Final WEMO Plan Released For Protest Comments – Deadline May 28, 2019

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) and Proposed Land Use Plan Amendment for the West Mojave Route Network Project (WMRNP) – WEMO. The announcement in the Federal Register on the motorized route network designation and implementation strategy opens a 30-day protest period, which will run through May 28, 2019. The entire set of documents that this FSEIS is comprised of can be found here.

During the WEMO process that has been on-going since 1980 many organizations and our community have engaged in legal actions and expressed concerns to the BLM regarding inappropriate routes for OHV riding and other related issues. (Some of the history of this process is documented on this website.) Most recently many people submitted comments on OHV routes of concern to them during the last WEMO comment period that ended in June 2018.

Your participation and submission of comments has, in many cases, had a positive impact in having the BLM reconsider and limit the designation of OHV routes. Community ORV Watch and many other organizations and citizens have advocated that OHV riding on WEMO route segments in mixed private and public (checkerboardED) areas such as the Morongo Basin should not be allowed. In the maps issued during the 2018 comment period many of these routes were (in Alternative 2, Street Legal Only Sub-Designation) assigned such a “street legal only” access and many comments you submitted advocated such designations.

This current FSEIS includes Alternative 5 – the BLM’s Proposed Action Alternative. On the associated map (see below) you can view the specific route designations in this alternative. COW’s initial review of Alternative 5 (particularly in the Wonder Valley area) appears to show that most of the “stop/start” route segments have been designated “street legal only” as we have been advocating for many years. But this may not be the case of routes in areas that you are concerned with. If you have areas with routes that you are concerned with and which you have previously submitted comments on you should examine the current Alternative 5 on the map and in the associated documents and to see what the “final” route designations are and if you want to file a protest comment by the deadline of May 28, 2019. The requirements and instructions for submitting such comments is found at this link.

Viewing the routes in the “final” Alternative 5: You may view the BLM WEMO route designations on the most recent map that has been available via the link at the very bottom of this page under the heading “Web Maps”. (Sorry, direct link to map not available.) Please note that in the past the BLM provided PDF format maps that we have used to review route designations. For this “final” review the BLM is not providing those PDF maps but rather a web based “interactive” map. (This is unfortunate because as difficult as those PDF maps were to use we all expended a lot of effort to cope with them.) As you review your areas of concern on this map you may also want to reference the route by route designation details in this document.

DEADLINE (Thursday June 14, 2018) TO COMMENT ALMOST HERE – WEMO (West Mojave) Plan

It’s serious:  The BLM is proposing to legalize off-road vehicle use in our residential neighborhoods.  The ORV community is actively supporting their plan.  We can fight back and we can win, but only if we flood the BLM with comments by JUNE 14.  GET YOUR COMMENTS IN TODAY, and get the word out to your friends and neighbors!  

All the information you need, including an easy-to-use Sample Comment Letter, is here.  Learn how to best customize your comment or advocate for a specific route you care about here.  

Note:  If you submitted comments in 2015-16 you need to resubmit them; find out how here.

Bottom line:  Any vehicles on our rural residential roads should be “street-legal only” (as defined by the California DMV).  We do not want the BLM to bring the trespass, conflict, noise, and dust that comes with open ORV use into our neighborhoods!

Have questions?  Contact us at orvwatch@gmail.com.  And get your comment in asap! 

WEMO Workshop and Letter Writing Event – Saturday June 2, 2018

Everyone in the Morongo Basin is welcome to attend.

If you’re concerned about the BLM’s plan to open off-road vehicle routes in residential neighborhoods adjacent to private property, come to a drop-in letter writing event Saturday June 2, between 9 and 11 a.m., at the Wonder Valley Community Center, 80526 1/2 Amboy Road, Wonder Valley. Volunteers will help you identify proposed routes and write an effective letter. Alternate viewpoints are welcome. The BLM can benefit from public input on how best to manage public land in San Bernardino County. The deadline for public comment is June 14, 2018.

 

The BLM has drafted a new version of its WEMO (West Mojave) plan, and in response to comments from residents on its earlier plan in 2016 the agency has added a “Street-Legal Only” option, which would exclude most ORVs on neighborhood streets. However, the BLM’s own preferred proposal still advocates opening local roads to ORVs. Residents need to understand how these different options would affect them and register their views with the BLM, and the June 2 drop-in can help. If you commented on the 2016 version, you still need to respond to this new draft plan. If you’re unable to attend the drop-in, more information is available at http://www.orvwatch.com/category/wemo/ to find the latest resources.

