National OHV Appreciation Day

Join thousands of OHV users of all types across the country as they celebrate National OHV Appreciation Day, September 28, 2002.

Volunteers are asked to contact their local area OHV groups and organizations to join them in helping improve and enhance the resources of public areas in and around their community. Your investment of time and work on litter pick-up; general landscaping and gardening; picnic table building; fence repairs; park trail maintenance; painting and staining trail signs; and the installation of completed trail signs will yield high returns for your local natural resources and your chosen OHV recreational trails.

This is not limited to any one type of OHV - four wheel drive, ATV, motorcycle, snowmobile, mountain bike, and other friends out there.

This is for anyone who enjoys and supports recreation on our public lands. Become a business sponsor or co-sponsor for these local area projects by supplying major resources. Provide intangibles, such as free publicity; act as a host for planning conferences. Recognize the projects that are completed in a public ceremony with awards. Supply materials for the work projects such as providing heavy equipment;
supply tools; food; facilities; transportation for under privileged volunteers who would otherwise not be able to attend.

You should consider the following questions in determining whether this will work for a particular public land area or not.

Is there a valid need for a volunteer work day?

Are there projects where volunteers can make a significant contribution in one day? Examples: trails, bridges, installing signs, planting, repairing docks, area clean ups, or invasive species control.

Volunteers can build trails, plant stream banks, restore lakes and wetlands, remove invasive plants, improve wildlife habitat, repair cultural resources and recreational facilities, and carry out hundreds of other priority projects, they also learn about the
importance of public lands to the nation's environmental issues. Most importantly, volunteers get a first hand perspective on the problems and issues public land managers face each year.

This day will provide Americans with a dramatic and productive opportunity to pitch in and help improve their public lands, and to know it wouldn't have happened as soon if it were not for the National OHV Appreciation Day 2002.

On September 28, join the Trail Krawlers 4x4 at Tuttle Creek OHV Area, or the Maryland Mudbugs 4x4Club, or contact your local public lands management office and volunteer your services for the day.


Watch these websites for more information:

http://rock-it-land.com - Rock-It-Land
http://www.4x4wire.com - 4x4Wire
http://www.ufwda.org - United Four Wheel Drive Associations
http://www.sharetrails.org - BlueRibbon Coalition
http://www.swfwda.org/ - Southwest Four Wheel Drive Association
http://www.delalbright.com/rubicon.htm - Friends of the Rubicon
http://www.rockcrawler.com - Rockcrawler
http://www.crowley-offroad.com - Crowley Off-Road

Jon, we at ORC (the largest OHV media outlet, somehow forgotten on your post) are also publicizing this, but I am doing so with a footnote and a caution. Hear me out on this, I've been dwelling upon it for a week or so. Anyway, Sept. 28 is National Public Lands Day, a day that has been established for several years and is supposed to involve all public land users, heck Toyota is the main sponsor. I like the idea of a National OHV Day, but personally I think it is a VERY bad idea to have it on the same day as NPLD. As OHVers we are fighting for acceptance, and alienating and/or separating ourselves from the mainstream may be a very big mistake. I think we need to make our presence known on NLPD, many 4by clubs have in the past. Making our own day on the same day is kind of like a kid saying I don't want to play with you anymore. In the future I will be very much behind an OHV day, but I think we seriously need to have it on a different day than NLPD. I think we are making a very big tactical error. Furthermore, the BLM and other fed agencies are very supportive of NPLD, I don't think we want to alienate them.

When I put an item up about OHV day on ORC I am going to preface it with a note that this is NLPD. No one needs to get mad about this either, it was the idea of a guy in KS, and it was a good idea, but IMO we need to pick our own day.

Originally posted by landuseorc
Jon, we at ORC (the largest OHV media outlet, somehow forgotten on your post) are also publicizing this, but I am doing so with a footnote and a caution.

Brad,

Don't take it personal.

And I didn't leave ORC off the list as I didn't come up with the list, just forwarded what I was given....

Jon

Jon, I didn't mean you personally...(I deleted the rest of this stupid post, I stand by what I said in my original post, nothing else.)

Actually, John had nothing to do with it either. A guy in Kansas kicked the whole thing off and is just trying to gather support for the idea.

And by the way, John Stewart is now the Director of Environmental Affairs for UFWDA

Jon

Originally posted by landuseorc
When I put an item up about OHV day on ORC I am going to preface it with a note that this is NLPD.

We may be better to publicize that we promote and encourage all enthusiasts to enjoy vehicle recreation off-the-pavement, and OHV Recreation, on National Public Lands Day. We should also encourage recognition of the long standing policy of off-road enthusiasts sharing the OHV trails with all visitors.

We are the largest percentage of visitors on public lands, by a large margin, and we need to make the "people who manage public lands" recognize the inclusion of motorized recreation as a value to the public. We also need to make them recognize motorized recreation enthusiasts share our trails with everyone. An OHV trail is also an equestrian trail, a hiking trail, a mountain bike trail, above and beyond the utility for trail head access.

Include information that OHV and off-the-paved-road use of vehicles (both street legal licensed and non-licensed vehicles) is an appropriate and legal use of public lands, and the appropriate day to celebrate our legal welcome on public lands is National Public Lands Day.


On a side note:

I spent a few hours scanning the recent release of the Roadless Rule Public Comment Summary (two large printed volumes, or one CD). The issue topics on both sides (abandonment management and active management) run to the extreme. The extractive interests (timber, mining, ski, pack guides, and developed accomodation) have extensive input to preserve their rights, with the support of motorized recreation enthusiast comments, but offer little awareness of the value of public motorized access in return. I read no comments by the industry proponents encouraging preservation of public motorized recreation access (even when it is in support their uses). I make the distinction, not to highlight a point of division, but the need for industry awareness of the value in public motorized access. NPLD can raise this awareness if publicized with this as a goal (motorized access as a shared value to other recreation users, and appropriate industry users).

Reading the comments will provide more respect for Blue Ribbon and UFWDA and their positions supporting motorized and multiple recreation opportunities (as few others comments are as unselfish in their support of public recreation access.)

Good Reading, because the extreme reveals every face (and every land grab tactic) in the comments.

Happy Trails!