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Petition to keep land open AZ

By awagner,
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awagner

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Last week there was a thread on here about State trust land closing and organizing and such. Now the Phoenix park thread. Please go to http://arizonaoffroaders.org and take a look and sign up if you support us.... should be like asking the choir if they like to sing.. ? I wanna keep this kinda short because I need to get to a client and well all the details are on the site.

Thanks,

Aaron

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harjp1959

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There are supposedly over one million OHV enthusiasts in Arizona.

In an effort and experiment to see if it is possible to tap into a large base of off-road enthusiasts, a couple of us have set up a website and online petition at www.arizonaoffroaders.org.

Please visit the website and sign the petition if you agree that state trust land should remain open to OHV use.

The real challenge here is to drive a meaningful percentage of the OHV community to this site. If only 5% of the community signed this petition, that's 50,000 names and addresses. On the one hand, that's a big number. On the other hand, it may not be big enough.

In order to get a large number of people to sign up, every one of us needs to urge anyone and everyone we see at the staging area, on the trails and roads, at the OHV dealer or shop -- anyone who rides or drives any kind of OHV truck, quad or bike -- to stand up and be counted. And we need to keep at it for the next couple of months or this effort will just die away.

The ultimate goal, I believe, is to have enough of the OHV community banded together so that we can influence the outcomes of elections. We could help elect more politicians who are friendly to our interests and oppose the elections of those who aren't. We would want our influence to extend to all levels of government: municipal, county and state.

If we can get a meaningful number of individuals to "sign" the petition, then we could organize those signatures according to state electoral districts, counties, and municipalities.

Then, perhaps, AZOHVC could use the results of this petition effort to demonstrate in concrete terms to agencies and politicians that there is an active base of OHV voters that cannot be ignored. In turn, perhaps AZOHVC could let us all know exactly who has been friendly to our interests and who has been opposed, so that we can take that knowledge to the voting booth. If we could defeat just one politician who has been unfriendly to OHV use and elect one on a platform of continued OHV access to state land, maybe we wouldn't be taken for granted anymore.

But first things first: we need to build our numbers so we can act in a coordinated manner. We hope to obtain some publicity about this petition drive to coincide with the first of October and the seasonal start of OHV activity around the Valley. That's when I (and hopefully many others) will be visiting the popular OHV staging areas and handing out flyers.

If you can think of anything that would help build this concrete expression of our numbers, please let me know at info@arizonaoffroaders.org.

Harry

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Potok

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I had some thoughts around this and I wanted to hear how others would weigh in. I'm very frustrated that our riding areas are being closed/restricted. The main reason cited is because of the dust. I think OHV's are an easy target and that's why we're getting restricted. Something needs to be done to make our voices heard, which is why I appreciate the efforts I've seen on this thread. But here is my concern... I'm afraid that if we show how many of us there are in Phoenix and the rest of AZ it will give the politicians more ammo. They may look at the huge number of off road enthusiasts and think, "Wow, there are a lot more OHV users than we originally thought. That means they'll create even more dust than we originally thought which reinforces our decision." I'm afraid we may be shooting ourselves in the foot by showing how many of us there are. It seems like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. What do you guys think?

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awagner

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Think of the economic impact that would bring.... and another thought I was born and raised in a rural slice of CA (can you believe that)... the mountains in northern CA are empty compared to AZ... why might that be???? Well growing up a friend down the street setup an off road track in his front yard that included part of the street I lived on... my favorite places to ride on my 80 had trailheads just across the street, so why drive 50 miles to a trail head when it is right there... the point is the more land that gets closed in and around Maricopa county and other urban areas, the more people have to go farther out wich equals more traffic in the watersheds and national forest which leads to pollution and a larger impact on wildlife, etc. Think of the increased traffic on highways headed out... it is a mess just thinking about it. I wish some of you could see AZ from my perspective... just very crowded for such a small population and closing local stuff will only make it worse.

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harjp1959

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I'm afraid that if we show how many of us there are in Phoenix and the rest of AZ it will give the politicians more ammo. They may look at the huge number of off road enthusiasts and think, "Wow, there are a lot more OHV users than we originally thought. That means they'll create even more dust than we originally thought which reinforces our decision."
Or they may think, "Wow, there are a lot more OHV users than we originally thought. Which means that if I want to stay in office and get re-elected I better make sure these people have places to ride."

The 2003 economic impact study commissioned by the Arizona State Parks Board concluded there are over 1 million OHV users in Arizona. Anyone who thinks about it knows how many of us there are.

We don't need to hide. What we need to do is pressure our public officials with our numbers to recognize our interest in retaining access to state land for OHV use.

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awagner

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Just to follow up what harjp1959 said, If you can hop on a dirt bike or any motorcycle for that matter and ride the hell out of it, I think that shows you got guts, passion and determination... focus it in a different direction and it shouldn't be in our nature to hide or being afraid to stand up and be counted for any reason!

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harjp1959

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I agree with all of that and had thought of it before, I thought I'd just play devil's advocate.
It's good to "think out loud" and play devil's advocate. We should be critical of ourselves and recognize that any criticism is for the good of the "cause".

In any case, did you sign the petition?? http://ArizonaOffroaders.org

Petition signed and I put a link on my Email and TT signatures. Let the lawmakers hear us in a loud uniform voice and it'll all be good. The glass is half full. Thank you for getting this together, Harry!
Hopefully all we've done is put together a simple tool we can ALL use to create better visibility and influence for the offroad community.

I like the idea of adding the link to the TT signature. I've done the same!

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rumplefester

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Just to follow up what harjp1959 said, If you can hop on a dirt bike or any motorcycle for that matter and ride the hell out of it, I think that shows you got guts, passion and determination... focus it in a different direction and it shouldn't be in our nature to hide or being afraid to stand up and be counted for any reason!

Well said Aaron. However, I must point out that we need to remind everyone that these issues may not just affect the dirt bike riders, but virtually ANYONE that rides/drives ANY type of motorized vehicle on State land.

- KeVin

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awagner

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Gotcha, was only mentioning bikes due to the people on this particular forum, but you are correct. I often forget there are other ways to travel... I think that started happening about 2 years ago when I bought the bike.. ?

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harjp1959

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AZ Dirt Bike Schools did a cool thing -- made this for us:

offroaddd2.jpg

http://www.azdirtbikeschools.com/

Also, Tim Furrier, who owns Desert Rat Off-Road Centers, is printing up posters for ArizonaOffroaders.org and putting them up in his stores.

http://www.desertrat.com/

I also like what Arizona Trail Riders did -- took the language on the front page of ArizonaOffroaders.org and put a lead-in to it on the home page of the ATR club, replicated all of the wording on another page of their website, and then linked directly to the petition. Very cool! ?

http://www.arizonatrailriders.org/

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