Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Democrat from New York, is trying to by-pass the congressional debate of H.R. 1925, which would close over 9 million acres in Utah to OHVs. Since he failed miserably in trying to get ANY representative from Utah to back him in his land grab, he has resorted to asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to use his administrative powers to close those lands without debate and without approval from the very state that would be affected.

If enacted, this bill would close the designated areas to all activity including OHVs, bicycles and horses. This includes Moab, one of THE places to offroad, hike and ride horses.

To make things worse, much of the land that is covered in this bill does not comply with the requirements to create such a wilderness designation. According to the Wilderness Act of 1964, Wilderness can only apply to lands 'retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation.'

This closure would be on top of the 2 million acres already closed, and would greatly damage the local economies that rely on the income from OHV recreation in these very popular places. It is my opinion that there is a clear and concise effort to destroy the financial livelihood of Utah. The AMA is urging all offroaders, equines and bicyclists to join together and make their voices heard by contacting the powers that be and telling them to Leave Utah Alone!

Read the letter that Hinchey and 88 other representatives sent to try to force the closure of MOAB without going through the proper channels.

This weekend I'll be trekking out to Clark County, Nevada with Discover Today's ATV and the ATV Safety Institute to spend a day riding in the Valley of Fire just outside of Las Vegas. I've been told that this time of year has some of the best riding available in the Las Vegas area, and the Valley of Fire is arguably one of the top riding spots around there.

I will be joining Jun Villegas, an instructor for ASI, and Ty van Hooydonk from DTA. I will be mounting a Suzuki King Quad 750 and a Yamaha Grizzly 700. Both with power steering, which is a first for me. The Valley of Fire is also a new ride for me, and you can look forward to a nice photo gallery when I return.

The ASI is a not for profit organization that promotes rider training for new riders and even for experienced riders who are simply looking for a refresher course. If you've got kids and they ride ATVs, you already know ATV safety is a top priority. So taking them to get certified is only going to help ensure their safety.

The ASI RiderCourse is a single day event and is FREE if you buy a new ATV, either for an adult or a child. If you're buying used, it only costs $155.00 for adults, and $55.00 for children. If children are riding ATVs they must be certified or must be riding with a certified adult.

The ASI promotes the following "Golden Rules of ATV riding":

1. Always wear a helmet and other protective gear.
2. Never ride on public roads - another vehicle could hit you.
3. Never ride under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
4. Never carry a passenger on a single-rider vehicle.
5. Ride an ATV that's right for your age.
6. Supervise riders younger than 16; ATVs are not toys.
7. Ride only on designated trails and at a safe speed.
8. Take an ATV RiderCourse; Call Toll-Free at 800.887.2887, or go to www.atvsafety.org.

The Amateur Freestyle Motocross Association (AFMXA) is holding their first amateur freestyle motorcross competition on the west coast at the Pala Raceway in Southern California this weekend. The event features some of the best amateurs from around the world who are at least 14 years old.

After the competition some of the best professional freestyle riders like Brian Deegan, Nate Adams, Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg, Ronnie Faisst, Todd Potter and Mike Mason will be on hand to sign autographs and perform an FMX demo.

The AFMXA is a governing collective of Freestyle Motocross riders and action sports industry leaders who are trying to make FMX a safer sport. It was founded shortly after the tragic death of freestyle motocross legend Jeremy Lusk.

There is a new road to access the eastern dunes at Glamis via wash 25 in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA). This new road will make it easier for campers to access the eastern dunes.

This was largely a volunteer effort by dune enthusiasts who helped by donating up to 40 hours a week during the hot summer months. Volunteers used water trucks and other heavy equipment to help with the construction of the road.

This new road is for street legal vehicles only. All OHVs are forbidden on the new wash road and should enter the area through the dunes only. Off-road tires will damage the road and will require more funding to be used in maintaining the road. You may be ticketed for riding off road vehicles on the road.

Halloween at Glamis sand dunes has marked the beginning of desert season for the offroading community in southern California and Arizona for generations. OHVers flock to the Imperial Sand Dune Recreation Area (ISDRA) to ride ATVs, motorcycles and buggies of all types.

This year the Dune Tour Spooktacular will be held in the ISDRA behind the Glamis Beach Store on October 30th and 31st in Glamis, Ca. and The All-Terrain Vehicle Safety Institute (ASI) will be offering free ATV safety training courses at 9am and 1pm Friday and Saturday during the event.

The ASI provides very good ATV safety training and is especially good with children. They explain things in a way that helps kids understand how ATV safety works instead of just telling them to be safe by doing this or this.

Keep in mind while you're out there, the dunes are different every year. They can even change from day to day. When you are coming to the top of a dune, never go straight over unless you're there to jump and have a spotter. Otherwise you should cross while riding parallel to the ridge so you can see what's on the other side.

Last week the United States Forest Service (USFS) released a document saying they would permanently close the Tellico Trail system despite the results of an independent study discounting the reasons for the proposed closure.