 

Even if you are not a resident of Wonder Valley this workshop can provide help for your neighborhood to set up your own letter-writing drop-in and  assistance to your concerned neighbors in using the  the maps and sending in comments.

WEMO is back, and YOU need to weigh in! Comment Deadline June 14, 2018

In March 2018 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a NEW draft West Mojave (WEMO) plan for allowing off-road vehicles to operate on the roads in our communities. And the plan has both GOOD news and BAD news for our rural residential neighborhoods:

  • The BAD news:  The BLM’s “Preferred Alternative” (#4) designates most of the roads bordering their lands in our neighborhoods as “Motorized”, meaning off-road vehicles could legally use them as well as street vehicles.
  • The GOOD news:  In response to the many comments we all sent in in 2016, the BLM is now offering an additional Alternative (#2), which instead designates most of those roads as “Street-Legal Only”.  This means use of the routes would be open to street-legal vehicles only as defined by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (excluding most ORVs!). 

OUR TASK:  Convince the BLM to use Alternative 2 (“Street-Legal Only”) rather than their current preference, Alternative 4 (“Motorized”)!  What will that take?  LOTS of comments, including from YOU!

HOW TO COMMENT: 

  • Use our Sample Comment letter:  Word Document Format – PDF Format. Feel free to customize it, and be sure to include the date and your name and address!  Deadline is June 14, 2018.  You can copy-and-paste the letter into an email addressed to  blm_ca_wemo_project@blm.gov, or print it out and mail to Bureau of Land Management, California Desert District, Attn: WMRNP Plan Amendment, 22835 Calle San Juan de Los Lagos, Moreno Valley, CA 92553.
  • You can make your comment stronger by personalizing it and adding specific, substantive information on items of particular interest to you.  See what works best here.
  • IF YOU KNOW OF A ROUTE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE DESIGNATED AS SOMETHING OTHER THAN “STREET-LEGAL ONLY” — e.g., “Motorized” (open to all vehicles), “Non-Motorized” (such as bicycles), “Non-Mechanized” (such as hiking or equestrian trails) or Closed —you should submit a route-specific comment specifically to that effect.  Learn how here.
  • IF YOU SUBMITTED COMMENTS IN 2015-16 you need to resubmit them to make sure they count in the final plan. Learn the best way to resubmit here.
  • NOTE:  We do not advise you to use or comment via the BLM’s ARCGIS (“Interactive On-Line”) map as it is not accurate and does not display the “Street-Legal-Only” designation.  Instead, use the Georeferenced PDF maps we link to and the comment methods we’ve recommended to be sure your comments are accurate and counted.
  • Use this electronic comment form from The Wilderness Society.

You can access links to all WEMO maps and all of documents associated with the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) in the sidebar of our WEMO page.

NOTICE:  The BLM includes the following notice on their comment site:   “Before  including your address,  telephone number, e-mail  address, or other personal identifying information in  your  comment, you should be aware that your entire comment, including your personal identifying information,  may be made publicly available at any time.   While you may ask us in your comment to withhold your  personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.  All submissions from individuals identifying themselves as  representatives or officials  of organizations or  businesses will be made available for public inspection in their entirety.”

Bureau of Land Management strikes out in third attempt to manage off-road vehicles in California desert – Attend the Upcoming Public Meetings

On March 16, 2018 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its third attempt to develop a plan for managing off-road vehicle use in the West Mojave portion of the California Desert.

Unfortunately, BLM’s latest draft closely mirrors prior attempts that a federal court found illegal. The draft plan once again inadequately protects areas with high conservation and cultural values and prioritizes off-road vehicles over other uses. It appears the agency has struck out when it comes to honoring its legal obligation to protect irreplaceable resources in the desert.

The new draft plan would designate a spaghetti network of 6,300 miles of OHV routes crisscrossing the West Mojave (WEMO) portion of the BLM’s California Desert Conservation Area. That is over eight times the length of Interstate 5 from San Diego to the Oregon border. Though an improvement over the 2015 draft plan that proposed over 10,000 miles of routes, this plan does nothing to end decades of poorly managed off-road vehicle use by designating thousands of miles of routes that were created by illegal, haphazard off-roading. In 2009, a federal court found that BLM’s 2006 plan, which designated a 5,000-mile route network, harmed fragile desert resources, improperly elevated off-road vehicle use over other forms of recreation, and violated numerous environmental laws. The latest draft plan explicitly states it was designed to include the “least amount of changes” from the illegal 2006 plan. (The above courtesy of The Wilderness Society.)

