[hrlyman]

WHAT the MX'ers ARE SAYING:


‘We are under attack'
But off-road drivers see this as another in a long line of assaults on their sport. "It's come to a point where we are under attack on almost a daily basis," said Mike Koroknay, president of the Ventura County Motorcycle Club. He said environmentalists want to shut down areas of riding and that "restoration" means nothing but closing an area permanently. "We should have an equal say and equal participation in the way we get to use our public lands."

He and others said more money in the program needs to go toward maintaining trails, enforcing laws and developing more areas for the increasing number of people who are riding them.

Under Steinberg's' bill, national forests would have to go through a rigorous, competitive grant process. Whereas grants in the past could be general, the new grant system would require the Forest Service to specify what the money is for.

Trails would have to be closed
Last year, Los Padres National Forest got $124,000 from the state OHV program, a fraction of the $1.25 million for which it applied. Bruce Emmens, public use and facility staff officer with the forest, said money helps maintain trails while preserving the environment.
Though no trail closures are planned, Emmens said if he lost significant funding and unacceptable damage was being done because of lack of maintenance, trails would have to be closed. Keith Stockham of Frazier Park rides a motorcycle in the forest and in Hungry Valley quite a bit. He said Hungry Valley can be overcrowded on the weekends and if anything, more places are needed to ride as the sport becomes more popular. More than 540,000 people visited the park in 2004, compared to fewer than 100,000 in 1997. "It would definitely impact a lot of people if they started closing it down," he said of riding areas.