Caliber Engineering demonstrated that an effective management strategy for the Tellico Trail System would work and even provided examples on how to achieve the management goal.

The Forest Service has used extreme scenarios and peek conditions to make it's case about the water quality issue with the Tellico River. The same tactics have been used in the past with the Piersons' Milk Vetch (PMV) in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area to close areas of Glamis.

Even though independent study by a well known botanist proved that the PMV was not in danger from OHV activity in the dunes with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in which over half of the previously listed animals put on the endangered species list were removed due to errant data collected and reported by The Center For Biological Diversity (CBD) and The Sierra Club.

According to UTV Weekly, Chairman of the Rescue Tellico Committee, Jay Bird said "The Tellico River is in excellent shape and complies with all legal requirements. Only through blatant modification of proper methodology, such as measuring turbidity levels during peak runoff, can the Forest Service claim there is legal basis to take any action, let alone closure."

California's Air Resources Board (CARB) is setting difficult goals in it's Cool Cars regulations. Turns out it might just help Jeep sales.

There was a rumor going around recently that CARB (the California Air Resources Board) would in essence ban "black" cars because of their natural tendency to trap heat inside and thus require more "energy" to cool the car. As one would expect, I didn't see any mention of how that would work in cold climates where heating would require less energy because of the black car's ability to keep heat in. I've been assured by Dimitri Stanich from arb.ca.gov that that is not the case and that black cars would not be banned.

There was also a rumor saying it's going to do more than affect the use of "dark hue's" in car color; the process, it is said, could hinder many of the electronic devices we use in our vehicles, such as GPS units, cell phones and others that rely on an outside signal. I would give that more credibility considering the obvious reduction in radio reception I got after tinting a rear window that had a built-in antenna. We'll have to look in to that "rumor" as well.

In the mean time, CARBs latest regulation requires automakers to build cars with windows that block nearly 50% of the suns energy from entering a vehicle by 2014, and 60% by 2016. For the Jeep Wrangler soft-top, that's going to be impossible. The reflective properties that are required to meet the standards cannot be applied to the soft windows in the Jeep Wranger, which would effectively kill sales of those vehicles in California. Luckily the rumors have been discounted and the Cool Cars regulations are exempting the soft vinyl windows on the Jeep Wrangler.

What does that mean for Jeep Wrangler sales? Well, if the window coatings are affecting performance of electronics (that we happily depend on) and soft-top vinyl windows like those found in the Jeep are exempt, that would be a selling point for Jeeps and could literally increase sales. I'm just saying.

Read more about the CARB Cool Carsregulations and please let us know your thoughts on this latest round of peculiarities.

Image © Matt Finley

If you ride an ATV or other OHVs in the desert or other type of "playa lake", "mudflat" or "sandflat" your right to ride on public AND private land could be getting washed away in the name of The Clean Water Act.

According to a congressional bill, S 787, "intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds;". will be moved under federal jurisdiction and subject to regulation.

That's pretty much all the water except subterranean (well) water. The wordage in the original Clean Waters Act of 1972 for this bill was purposefully changed:

by striking `navigable waters' each place it appears and inserting `waters of the United States'.

This bill goes to the Senate on October 15, 2009. From there it goes to the House, then to the POTUS to be signed into law. This is in addition to the federal take-over of the auto industry, the credit and banking industry, the bid to seize the health-care industry, and everything else our current administration is trying to control.

via Search Results - THOMAS Library of Congress .

I recently did a review of The Protector ATV safety device, a plastic shield that covers the thumb throttle on an ATV from being bumped and causing accidental acceleration.

But once I installed The Protector, it became clear that for some riders there is a certain amount of risk involved with it's use.

In particular, people that have even a slight risk of crashing, rolling over or abruptly jarring the front wheels causing the handle-bars to jerk to the side are at risk of injury to the wrist or thumb.

In the event of a roll-over crash, The Protector could potentially cause severe injury to your right hand and/or wrist if it gets caught between The Protector and the ground, a leg or any other object. If the handle bars are jerked to the side, The Protector could cause injury as well by jamming the unprotected edge against the wrist or thumb.

You don't have to have that big of a shield in order to protect the throttle from accidental acceleration. A smaller shield with a different shape and a protective edge on the outside of the shield would go a long way in preventing un-necessary injuries.

Image © Matt Finley

Last week when I posted HR 1925: The Newest Federal Land Grab to Snatch Up 9 Million More Acres, I was not aware that world famous Moab OHV area was included in the list of closures.

Moab is one of the most well known OHV areas in the United States. It has been marketed as a recreational area for over a century and the thought of it being closed is almost unreal, kind of like I fell into a cartoon.

The Vice President for Government Relations of the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) Ed Moreland said "the measure is totally unreasonable and completely unacceptable" partly because there are ZERO representatives from Utah is supporting it. The bill is being pushed through by a New York congressman.

There's still time to call your representatives and let them know you're strictly against Congressmen from New York trying to close highly popular recreation areas several states away.

Image indigoprime