Members of our community submitted comments to the BLM on thousands of route segments of concern in 2015-2016 but many problematic route segments remain in place in the new proposal. Links to the new maps and an archive of the 2015 maps can be found here.

The comment period for the current routes ends June 14, 2018.

The BLM is conducting a series of Public meetings – all at 5PM – 7PM at the following locations:

  • April 17 – Victorville – Hilton Garden Inn, 12603 Mariposa Rd, Victorville, CA 92395
  • April 18 – Ridgecrest – Kerr McGee Center, 100 W. California Ave. Ridgecrest, CA 93555
  • April 24 – Lone Pine – Statham Hall (Lone Pine Senior Center), 138 N. Jackson St., Lone Pine, CA 93545
  • April 25 – Joshua Tree – Joshua Tree Community Center, 6171 Sunburst St, Joshua Tree, CA 92252

We urge you to attend one of these meetings and express your concerns to the BLM.

We are analyzing the new BLM WEMO proposal and will publish advice on effective ways to submit your comments in the near future.

SB 249/SB 159 Up For Votes This Week – Call Representatives Now With Your Support

UPDATE: These bills have been passed and signed by the Governor.

This process is in the home stretch. Two bills, SB 249 & SB 159, will be up for a vote in the State Assembly (Wednesday, September 13 ) and in the  Senate (Friday, September 15) this week. See our previous post on SB 249 for details. While we are disappointed that SB 249 will not contain a sunset provision to more effectively allow for future improvements we still feel that the bill will provide benefits. The current text of SB 249 is here.

In addition to SB 249 which will continue the OHMVR, SB 159 will continue the assessment of user fees. The text of SB 159 is here.

Call State Assemblyman Chad Mayes office to urge his support for these bills:
Sacramento Office 916 319-2042
Rancho Mirage Office 760-346-6342

Also contact State Senator Jean Fuller:
Sacramento Office 916-651-4016

Background on SB 249 from the California Native Plant Society is here.

Support SB 249 – Off-Highway Vehicle Modernization and Reform

UPDATE 6/1/2017 – The bill passed the Senate 22-15. Senator Fuller voted against this bill. It will now be considered by the Assembly. Details to follow. Thanks to all who called their Senators in support of this bill. We will keep you posted as this bill moves forward. You can also sign up for COW’s occasional email updates.

Residents of rural desert communities suffer from the noise, dust, trespass, and destruction from illegal motorized off-highway recreation. The OHMVR Program sunsets on December 31, 2017. The need for reauthorization of this program is critical with important revisions now being proposed. Today, damage from OHVs is outpacing California’s ability to repair and monitor the impacts on our natural resources. California State Senator Ben Allen is sponsoring SB 249, a bill created to address the problem in three ways:

  • Greater Environmental Protection – SB 249 creates improved transparency and implementation of commonsense measures to protect our sensitive cultural and natural resources.
  • Fuel Tax Revisions – Did you know that every time you pump gas a portion of that goes to fund off-road recreation whether you participate or not? SBÂ 249 addresses this by ensuring that a portion of our fuel taxes go to support all forms of outdoor recreation, both motorized and unmotorized activities like hiking, kayaking, and camping.
  • Balanced, Accountable Management – SB 249 ensures a greater balance of viewpoints in California State Park OHV administration and clarifies the relationship between OHMVR decision-makers and the State Parks Director as part of a cohesive Department of Parks & Recreation.


Illegal riders flagrantly disregard restoration and protected wilderness areas. (Juniper Flats in San Bernardino County).

This flyer provides a good summary of SB 249.

The Morongo Basin Conservation Association (MBCA), the Association for Responsible Recreation (ARR) and Community ORV Watch have signed on to this letter to the Senate Appropriation Committee in support of this legislation.

