Delegate’s Meeting Minutes

Region 6

July 15, 2006

Dick Leever, Region 6 Director with the following clubs present Junction City Jeepers, Klamath Falls Four Runners, Strawberry Hill, Umpqua Valley Timber Cruisers, Deschutes County and Whatever 4, called the meeting to order.

Venessa Johnston from the 4x4 Fools welcomed the entire meeting and let everyone know that we will have a potluck right after the meeting.

Allan Paulson, Umpqua Valley Timber Cruisers, made the motion to accept May 27, 2006 Minutes as written; Beth Ayer, Junction City Jeepers seconded. Motion Passed.

Larry East handed out a written report on the Treasurer’s Report. Venessa Johnston, 4x4 Fools made the motion to accept the treasurer’s report as written; Louise Waugh, Whatever 4 seconded. Motion Passed.

No bills were presented at this time.

Land Issues- East Side:

· The new FS OHV Rule is scheduled be finalized in 2009, but the decisions can be reviewed and revised on a yearly basis.

· Dispersed Camping: Any unofficial campground you use needs to be on the maps or it may be closed. There is a provision in the rules that allows for dispersed camping but it will be applied at the forest level. You must request that the forest apply the rule in the area you use if you want to use those dispersed camps or have them specifically identified on the OHV maps.

· Invite the agency officials to come to your meetings to show them that you as a club want to be kept in the loop of what is going on.

· It was noted that not all trails or areas will be signed as closed, but instead the public is going to have to rely on maps to make those determinations.

· John Day Basin Plan: The Jon Day/Snake Resource Advisory Council will be involved in the writing of the plan for that area.

· There was a proposal to combine the BLM Resource Advisory Councils (RAC). It has been decided to leave the RAC like it is but on some things like transportation (OHV, snowmobiles, watercraft…etc.), they are going to have subcommittees consisting of members from each of the Oregon RACs. There is currently a joint RAC subcommittee being formed to work with OHV rules.

There has been a closure around Fossil Lake at the Christmas Valley Dunes. We did loose some dunes. One of the dunes is the one with the triple bowl that everyone likes. The closure boundary is marked with orange carsonite posts. Please do not violate the closure.

West Side:

• No information on the Santiam Pass yet.
• Upcoming travel plan public workshops on the Ochoco & Deschutes National Forests and Crooked River Grasslands: We will have representatives at most of these meetings

o July 11 Prineville

o July 20 Bend

o July 25 Sisters

o July 26 Madras

o July 27 LaPine

o Aug 1 Crescent Lake Junction

• Keep in touch with what the agencies are doing in your area. If they are not following the new FS rule, we need to make sure that the Blue Ribbon Coalition (BRC) is aware of that. They are tracking the process, but need input from the local users.
• Paul Norman will help Art on the West Side. At the next meeting the Region will review the boundaries for each of the Region Land Use Representatives.

Southwest Side:

• The Umpqua Valley Timber Cruisers attended an Oregon Hunters Association (OHA) meeting and talked with the hunters. 80 to 90 percent of hunters have 4x4’s. Many will be going to the meetings to give the Forest Service and BLM input and to find out what is going on. They plan to be involved in the process.
• Some of the Timber Cruisers took a GPS training course with BLM to become familiar with their GPS equipment. Then they mapped 11 miles of trails with the BLM GPS equipment. They found some old abandoned roads that will be good trails, but they needed to be brushed. It would be a good clean out project.
• Hubbard Creek Area: They are trying to get a loop trail reestablished in this area. It goes through some private property. They are talking to owner.

Other Land Issues: Lane County Parks and Recreation is developing an OHV area in the Blue Mountain Road area. They are contracting to have the trails mapped. Contact Todd Winters for further information.

Dunes: Ongoing Activities

• Driftwood II Hazardous Fuels Reduction.
• Riley Ranch OHV Routes: Developing a proposal and scoping a route to provide a access across national forest lands to connect with the dunes.
• Replacing a toilet at Tahkenitch Creek Trailhead.

Membership:

Beth Ayer does not want to keep doing the membership. Need to take this back to your clubs to see if anyone would be interested in this job with the region. It is an important job to have some one track and help potential new members form clubs in the region and to promote our sport.

Alan and Dick let us know we have a new club forming in the Coos Bay area. Craig Flitcroft has applied to the PNW for membership. He has approximately 12 other people who have also joined him in applying for membership. The name of the club is Coos County Ridge Runners. They are still waiting for the paperwork to clear the Association.

Ways & Means:

Gaileen Paulson showed us two new items that Region 6 has to offer, a baseball cap and car blankets. Both items have embroidered PNW Logos with Region 6 on them. The hats come in several colors. Hats cost $15 and the Blankets cost $25.

Future 4-Wheelers:

Adeena Klein was not present. Dick reported that they are working at trying to get rid of the point system and having the system based on attendance. We should have some final guidelines by the next region meeting.

Region Web Site:

Dale Keefer was not present. Clubs need to send things to him to have it posted. The site address is PNWREGION6.COM

Creek ‘n Trail:

We will have a full report in September. We had about 78 rigs 150 to 160 people.

Legal Committee:

This committee was formed to address the closure at Christmas Valley Dunes. Randy Drake is the committee chair. He was not at the meeting. The following are on the committee: Randy Drake, Dick Leever, Tom Harris, Alan Paulson and John Gilbert of COMAC. The committee has not met yet.

The committee will be looking to see if there are any ways that we could possibly regain access to the dunes complex that was closed off. The area is a very sensitive paleontological area. There have been numerous fossil finds in the area over the years. Some of the problems with the situation are:

• How to create a corridor going through the closure to the dune complex and how to keep people on the corridor and not violate the closure.
• How to keep people off the bottom of the dune. The base of the dune complex is the most significant paleontological sensitive area.
• We are dealing with federal law and we may need to seek a legal opinion as to what possible action we can take.

Ground Hog Rock Crawl Play Area:

A handout was given with a map showing the area.

• They had 1400 volunteer hours.
• The pit is only open to Class II
• A 21-mile loop took all day to do in snow.

Next meeting:

Strawberry Hill will be the host. It will be held during the SOLV Beach Cleanup. SOLV Beach Cleanup starts at 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. September 16, 2006. We will be camping at Waxmyrtle Campground. Potluck will follow.

PNW Fall Delegates Meeting will be held in St. Helen’s on September 9. You may go on the PNW Web Site to get all the information on this meeting.

Dick Leever would like all clubs to send to him the names of the contact people you are working with on the OHV travel plans and what forest or BLM District they belong to.

Meeting Adjournment

Respectfully submitted by

Venessa Johnston