Nevada

Victor Morales

LAUGHLIN, Nev. – Randy Luden scaled a mountain of boulders etched with dozens of petroglyphs that could be thousands of years old, hoping to get as close as possible to the records of a past civilization. The Las Vegas man didn’t think he was damaging the representations made by descendants of Mojave Indians because he was careful and wore soft shoes.

That was of no consolation to two Mojaves watching from afar.

Dennis Lee

Charlie Cox saw all his efforts of the past year and a half come to fruition recently with the passing of Senate Bill 394, requiring titling and annual registration of off-highway vehicles.

The bill is slated to go into effect, July 1, 2010 if the OHV working group is able to raise $500,000 start up funds, otherwise it will become effective on July 1, 2011.

“The first thing I had to do,” said Cox, “is form the Nevada Off-Highway Coalition so that I could pull all the organized OHV groups together along with the environmental groups to find out how they wanted to proceed and what they wanted to get out of the program. And for the last year and a half we worked out all the tensions that existed and what was needed to get this bill past.

As the weather warms across the West, thousands of off-highway vehicles are warming up as well, preparing for another season of riding the vast web of roads and trails traversing federal lands.

But as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management begin placing restrictions on off-highway vehicle (OHV) use, such motorized travel will become more restricted just as the popularity of the sport skyrockets.

Indeed, the tension between OHV users' quest for open access and critics' calls for greater regulation -- particularly as damage to soils, plants and wildlife habitat becomes more prevalent -- is attracting unprecedented attention as agency officials craft "travel management plans" that restrict OHVs to designated trails while closing many other routes.

The thrill you get from catching air on a dirt bike—speed, danger, the general grittiness of being off-road and ripping through a quiet day with the throttle open—is a declaration of freedom. But the thing about freedom is that sooner or later you have to fence it in with laws to preserve it. It’s the conundrum civilization bears over and over—the balancing act between responsibility and reckless abandon; oftentimes a real buzzkill.

Nevada off-roaders have avoided meaningful regulation for years; it’s the last Western state not to have off-road vehicle titling and registration. But that’s about to change. Senate Bill 384 was a compromise between off-roaders and conservationists hammered out over the course of eight years, and was finally passed this year (despite a momentary, pointless stop in the governor’s veto pot). The measure sets up a $20 registration fee for every off-road vehicle, new or not. It also imposes mandatory titling with varying fees for new off-road vehicles, and optional titling for existing vehicles should owners want documented ownership in case of theft or loss. Right now, there’s really no way of proving the wheels are yours.

CARSON CITY – The Legislature has overridden Gov. Jim Gibbons’ veto of a bill to license and charge a fee to the owners of some 200,000 to 425,000 off-road vehicles in Nevada.

But the licensing and fee are still at least two years away.

Leah Bradle of the Nevada Powersport Dealers Association said it now has to raise $500,000 in grants and donations to pay for the state Department of Motor Vehicles to put the system in place.

CARSON CITY -- The state Senate finished passing the budget through the Legislature over the objections of Gov. Jim Gibbons and made Gibbons the most overridden governor in Nevada history on Sunday.

By the required two-thirds margin, state senators overrode Gibbons' vetoes of education funding, general appropriations, a change to the sales tax collection allowance and taking property tax revenue from Clark and Washoe counties.

Seven nonbudget measures became law, as the vetoes previously had been overridden by the Assembly. Another four bills became law upon Assembly override, as the Senate previously had voted to overrule the governor.

CARSON CITY, Nev.—An off-road vehicle registration plan was vetoed Tuesday by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, who said it calls for new fees and that's not something he supports.

The ORV bill required owners of ORVs to register their rigs with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. SB394 mandated that all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, dune buggies and all-terrain motorcycles be registered at an annual cost of $20 to $30. A title fee would run about $28.

CARSON CITY – By a 19-2 vote, the Senate has approved a bill aimed at the reopening of F Street in Las Vegas with the cost estimated at anywhere from $40 million to $70 million.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, says the city has committed to spend $22.5 million toward the reopening, including $2.5 million for design and the environmental study.

He said the city and the state Transportation Department have agreed to work together to secure federal funds to pay for the project. And the state will pick up the remainder of what's left over.

CARSON CITY -- With today's deadline looming, Nevada lawmakers continued voting on bills that would otherwise die because of an end-of-the-week deadline for action on the measures.

The Senate voted unanimously for an Assembly-approved proposal allowing civil lawsuits when victims of childhood sex crimes learn there's pornography depicting the crimes against them.

Assembly Bill 88 would allow for civil lawsuits and fines up to $150,000. The measure was sought by Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.