Friends of Jawbone monthly meeting

[65swb45]

This Wednesday, 9AM at the Jawbone Station. I will be attending the meeting. If anyone wants to carpool, call me tomorrow at the shop.

 

[NLXTACY]

What would be the approx. return time?

 

[65swb45]

What would be the approx. return time?

I plan to be back at the shop by 1:30 pm.

 

[NLXTACY]

I plan to be back at the shop by 1:30 pm.

I think I can swing that, I will know for sure in a few hours. You want me to drive or is leather and A/C against your code of Landcruiser ethics?

 

[65swb45]

This was an AMAZING meeting. If you want to see some of the most positive, energized stakeholders in the land use arena GETTING STUFF DONE, this is the meeting to attend. Representatives of virtually every agency with an interest in the desert attend this meeting, provide insight and imput from their agency, and are able to ask AND answer questions ON THE SPOT. No more deferrals from one agency to another 'that's not our jurisdiction', because the other agency is RIGHT THERE AT THE TABLE TOO!

1. State Senator Ashburn-his representative commented on the Senator's position regarding the 90 million Arnie wants to tap into from the OHV fund. Affirmed the senator's position is with the Republican caucus that cuts are the answer. After several minutes of brainstorming, someone suggested contacting Senator Steinberg, the Democratic Senator that introduced SB742, the bill that covers the OHV grant money. He would obviously have a concern over this, since it is 'his' baby, AND he's a Democrat!

2. Kern County Bd of Supervisors- Mr. Peterson commented on the County's anticipated loss of revenue under the pending State budget. Losses in Kern could reach 47 million. Representatives of California City and the City of Ridgecrest were also there, shared their concerns, and noted there would be further discussion at a League of Cities meeting in Adelanto on January 30th.

3. California City Police- Mr. Hurtado indicated that the City would be holding an Off Road Grand Prix on May 2nd. Apparantly Cal City has also taken the lead in issuing the new off road riding permits, having sold over 10,000 of them at $8 a piece. Ironically, it is also my understanding that these permits are available from the BLM ....FOR FREE!

 

[65swb45]

4. Kern County Sheriff- Tyson reported that a RADICAL new group calling itself the California ORV Watch [COW] has been stirring up a lot of trouble in West Rosamond and towards Tehachapi in their efforts to deal with illegal riders. Where help was originally sought to deal with illegal trespass on private property, they have recieved support from a similar group in San Bernadino who has pushed for a ZERO TOLERANCE rule: if you even START your ORV on private property, it can be CONFISCATED!

Other members in the room repeated from rote the requirements that in order to be cited for trespassing,private property must be signed every 200' and double furrowed, or fenced.

5. Red Rock Canyon State Park- the representative announced that the recently started General Plan Amendment process has now been postponed INDEFINITELY due to state budget cuts!

He also expressed interest in the fact that the Friends of Jawbone now OWNS a grader, which the State Park would like to make use of in the Ricardo Campground area. Perhaps a new era of cooperation is on th horizon!

6. Wind/Solar energy-members who are up to date on Kiewit's project in Lower Jawbone canyon believe that their work will be done in a few months, and that the company is not 100% commited to retaining a guard gate, or a locked gate for that matter. This would result in more resource degradation from illegal rides in that area.

7.OHMVR- Martha Ibarra from the Sacramento office personally came down to assist the Friends of Jawbone in preparing their grant applications.The process is apparantly all available online, and two members had computers going in the backround during the course of the meeting. Application deadlines for this year is March 1. Ms. Ibarra also indicated that for THIS YEAR, their office has NOT been instructed that the budget will affect it.

I collected some information on grant proposals.

8.BLM-Ridgecrest Steering Committee- I learned two new things at this meeting. One-the steering committee meets EVERY MONTH the evening of the day after the FOJ meeting! This is also a very important meeting for getting insight as to how many different things the BLM has on it's plate to deal with.

TWO-I found out that the major portion of Thursday night's meeting was going to be to discuss the historic cabins under the BLM's jurisdiction!

So guess where I went last night? Yup. Another 300 miles round trip. Another day of partially shuttering Mark's Off Road.

Separate report.

 

[NLXTACY]

Mark very cool of you to take your time out to do attend the meeting. Very very interesting information that hopefully we can all start getting more involved in. Is there a plan of action on our end?

 

[65swb45]

Oh, and I forgot this interesting note. Randy Banis [www.deathvalley.com] suggested the FOJ purchase a couple of dozen low end GPS units to preload with all APPROVED routes of travel to be available for rent at the Jawbone Station.

Three other attendees at the meeting all volunteered to follow up with their employers on obtaining used units for a fraction of the cost!

 

[NLXTACY]

Now THAT would be awesome!!