Open house report

Yesterday afternoon, the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) held an OHV open house from 4-7pm at their headquarters in South Lake Tahoe. Almost any OHV topic was fair game. There were about 18 users in attendance; 3-4 4wd clubs, a motorcycle club, interested citizens and an OHV business owner. Most people stayed for the whole three hour event. A few left and a few more showed up.

Overall, the event went well and most everyone got their questions answered and everyone gave comment and suggestion to the LTBMU. My thanks to the LTBMU for setting this up.

The LTBMU had people from the recreation department and the engineering department. They are transitioning and/or splitting OHV management from recreation to engineering. I’m not really sure they have a complete management plan for OHV.

There were also LEOs from the LTBMU and Ca State Parks. Ca State Parks had another representative who oversees the grant implementation for the LTBMU and other grants in the area. Unfortunately, they left before the end of the event. A few questions came up just for them.

The grant was discussed and the LTBMU stated that it wanted to focus its attention on finishing a project at Corral riding area started years ago. Many were concerned there was no money for 4wd trails, only motorcycle/ATV trails. The LTBMU claimed that they didn’t want to submit a scattered grant application that might look like they didn’t really have a plan. FYI, the LTBMU has already altered its grant application to ask for money to help open the pit toilets at OHV trailheads early, weather permitting.

There are new forms for “user agreements”. All the old ones have expired (and will expire every two years). Every member of the club or group needs to fill out the three page form that is mostly a series of questions where you need to just check a box. Finalizing shouldn’t take more than week. This has not been the case in the past. The users agreement allows the volunteer to work anywhere on the LTBMU, as long as it is a pre-approved project.

The LTBMU seems to have forgotten what an Adopt-A-Trail program is although they have currently have clubs with adoption paperwork. I’ll be pushing to get the LTBMU back on track with more AAT agreements.

The LTBMU has reaffirmed it will be revising their Motor Vehicle Use Map this fall. Although they claim it is only to make it more accurate, we need to stay on top of this so we don’t lose any trails. If fact, we should comment that certain trails need to be reopened. Start thinking what trails you might want reopened. (Duck Lake, North Fork, what else)

Also to be addressed with the MVUM revisions are opening dates. The LTBMU said they are open to using science and measurements on the trail in order to determine when they should open in place of a hard date. This could work to our advantage on snow years like the past three but it could work against us on the late/heavy winter years.

Off topic a little bit, the Sand Pits area in South Lake Tahoe near Twin peaks is set to open May 10^th, two days early.

The Hum/Toy MVUM is missing the ‘middle section’. Not sure what that means but they are looking in to reprinting the maps.

Here’s a new twist, the LTBMU claims that the state has authority over the Rubicon Trail. The question of whether green sticker vehicles are legal on the “state route” came up. Technically, green stickers are not legal but have been allowed historically. We were assured that the enforcement will not change anytime in the near future.

It went well but in order to see if it really was a success we’ll have to wait and see if the LTBMU actually acts on any of our suggestions.