work to PROVE that the expansion was absolutely necessary. Then, Congressman Paul Cook's Johnson Valley bill also recently cleared a key vote, which means that Johnson Valley OHV area would become the FIRST OHV NATIONAL PARK IN THE USA!

Congressman Cook's JV National Park bill goes before the full House in a couple of weeks. The problem is that the OHV community is fundamentally disadvantaged in one key area: lobbyists. Our community has no one in the Federal .Gov to call favors into, and thus we must raise money to pull together lobbyists to fight at the top in order to secure this historic bill that would preserve Johnson Valley OHV area as a National Park forever, reversable only by an act of Congress.

Falken Tire has generously agreed to match, dollar for dollar (up to $5000), any donation made between NOW and JUNE 16TH towards the Johnson Valley National Park Lobby fund.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to create the FIRST OHV National Park in the United States. But this requires donations!! The goal is at least $30,000, and I know we can do it!! ANY AMOUNT HELPS. If you camp, shoot, hike, four wheel, mountain bike, ride horses, etc etc etc.... your donations would be going to preserving PUBLIC LAND for the PUBLIC! That means MORE places kept pristine and open for you and your family to enjoy for generations to come.

I donated what little I could. Anything helps. I will link to the Save The Hammers page below. I have never even been to Johnson Valley but any loss of public land anywhere is a loss for ALL Americans. Thank you, and KEEP PUBLIC LAND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!!

DONATE HERE:

Save the Hammers

Pirate post:

Dickhead PBB'rs...35% on the way - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

Paul Cook bill:

https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=100584&c=CA08PC

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Here is some clarification from Dustin Webster of the Redbull Rock Crawling Team and Jeff Knoll about the park designation status:

OK, just got off the phone with Jeff Knoll who said he was excited to see solid progress in fundraising and thankful to those who have stepped up. Since around this time yesterday, the fund has raised right at $5,000, which Falken Tires will generously match with a check for $5,000. That is GREAT news. Still, we need to keep moving forward and we all know that as a group, the PBB has done better. KUDOS in a big way to those that have already donated and shared...now let's try to get this in front of more people so we can have the full funding needed for the full lobbying package that will enhance our odds drastically.

Next, regarding the "National Park" question Travis addressed. Please don't shoot the messenger as I took that term out of a press release I saw that was not official. The actual designation will be "National OHV Recreation Area", a brand new designation that will be similar to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It would take an act of congress to change or limit recreation in the canyon and lake area that is designated as a national recreation area. In our case, the primary recreation in the title is OHV recreation, but as it will remain an open area designation, recreation of all kinds will be guaranteed.

Jeff explained this as a yin-yang with a wilderness area. Congress set aside land to be very low access, now they are setting aside land for high access. It makes perfect sense and seeing as we all know that JV is a past military bombing range and has had long-time OHV use, it's not like the area is prime for any other kind of use designation.

It's actually an idea who's time has come. It's a great fit and will help set a precedent for the future.