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