OW Checkerboard Land Ownership
There was a recent court ruling that I find fascinating. It doesn’t affect off-road vehicle use directly, but does affect public land use. Much of the west has land ownership in a checkerboard arrangement. This came from an 1800’s incentive that the US government gave railroads to get them to expand into the west. The railroad land grants gave the railroad every other square mile in exchange for expanding. This has led to land management headaches in modern times as agencies and private owners struggle to manage their land effectively. See the picture above of the east side of ocotillo Wells. This lawsuit has to do with corner crossings. You can see that one mile squares touch at their corners. This lawsuit looks at whether someone legally walking in one square can legally step into another diagonal square.

From MeatEater, Inc, “A three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that corner crossing on federal land does not violate federal law. The ruling marks the most significant victory to date for public land advocates who say that crossing from one block of public land to another should be legal. “Put simply, we found any enclosure that effectively prevents access to public land for lawful use is an unlawful enclosure that is a proscribed violation of federal law,” the judges said in their decision. “A barrier to access, even a civil trespass action, becomes an abatable federal nuisance in the checkerboard when its effect is to enclose public lands by completely preventing access for a lawful purpose,” the 10th Circuit judges wrote in this case.

“The controlling principle is that checkerboard landowners cannot maintain a barrier that has the effect of fully enclosing public lands and preventing complete access for a lawful purpose,” the court continued. “When a landowner denies checkerboard access, he imposes a proscribable nuisance under federal law.”

The suit was brought by a private land owner who operates a hunting business and their land borders on BLM land.

Public Land Selloff
Last month we wrote about a legislative provision in the Big Beautiful Bill that would direct the federal government to sell millions of acres of BLM and National Forest land. After strong pushback from both the recreation and environmental communities, this provision was removed. BLM land is regularly transferred or leased, but never at the scale this bill’s provision would have done. We are happy that Senator Lee from Utah listened to the people and allowed this to be removed.

Oceano Dunes
From the American Motorcycle Association. “The California Supreme Court declined to hear a petition from the California Coastal Commission (CCC) seeking to ban off-highway vehicles (OHVs) at Oceano Dunes. The decision reaffirms a previous ruling by the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, which found that the CCC’s attempt to prohibit OHV use contradicted the Local Coastal Plan (LCP).
The ruling supports the decision addressing four lawsuits, including three by Friends of Oceano Dunes and one by EcoLogic Partners that argued that the CCC exceeded its authority by attempting to amend a 42-year-old permit to ban OHV recreation, contrary to the LCP. The Court also ruled in favor of Friends’ argument that the Commission failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), because it failed to do a proper traffic impact analysis when it decided to close Pier Avenue as a vehicle access point to the beach.
Jim Suty, president of the group, said shutting the dunes down would devastate the local economy, which sees over $500 million a year in economic benefit from visitors. The organization’s Board of Directors remains committed to pursuing all legal avenues to protect beach driving, camping and OHV recreation at Oceano Dunes, a tradition that has persisted for a century.”

Lost Lizard
Online registration for the 20th Lost Lizard Fun Run is now open. We are looking at having seven checkpoints this year and playing seven card stud. Our theme will be “Old School” this year. I plan to bring my 1971 Husqvarna 400CR and may ride around on it. If you have or know of some interesting vintage off-road equipment, running or not, please bring it out to the event. Let us know ahead of time and we will save you some space inside of our base camp. Click here to get your registration and T shirt.

Ed Stovin, President
San Diego Off-Road Coalition