Nevada OHV Updates (the cliff notes version)

Donny and Lacey virtually attended the last public meeting of the Nevada Commission on Off-Highway Vehicles held on August 19th. We wanted to give you an update and tried to keep it short…. but this stuff is important, so grab a beer, buckle up and learn some new acronyms.

We were given time to report on the progress of the nearly completed Peavine Maze Maintenance project, the two trailhead clean-ups, RAD’s stellar relationship building with local land managers and members of the non-riding community, and our plans for 2021’s projects that we have been busy gearing up for (stay tuned for a blog post on that!).  
 
RAD is viewed very positively by the commission by the proactive effort that matches the funding we received. And their open-door policy has made this grant application and administration business easier than we anticipated.

The OHV Registration Sticker Proposal

​You may recall the few substantive discussions on our Facebook page about the topic of proposed changes to the OHV registration sticker process.  Those proposed changes included (1) the removal of the registration process through the DMV and simply having an annual use sticker which is accessible at moto shops, gas stations and potentially online, (2) ending reciprocity granted to other states in order to bring out-of-state user funds to the program, and (3) requiring all users (including plated bikes/vehicles) of OHV-designated areas to have a use sticker (again, with the objective of supplying the OHV with more funds for more grant projects).
 
We heard the feedback from our members of that discussion.  Accordingly, we made it public record that Reno Area Dirtriders supportive of the conversion to a simple, readily available use sticker more readily available and the end of reciprocity to other states in order to gain more funding, but that we opposed the requirement that plated bikes be required to have a sticker on the trails. 
 
The OHV Commission recognizes that a major cause of noncompliance with OHV registrations in this state is the fact that the current registration procedure requires you to mail in one (or more!) forms to the DMV, then wait at least a month to get your sticker back.  They are in favor of that use-sticker conversion and we anticipate that change may happen soon (but it still has to make it through legislation).
 
Until then, the procedure for how to register can be found here.  Remember, as we explained in detail here, your annual $21 registration fee goes directly to funding grants for OHV projects (including the one received by RAD this year).  If you need help or have specific questions about titling or registering your bike (including a situation like… my bike is from my uncle’s friend’s brother and I don’t have any paperwork, I don’t know where to start…) you can email us at [email protected] and we will help you.

The Antiquated Nevada BLM

​Phil Fell is the no-BS commissioner who specifically represents motorcycle interests and asks all the direct questions.  For this meeting, he had a special agenda item devoted to discussing a major problem with the BLM which is specific to Nevada: The fact that the BLM’s Resource Management Plan (“RMP”) has not been updated in our state in decades.  
 
An RMP is the big umbrella under which all other sub-plans for the designated use areas of public land exist, including the one we care about: Travel Management Plans (“TMP’s”)… which effectively translates to officially designated trails.  As we touched on in this prior blog post, having trails officially designated and recognized by a land manager provides critical protection against closures of those trails. It also puts to bed any questions with non-riders of your priority entitlement to be on those trails.
 
If you’re a fan of riding in Moab and the quality of the trails there, then you are most certainly a fan of a well-done Travel Management Plan by the BLM.
 
But there’s another benefit that we are missing out on by the Nevada BLM not having an RMP: we are not able to step and do any maintenance or construction on trails existing on BLM land.  This is why we cannot obtain funding or permission to mow down whoops at Moonrocks at this time.
 
A major part of this problem comes from the low-funding priority from Washington D.C. (remember, the BLM is a federal agency), and they are severely under-staffed here.  Another element is politics. But rather than focusing on what we can’t control, let’s focus on what we can. – Another excerpt of extremely sensible logic from Phil.
 
The first step in either creating a new trail or legalizing an existing trail is to conduct an environmental assessment, which can either be done internally (if the land manager has the resources and the budget to do so) or externally through an environment firm and approved by the land manager. There’s all kinds of different levels of environmental work, but we won’t get into the nitty gritty of that here. Once you achieve the requisite environmental clearances and the trail areas are accurately mapped, all that’s theoretically left for the land manager to do is approve.
 
Phil made a motion to move projects involving trail planning and environmental assessments to a higher priority for purposes of scoring and ranking grant applications, which was unanimously passed by the rest of the commission.  This is to encourage user groups to submit grant applications for environmental studies and to work at a local level with the BLM in areas which are a priority to the OHV users.
 
The process is not quite as cut and dry as I made it sound, but I’m worried your eyes are starting to glaze. 

​Okay last thing you should know about...

New House Bills

Colin Robertson, the Administrator of the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation, gave a report on some bigger picture legislative happens.  Of relevant note to us, these are some pro-OHV bills going through the House of Representatives right now:
 
H.R.3458 - Recreation Not Red Tape
This bi-partisan bill was introduced on June 25, 2019 to simplify procedures for the issuance of recreational permits by setting time limits for the processing of such permits; reduce fees; mandate online purchases; and provide for the issuance of a single joint permit for multi-jurisdictional trips. It also directs federal land agencies to make recreation a priority when making land and water management decisions. 
 
H.R.3879 - Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation Act (“SOAR Act”)
Introduced to the House on July 23, 2019, the goal of this bill is to simplify the process of the issuance and renewal of special recreation permits and reduce the cost of administering special recreation permits. Specifically, it also provides new protections for Forest Service permit holders by waiving permit use reviews in extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the permit holder (wildfire, low snow year, etc.) and allowing expired permits to remain in effect when the agency has been unable to renew them.
 
H.R. 6169 – Modernizing Access to Our Public Land Act
This bill was introduced to the house on March 10, 2020 to require the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to digitize and make publicly available geographic information system mapping data relating to public access to Federal land and waters for outdoor recreation.