Eric and I went to the BLM meeting in Hollister last night. Actually, the meeting was officially called "Clear Creek Management Area Draft RMP Amendment and Draft EIS Public Meeting." Basically the meeting was all about the pending "management," and I use that term very loosely here, of our beloved Clear Creek riding area. The native plant people would like to see us all die and burn in hell. They want the BLM to close way too much of the area. Of course, in my mind closing 1 mile of trail is 1 mile too much.
The meeting was to start at 5:30pm, so we left Oakland at 3pm, in order to beat most of the traffic and get there in time to have dinner. Took us 1 1/2 hours to get there-not bad!
Neither one of us had ever been to a meeting like this before, I'm ashamed to say, and we had no idea what to expect. There weren't too many people when we got there, but it started to fill up the closer it got to 6:30. The first hour was just for signing in, looking at all the exhibits, talking to one of the many BLM representatives, looking over documents, and signing up to give comments during the meeting. Eric and I filled out a couple of the written comment forms, and grabbed a few for friends that couldn't attend. We were at a table with a sheriff from Hollister. He was a cool guy and rode a dual-sported KTM 525. We were also joined by Captain Brooks from the Hollister PD. He was a very pleasant fellow, and joked that he hoped he wouldn't have to protect the scrawny hippie of the California Native Plant Society from a bunch of pissed-off burly dirt-biker types.
Speaking of the scrawny hippie, we pegged him from a mile away as being the guy from the CNPS. I'm not sure if it was the Earth shoes, the leather back pack, the near-dreadlocked long hair, or just the bewildered look in his eyes that gave it away. We knew there was a Sierra Clubber there, too, because I saw his name on the sign-in sheet. We were going to play the game of "Spot the Tree-Hugger" but there was just no challenge in it. It was too easy to spot the 3 (yes...count `em...three!) folks that were there representing "The Other Side," partly because one of them looked like a David Brower type, and they were all buzzing around the scrawny hippie. That, and they were the *only* people in the room that weren't wearing T-shirts emblazoned with brightly-colored dirtbike stuff. I proudly wore my RMD Idaho SpodeFest 2002 shirt and Eric wore his Quicksilver National Enduro shirt from 2000.
The panel of BLM employees that drew the short straws and had to sit there at the table getting lambasted by angry dirtbikers (and, to be fair, angry enviro's) looked like the class of 2002 from the local high school. I guess the folks that actually wield the power in the BLM decided they had better things to do on this night, so they sent all the new recruits to take the heat. Pretty chicken s*#t, if you ask me. They were all very helpful and respectful, and I enjoyed talking with them before the meeting began. Our favorite BLM ranger William Schwartz was there, too. If you've ever ridden at Clear Creek and seen a ranger riding around, or driving with a KTM in the back of his BLM pick-up, then you know who Mr. Schwartz is. A good ranger, and a very nice guy.
The first speaker was Dan Peterson, the northern director for CORVA (CA Off-Road Vehicle Association.) He was very articulate and had some very good ideas for keeping trails open, such as a round-robin type of system where some areas would be closed for rehab for a certain amount of time, then opened as another section closed for rehab. It was a good idea, but as one speaker subsequently pointed out, once something is closed in CA, it will never, ever be opened again, regardless of whether it was supposed to be or not. Good point, and it does sorta feel like "giving in" a bit, but it's better than permanent closures. I think...
Ed Tobin also spoke. He's the head honcho of the Salinas Ramblers, the club that puts on the Quicksilver. The club also owns private land adjacent to the riding area. If Clear Creek, by some miraculous intervention, gets saved, it will be largely due to this man's tireless efforts. He rocked the house with his very well-thought-out 5 minutes. There were cheers of "Ed for president!" and the like from the mostly well-behaved crowd.
I say "mostly" well behaved. The speakers only had 5 minutes to speak, and the 2 speakers that were in favor of closures (David Brower chose not to speak, apparently) had to deal with catcalls, profanity, lots of really loud spontaneous coughing fits, and the like. I was a bit embarrassed by the behavior displayed by a very few of my dirt biking brethren. The funny thing is, we were all given the opportunity to speak our piece, but the ones doing the most shouting did not choose to get up and present a tangible argument against closure. I even heard one of the guys saying something about "...well, I guess I'll have to carry bolt-cutters with me when I ride..." while talking to a BLM representative before the meeting began. I can certainly understand their frustration, but it wasn't really helping the cause any, it was just making us look like the scofflaws they all think we are. It was disappointing.
Although we were at opposite ends of the argument, I thought Brian Leneve of the CNPS was a very good speaker. He was angry with the BLM for a lot of the same reasons we are: taking so long to get a decent plan in place, lack of enforcement, ambiguous fencing, funding-or a lack thereof, closure signs being hard to understand, and vague language in the documents. He was very respectful of the other speakers, listened intently to what we all had to say, and was seen before and after the meeting talking with the dirtbikers. However, the whole place broke out into fits of laughter when he mentioned closing the area until it rains again after asbestos levels rise to unhealthy levels in the summer.
There were many speakers that just wanted to let the BLM know what riding means to them and their families. Some of them were quite well-spoken and humorous, others were just plain angry, and a few were downright bizarre. I had no intention of speaking at the meeting, I just wanted to go to show my support, and add to the numbers of supporters. I was quite surprised by the size of the dirt biking contingent. I thought I would recognize more people there, and was disappointed to not see some of the folks that I thought would surely be there. Maybe they're going to San Jose tonight. I hope so...
Anyway, I was so incensed toward the last part of the meeting that I hastily filled out my commenter registration card and turned it in. I stood up and just talked about how we here in the West are very fortunate to have so much public land to use for recreation, but that a very small percentage of it is open to OHV access. Hikers can hike virtually anywhere they please. Plant lovers can appreciate plants in so many other areas. But OHV'rs are very limited in where they can enjoy the sport they love so much. Why must they have Clear Creek? I know we'll probably never get any more land opened to us, and we certainly aren't asking for more than our fair share or for anything extra. We are just fighting to keep what little we have left. That and the fact that putting more and more riders on less and less land, with most of it being wider, higher-speed trails (most of the trails in danger are true single track) will surely lead to disastrous results, not to mention a less-fulfilling experience for the riders.
All in all, the meeting was an eye-opening experience for me. I'm really glad I got my 5 minutes at the podium. I was a bit intimidated, what with public speaking not exactly being my forte', but I'm glad I bit the bullet and went up there. I know I would have been kicking myself in the butt all the way home if I had let the opportunity pass me by, especially since I've always felt that everyone was entitled to my opinion
Just an FYI: The Salinas Ramblers are selling "Save Clear Creek and the Future of OHV" stickers for $5 apiece. All the proceeds go to the Clear Creek Defense Fund. Find out more at www.salinasramblers.com
Thanks for reading,
Tami-