Colorado State Parks Board should reform allocation of OHV funds

Bill Grant

Following a public meeting last Friday, attended mostly by off-highway-vehicle club members, the Colorado State Parks Board delayed its final recommendation on the dispersal of funds collected from OHV registrations until its July meeting. Hopefully, this delay will allow time for the board to consider carefully proposals from outside, as well as from within, the OHV community.

Not that the advocates of OHV reform have been silent. Over 40 Colorado organizations, representing more than 110,000 members, have petitioned the board for OHV reform. These groups represent Colorado outdoor sportsmen,  conservationists, scientists, rural landowners and law enforcement personnel, as well as elected officials and non-motorized trail users. Early this year, the board received over 4,000 e-mails, letters and telephone calls in support of reform in a single month.

At issue is the allocation of funds collected from OHV registrations — estimated to be about $4 million this year. While using these funds to support OHV activity is not in question, allocation of the funds has become a controversial topic. Over 90 percent of the money now goes to support OHV projects on federal lands, primarily for maintenance of existing routes.

Some funds, reformers charge, are spent inappropriately for funding OHV advocacy reports, workshops to promote OHV interests with public-agency personnel and “user education” programs that present little evidence of effectiveness in curtailing illegal riding and preventing OHV damage to the land. Why, they ask, should allocation of state tax money be turned over to a special interest group that directly benefits from the funds.

Very little OHV registration money is spent to enforce OHV regulations, or to restore damage done by both legal and illegal off road activity. The result is reckless and damaging behavior by an unruly minority of OHV riders, and a growing network of illegal roads fragmenting the landscape, damaging critical wildlife habitat and conflicting with non-motorized uses.

A fundamental problem with the Colorado OHV program is that funds are administered by a subcommittee made up of nine members, all representing OHV interests. They are appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the State Parks Trails Committee chairman. The subcommittee chairman is an OHV representative from the Trails Committee.

Though representatives from the State Parks, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are included as ex-officio members, the imbalance in the committee is obvious.

With OHV use throughout the West rapidly expanding, Colorado is not alone in facing the problem of controlling OHV use and mitigating its damage. Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and California have recently enacted legislation designating OHV registration funds for mitigating the impacts of off-road activity and expanding law enforcement in OHV areas.

Each of these states allocates a significant portion of its OHV registration fees to law enforcement, restoration of damaged areas and maintenance of OHV roads.

Most of the states also have a much larger and/or more diverse commission to administer OHV programs. For example, compared to Colorado’s nine members from the OHV community, California’s nine members include representatives from law enforcement, rural landowners, environmental organizations, non-motorized and motorized recreational users and a soil scientist.

The reforms advocated in Colorado are consistent with those already adopted by other Western states. Similar reforms in Colorado would establish funding principles based on maintenance, restoration and enforcement, the three pillars of responsible OHV management, according to the Forest Service and BLM. Presently, one of these activities consumes the bulk of funding.

Initially, the reformers proposed that 40 percent of available funds be allocated for law enforcement grants to decrease illegal OHV activity. The remainder would be allocated to restoration of closed roads and ecologically damaged areas, providing trail signs, maps and educational programs and maintaining existing roads.

More recent discussions have focused on more flexible allocations, but would still designate that the funds flow to these areas.

Responsible OHV users agree with the necessity for these changes, and have supported them in other states. They recognize that reckless riders ruin the reputation of their sport and threaten its future.

By adopting a more balanced distribution plan for the revenue from OHV registrations, the Colorado Parks Board can ensure continued access to public lands for responsible riders, while preserving Colorado’s natural heritage for future generations.

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Source: http://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/articles/colorado_state_parks_board_sho

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