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By V. J. Brunasso - December 2002 For those that are not familiar: Each year, the BLM El Centro Field Office asks for and receives approx. a million dollars from the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) grant program. The OHMVR is commonly know as the Green Sticker Commission. Without these dollars, many visitor services would have to be curtailed at the ISDRA. We all know what that would possibly bring us: a carrying capacity, control on alcohol, and more restrictions at the Imperial Sand Dunes. It looks like that is exactly what is in store for us. Read on to see how the environmentalists are working the system. First a little history: These dollars are generated by our green and red sticker fees and to a much greater degree, the tax on gasoline we pay at the pump. Normally this tax is goes to roads. However, since we are using it off road, it is earmarked for the off road community. Seventy percent of it is to go toward improving, providing, and maintaining off road areas. The remaining 30% is to go to Conversation and Enforcement (C&E). This money is dispersed through a grant system. The grants are approved by a 7-member board known as the Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Commission. The members are appointed as follows: 3 by the Governor, 2 by the Speaker of the Assembly, and 2 by the Senate Rules Committee. Remember that the next time you vote or you are asked to write a letter. Unbelievably, four of the 7 members are staunch environmentalists. John Brissenden, an OHMVR commissioner whose tenure doesn’t end until January 2005, stated in the December 5&6 OHMVR meeting that he’d never approve money for increasing OHV use. In the December 4th TRT conference call, Ed Waldheim, of CORVA, related a conversation he recently had with Paul Spitler. Spitler, once the director of the California Wilderness Coalition, also holds a seat on the OHMVR Commission: his term does not end until January of 2005. Spitler stated that he wants all closures at the ISDRA to become permanent, no new areas to be opened, carrying capacities placed in force, and controls placed on the drinking situation at the dunes. To force his personal agenda upon us, he has spearheaded a movement within the OHMVR Commission to withhold the ISDRA grant unless these provisions are in the new management plan due to come out shortly. . There are now also many strings and environmental requirements placed on the grants that it is becoming no longer feasible or cost effective for the BLM to pursue a grant from the OHMVR. This in effect is cutting off the funding that is required by the BLM to operate the ISDRA. This flies in the face of the state codes that govern the OHMVR as you can see in the link below. The question looming ahead of us is: Where is the funding for the ISDRA going to come from when the BLM El Centro Field Office is forced to look elsewhere? Here's a link to some search results pertaining to California State
codes. SECTION 5090.01-5090.13 is the code section that set up the OHMVR
and spells out their purpose. Here's just a part of it. The bold
is mine. Quote: 5090.02. (a) The Legislature finds that off-highway motor vehicles
are enjoying an ever-increasing popularity in California and that
the indiscriminate and uncontrolled use of those vehicles may have
a deleterious impact on the environment, wildlife habitats, native
You can also do your own search by Clicking
here . To me, it makes no sense to have a commission whose majority opposes
OHV recreation when it is the State mandated duty of that commission
to foster it. There are plenty of rules in place to provide for
environmental concerns. We are getting the short end of a very green
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