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May Update

Election
SDORC just had an election, and we have made some changes. Thank you, Desert Doug, for tending to our election. After 11 years of this run and three years previously, I will be stepping down as president. As of the June meeting, Jeff Jones will be President, Steve Rockwood will be Vice President, Laura Rockwood will be Secretary and Social Media, Rob Smith will remain as Treasurer, Rick Moore will continue as Club Liaison, Jess Willhite will join the board and coordinate our Highway Cleanups, Jim McGarvie will stay on tending to our membership, website and mass email and I will be Director of Land Use. I plan to continue writing this column and talking on our radio show. I will have less to do with the day-to-day running the organization and will continue fighting for off-roader’s rights with legislators and land managers.

Trailer
We sold our old trailer to a District 38 racing club, and Steve Rockwood will be working on getting our new trailer setup for our use.

SDORC Radio
Last month we had our state lobbyist, Mark Smith, on our radio show and he was a great guest. You can hear that show and all our other old ones without station commercials at https://sdorc.org/sdorc-radio/. On our next show, we will have Sean Baldivid from the Cleveland National Forest to talk about OHV trail maintenance.

Grants
The State Parks OHV grants public comment period has ended. We commented on fewer grants than normal this year simply because there were fewer grant applications, and most of those were business as usual. We noticed that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept asked for a very high hourly rate for patrolling the Lancaster and Palmdale areas ($183 -$231 per hour). We pointed out that Lancaster and Palmdale do not have a very high cost of living compared to other parts of Los Angeles county. We were complimentary towards the El Centro and Ridgecrest BLM offices. El Centro does a fine job managing the Dunes, Superstition and Plaster City OHV areas. Ridgecrest is planning to improve the entrance to Dove Springs. We mentioned that the Cleveland National Forest had a very modest application, given how much use Corral Canyon gets. Speaking of Corral Canyon, we co-hosted a trail maintenance day there recently (where the forest gets volunteer hours for their State Parks grant match) that was well attended, and we trimmed a lot of trails. I personally trimmed the length of Greenhorn trail with a friend. Jeff and Steve cooked a delicious breakfast for the volunteers.

Events
Off Road Nights is coming to Temecula June 27 and we plan on having a booth there. Come by and say hi.

SDORC hosted a “float” in the Lakeside Western Days parade. We drove off-road vehicles in the parade and I drove my Jeep Wrangler TJ with County Supervisor Joel Anderson as a passenger. I’m always surprised at how many people turn out for the fun parade.

Legislation
On the legislative side, the California OHV Safety Training bill (AB1613) just passed through the Assembly Appropriations committee and will go to the full Assembly for a vote. I predict it will move through. AB2453, the bill to allow first responders to travel on highways with OHVs up to five miles, is moving unopposed.

SB1392, the update to smog testing laws for cars, is moving with a little opposition. It does not do very much for us. It applies to “Cars to be driven fewer than 1,000 miles per calendar year” . “This bill would exempt a collector motor vehicle manufactured before the 1981 model year from the requirement to obtain a certificate of compliance or noncompliance biennially. The bill would extend the applicability of this exemption by one model year each year, beginning on and after January 1, 2028, until the final extension takes effect on and after January 1, 2032, that would exempt a collector motor vehicle manufactured before the 1986 model year from the requirement to obtain the certificate of compliance or noncompliance. This bill would be known and may be cited as Jay Leno’s Law.” Collector motor vehicle has a specific meaning that includes special insurance, special registration and the vehicle must be stored in a closed location.

The federal Endangered Species Reform Act, HR1897, has not moved since April 20. We are crossing our fingers on this bill, as it would make it harder to close trails and areas.

Ed Stovin, President
San Diego Off-Road Coalition

June Land Use Update

Oceano Dunes
Great news! Oceano Dunes is open for off-roading. After only six weeks of closure, California’s only OHV area on the beach is open. The April closure was the result of a 2020 Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit claiming State Parks was operating without an incidental take permit to protect endangered and threatened species there. The Park submitted a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) (which Parks had been working on for many years) to the Fish and Wildlife Service at the beginning of this year. It was surprising that the judge issued the order to close the park, given that the State had already completed the HCP. Fish and Wildlife reviewed the plan and issued an incidental take permit in May, allowing the park to reopen. We hope they got some dirty air quality samples with no one using OHVs there to show the bad air quality is from nature, not OHV use.

In not so good news at Oceano Dunes, Friends of Oceano Dunes (FoOD) decided to dismiss their Implied Dedication lawsuit. The legal cost of the suit was more than they could afford. FoOD asserted that because enthusiasts had been freely driving and camping across the dunes for decades before the state purchased the property, a permanent public easement was created.

