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February Update

Coming Events

Wheels and Water X
SDORC is hosting an outdoor recreation expo May 31 at Diane Jacobs Equestrian Center from 8:00am to 4:00pm. We plan to feature off-road vehicles and equipment as well as water sports equipment and other outdoor gear. If you haven’t seen the center, it has a very large covered area we will be using for vendors. The event will be free for guests and very reasonable for vendors. If you are interested in helping plan, or having a vendor space, let us know at info@sdorc.org.

Desert Safari
Our friends at Tierra Del Sol Four Wheel Drive Club (TDS) are hosting Safari February 28 through March 2, with a trail run on March 1 and raffle that night. We will be there and hope you will too.

Off Road Nights
Our friends at Off Road Nights are hosting an off-road show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds March 28 and 29. We are looking at having a booth there to promote our Wheels and Water X show. Click here for details.

TDS Cleanup

TDS is hosting a clean-up at Valley of the Moon March 29. This is a neat area just south of Highway 8 right before you begin to drop into the desert. The area is fun for 4x4s, motorcycles, hiking and rock climbing.

National Monuments

After the Chuckwalla National Monument was designated, I was invited to a meeting at Chiriaco Summit with some people who are not pleased with the designation. There was talk of a lawsuit to try to limit what can be done by presidents using the Antiquities Act. While I don’t want to give up who was there, they were looking for people who suffered damages as a result of the designation. The group that suffered the most was the amateur miners. There were about 300 people with small claims inside the monument boundary. These are people who use hand tools and get maybe a few hundred dollars worth of gold if they work very hard. These people were definitely harmed by the monument designation because for them to continue to work on their claims, they would have to go through an expensive environmental analysis. We discussed how off-roaders might be harmed by the monument designation. (We won’t know whether they will until a management plan is released.) That could take 10 years based on how the Mojave Trails National Monument plan is going. That monument was made nine years ago, and a draft of the plan has yet to be published. We will be watching and assisting in the plan formation of Chuckwalla, but I doubt anything will happen in the next four years.

Safety Bill

It looks like no safety bill will be run in 2025. Despite our best efforts, a few vocal people who don’t want a bill to run this year prevailed. Hopefully next year a bill will be introduced. We will be looking at all the bills introduced this year very soon and will pick out and watch any bills that affect off-road vehicle use or access.

Green Sticker Grants

Grants will go out for public comment beginning March 3 and be out for two months. Reviewing grants is a great way to see what agencies and nonprofits are doing with our green sticker money. I enjoy seeing what is in store for us and I like to comment on projects that stand out, either good or bad. To see for yourself, go to https://olga.ohv.parks.ca.gov/egrams_ohmvr/user/home.aspx.

Ed Stovin, President
San Diego Off-Road Coalition