The legislation is currently being considered in the State Senate and if it passes there then it will move to the State Assembly. COW will post updates as this process continues. At this time we urge you to contact your State Senator, early in the week of May 28th (best would be on Tuesday, May 30th after Memorial Day) and support this needed legislation. Here is a list of Senate contacts that we urge you to call to support passage of SB 249 there. In particular if you are resident of the East Mojave area represented by Sen. Jean Fuller – (R) 16th District contact her at (916) 651-4016 – email: link. If you are calling a Senator outside of your district here is a sample script you can use when making such calls.

Send messages of support of the bill’s author to State Senator Ben Allen .

BLM’s Interim Street Legal Only Route Proposal – Info and Deadline to Comment

On April 19, 2017 the BLM held an open house at the Yucca Valley Community Center to answer questions about their current Proposed Street Legal Only (SLO) routes. This is their response to a court order to take interim measures in the period until the updated WEMO plan is published. A related open house was conducted in Barstow on April 20 and a third meeting is scheduled in Barstow on May 3.

The proposal is only a temporary measure prior to the next release of the WEMO plan. The BLM is soliciting comments re this proposal. You may use this form to submit such comments. Your comments must be mailed to the address on that form by May 12, 2017. They can also be emailed to Matt Toedtli, BLM Barstow Planning Environmental Coordinator at mtoedtli@blm.com for his reference.

Community ORV Watch is in favor of this proposal but we strongly urge expanding Street Legal Only limits to include all WEMO routes that intersect with any/all County dirt roads. The road system in the Morongo Basin is the result of the Small Tract Act (1938-1976) during which time the BLM surveyed and sold 5 acre tracts for fair market value. Each tract had a 44 and later 50 foot easement for access and there was utility access. Through use by the public these roads have come under the jurisdiction of the County.

Note: County roads include the County Maintained Road System – CMRS (the roads can be paved or unpaved), The County Service Area (CSA) roads (community roads maintained through tax funds paid by community members) and other roads which are unmaintained by the County but over which they have jurisdiction.

Not all of the surveyed land was sold for private use, which explains our checkerboard pattern. Currently riders on BLM off-road designated routes illegally pass though our residential community roads compromising peace, quiet and clean air in our neighborhoods.

Re this current proposal:

  • BLM is proposing a interim set of street legal only routes on a limited number of road sections where BLM and and County Maintained Road System roads intersect. Here is the map of this proposal and an associated document with some associated route restriction route numbers.
  • The total milage for these sections is 148 miles throughout the WEMO territory.
  • This interim program is intended to satisfy the court order to take interim measures before the next WEMO plan is released.
  • The purpose is to harmonize the County and BLM road regulations so that there is no confusion for law enforcement. Access to dirt roads on BLM land still allows OHV use at this time.

Updating the WEMO process timeline, on January 26, 2017 the Court issued an order enlarging the time for completion ofthe WEMO plan amendment. The revised planning schedule is as follows from the BLM’s quarterly report:

  • The Notice of Availability (NOA) of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, together with the Draft Travel Management Plans (TMP), will be published by January 2018.
  • The NOA of the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, together with the Proposed TMPs, will be published by April 2019.
  • The WEMO land use plan amendment Record of Decision (ROD) and the TMP RODs will be issued by October 2019.

We were also informed by the BLM that from the late 2015-early 2016 comment period that many of you participated in, those comments are “still being categorized” and an analysis of them will be made publicly available “this summer.”

MEETING: BLM Quarterly Report for WEMO

Please attend one of these meetings if you can. This will be an opportunity to hear from the BLM on the status of the WEMO process and to give your feedback.

BLM will be hosting two public open-house format meetings to gather public input on a proposal to temporarily restrict use to street legal vehicles on 148 miles of routes located on public lands within San Bernardino County that are maintained by the County of San Bernardino Public Works Department.  Segments of these routes under County maintenance are managed as limited to street legal only vehicles.  This proposal to temporarily limit the use of the route segments on public lands will allow BLM to analyze and determine if consistent management of these routes across the two jurisdictions is in the public interest.  These public meetings are scheduled for:

Wednesday, April 19, 2017 (5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.)   Yucca Valley Community Center (Yucca Conference Room)  57090 Twentynine Palms Highway  Yucca Valley, CA 92284

Thursday, April 20, 2017 (5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.)  Barstow Field Office (Main Conference Room)  2601 Barstow Rd, Barstow, CA 92311

UPDATE:
A third meeting has been scheduled as follows:
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 (5:30 to 6:30 p.m.)
Barstow Field Office
(Main Conference Room)
2601 Barstow Rd, Barstow, CA 92311