Rubicon Trail
There is some controversy at the Rubicon Trail. A section of the trail has been identified as “unstable”. If the area were to collapse, the trail would be impassable. The Forest Service wants to make a reroute around the area. Some nearby landowners (who love to go 4-wheeling) believe the section can be adequately repaired quicker and for a lower cost. There were some passionate comments during a recent OHV commission meeting. I suspect the Forest Service reroute will take place. We will see.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP)
Some may remember when the Sunrise Powerlink tried to go through ABDSP, but was stopped by people (like the Anza-Borrego Foundation) because it would ruin the beautiful views in the park, especially going up the Montezuma Grade on S22. There is a new project called the Golden Pacific Powerlink that would bring renewable energy from Imperial Valley to customers closer to the coast to the north. While this would not threaten off-road vehicle routes, it would definitely threaten the beautiful views in ABDSP. There are about 500 miles of dirt roads in ABDSP and I think we all would like to keep the views. Click here for more details.

Glamis News
Polaris, maker of UTVs and other OHVs, owns 143 acres around the Glamis Store and they want to develop the area. We just learned about the project, which will make substantial changes to the area around the Glamis Store. Here are some of the things they want to do on their land:

Recreational – These include an Adventure Center (OHV training, OHV rentals, etc.), amusement facilities, desert tours, racetrack, shooting range, and park/playground/picnic area.

Commercial/Retail – Fuel stations, rental facilities, sporting goods stores, and RV park(s) to accommodate a small number of users that desire to have conveniences not found in open dry camping.

Storage – OHV and RV storage

Entertainment – Could include an obstacle course, fireworks display area, and racetrack.

Hospitality – Hospitality land uses may include medical services facility, mobile food trucks, tourist information center, public showers, public restrooms, and hotel/motel facilities.

Residential – Temporary housing in Glamis. Guest, employee housing, seasonal private residences and temporary use of RVs.

Renewable Energy – Solar generation facilities (including battery storage).

Infrastructure improvements – Existing water and wastewater facilities will need to be improved. The GSPA will allow for the development of utility buildings, utility substation(s), and water/wastewater treatment facilities.

Research & Development (R&D) Facility – This facility will allow Polaris to test their equipment in a natural and private setting.

The environmental work for the project has been completed and we will see it start to be implemented soon. Click here for more details.

Tire Efficiency Program
Assembly Bill 844 from 2003 directs the California Energy Commission (CEC) to adopt a replacement tire efficiency program “designed to ensure that replacement tires sold in the state are at least as energy efficient, on average, as tires sold in the state as original equipment on new passenger cars and light-duty trucks.” Replacement tires are those purchased by drivers to replace existing tires. The tires sold with new vehicles are referred to as original equipment tires. Testing commissioned by the CEC shows that original equipment tires are more efficient than replacement tires. This mandate sat quietly since 2003, but was recently acted upon.

Exemptions

Under the formal draft text released by the CEC, multiple categories protect off-road vehicles, trail rigs, and recreational dirt sports:

Dedicated Off-Road Recreational Vehicles: The draft rules explicitly state that the regulations do not include “a tire manufactured specifically for use on an off-road motorized recreational vehicle” (which includes sand buggies, dune buggies, ATVs, and UTVs/ROVs under California Vehicle Code section 500).

Motorcycles: Two-wheeled vehicles are entirely outside the scope of this program. Dirt bikes, dual-sports, and adventure bikes are unaffected.

Deep-Tread Tires: “Deep tread tires.” are exempt. This protects aggressive, heavy-ply Mud-Terrain (M/T) tires and specialized rock-crawling rubber. Because these tires inherently require deep, blocky treads to dig into dirt, silt, and rocks—which increases street rolling resistance—the CEC carved them out entirely.

Heavy Duty Load Ratings: Tires with a load index of 122 or greater (or rated for maximum loads exceeding 1,450 kg / 3,196 lbs) are excluded. This shields heavy-duty work trucks and large overland rigs that require commercial-grade weight capacities.

While pure off-road tires are exempt, there is a gray area for All-Terrain (A/T) tires designed for dual-purpose street and trail use on light trucks and SUVs (tires carrying the “LT” designation).

Phase 1 will begin January of 2028. New replacement tires sold in CA must meet the baseline rolling resistance max and the mandatory wet-grip safety floor.

Phase 2 will begin January 2031. The much stricter, tier-two rolling resistance ceiling takes effect.

Click here for more information.

Safety Bill
SB1613 is at the State Senate now. There has been some controversy regarding whether to include street legal vehicles. We argued at the beginning that street legal vehicles were not really part of the problem and should be left out. One advocate strongly argued that any vehicle operating in a green sticker area should be required to have safety training. The bill was amended to incorporate street legal early on. Groups supporting the current bill recently received significant pushback from the 4X4 community saying street legal should be left out. At the recent OHV Safety Summit, I spent time with the BLM State OHV manager. He told me that more than half the law enforcement stops at the Dunes are with street legal vehicles. From his comments, we have softened our resistance to including street legal vehicles requiring training. Training will likely take between 45 minutes to an hour, cost $25 and be done online.

Ed Stovin, Director of Land Use
San Diego Off-Road Coalition