TPC
Wrenching Dad
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2007
- Messages
- 30,445
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L.A. TIMES:
"The desert protection act also makes permanent six existing off-highway vehicle, or OHV, sites covering more than 200,000 acres. The first national network of “Off-highway Vehicle Recreation Areas” includes Dumont Dunes, El Mirage, Rasor, Stoddard Valley, Johnson Valley and Spangler Hills.
Plans call for expanding the boundaries of some of those areas. The Spangler Hills area east of the city of Ridgecrest, about 154 miles north of Los Angeles, for example, will grow by 30,260 acres, or about 49%.
“I’ve been fighting for this for so long it seems almost too good to be true,” said Randy Banis, a longtime advocate of the off-roading community. “The overall health of the desert will improve, and codified OHV recreation will be more sustainable going forward.”
Those benefits came as a bittersweet surprise for some off-roaders in the rough and rocky Spangler Hills — one of the few places left in the California desert where they can run free anywhere, anytime.
Bill Stratman, 51, of Paso Robles, whose family and friends camp in the area on weekends before the summer's heat bakes the earth, shook his head in disbelief and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“It’s been sad over the years to see more and more signs going up across the desert that warn ‘not for use by off-road vehicles,’ ” he said. “So, this is incredibly good news.”
Spangler Hills:
Spangler:
-L.A.Times
"The desert protection act also makes permanent six existing off-highway vehicle, or OHV, sites covering more than 200,000 acres. The first national network of “Off-highway Vehicle Recreation Areas” includes Dumont Dunes, El Mirage, Rasor, Stoddard Valley, Johnson Valley and Spangler Hills.
Plans call for expanding the boundaries of some of those areas. The Spangler Hills area east of the city of Ridgecrest, about 154 miles north of Los Angeles, for example, will grow by 30,260 acres, or about 49%.
“I’ve been fighting for this for so long it seems almost too good to be true,” said Randy Banis, a longtime advocate of the off-roading community. “The overall health of the desert will improve, and codified OHV recreation will be more sustainable going forward.”
Those benefits came as a bittersweet surprise for some off-roaders in the rough and rocky Spangler Hills — one of the few places left in the California desert where they can run free anywhere, anytime.
Bill Stratman, 51, of Paso Robles, whose family and friends camp in the area on weekends before the summer's heat bakes the earth, shook his head in disbelief and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“It’s been sad over the years to see more and more signs going up across the desert that warn ‘not for use by off-road vehicles,’ ” he said. “So, this is incredibly good news.”
Spangler Hills:
Spangler:
-L.A.Times