WHEREAS, In 1971, the California Legislature acknowledged the tremendous growth in the number of off-highway motor vehicles being used for recreation in California and recognized that legislation was urgently needed to satisfy the demand for adequate recreation facilities for off-highway vehicles and to provide the restraints necessary to ensure recreational compatibility on public lands between various user groups; and

WHEREAS, Twenty-one separate items of legislation were introduced in 1971 to address the need to properly manage off-highway vehicles, including Assembly Bill 2342 which was authored by Assembly Members Eugene ‛Gino‛ Chappie and Ed Z’berg and signed by the Governor on December 22, 1971, as Chapter 1816 of the Statutes of 1971, and the majority of Assembly Bill 2342 consisting of the Chappie-Z’berg Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Law of 1971 (Section 38000 of the Vehicle Code and following) became operative 30 years ago, on July 1, 1972; and

WHEREAS, The California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle (OHV) Recreation Program has been in existence for 30 years and has grown to encompass over 100,000 miles of roads and trails statewide; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature established a self-funding mechanism whereby off-highway vehicle recreationists would have appropriate areas designated and maintained for their use in a manner consistent with good environmental practices; thus, no money comes from the General Fund to support the California OHV Recreation Program, and the off-highway vehicle recreationists have directly contributed over $500 million to the Off-Highway Vehicle Trust Fund over the last 30 years and the OHV Recreation Program has awarded over $200 million in grants to local and federal agencies to date; and

WHEREAS, There have been dramatic increases in Green Sticker and street-licensed four-wheel drive registration, and there are currently 506,585 street-licensed four-wheel drives registered and 489,380 Green Sticker registrations, and despite the 108 percent increase in Green Sticker registrations and the 74 percent increase in street-licensed four-wheel drive registrations, the amount of available acres of land for off-highway motor vehicles use has been steadily decreasing; and

WHEREAS, The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Program has partnered with the California Police Activities League to teach over 2,000 at-risk youth how to operate and enjoy off-highway motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles under the Off-Road PALS program, and the Off-Road PALS program focuses on off-highway motor vehicle safety education while motivating at-risk youth to improve behavior, encourage responsibility, and learn skills that will be carried through life; and

WHEREAS, Off-highway motor vehicles enable the disabled and the elderly to access remote forests and desert areas; and

WHEREAS, The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division is developing a contract for a certified State Training Organization to implement the All-Terrain Vehicle Program for the state; and

WHEREAS, OHV clubs donate many hours of labor each year to clean wilderness areas and assist in revegetation programs; and

WHEREAS, There are six existing snow vehicle recreation areas (SVRAs) in California, visited by 1,993,494 people in 1999–2000, and SVRAs and SNO-Parks provide areas for both motorized and nonmotorized recreation and offer affordable recreation to young families with tight budgets (at the Oceano Dunes SVRA 70 percent of the 1.1 million visitors are families, and families account for half of the visitors to the Ocotillo Wells SVRA); and

WHEREAS, The research, monitoring, and protection of the Western Snowy Plover and the Least Tern at the Oceano Dunes SVRA exceeds that which is found at all but a few California beaches, and the Hollister Hills SVRA contains a nature preserve; and

WHEREAS, The attendance at SNO-Parks has dramatically increased to 415,000 annual visitors, 42 percent of those visitors being ethnic minorities, largely Hispanic, and 67 percent of SNO-Park visitors coming to play in the snow; and

WHEREAS, The number of snowmobile registrations has increased by 180 percent, but Oregon which has 2,000 fewer registered snowmobiles than California has 4,000 more miles of trails; and

WHEREAS, California’s OHV Recreation Program is the largest of its kind with the strictest environmental standards in the country; and

WHEREAS, New regulations have been created and adopted to bring the grant program into compliance with the off-highway motor vehicle laws passed in 1992, and multidisciplinary teams have been created to review grants in order to increase grant accountability, and the grant funds for Off-Highway Motor Vehicles Law Enforcement have been substantially increased, and conservation activities are taking a much higher priority in OHV grant allocations than in years past; and

WHEREAS, The Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division is committed to maintaining a proactive resource management program; and

WHEREAS, Over 3.5 million California residents and 14.2 percent of all California households participate in off-highway recreation activities annually; and

WHEREAS, Off-Highway motor vehicle recreation affects 43,000 jobs, and the economic impact of off-highway vehicle recreation has grown to more than an estimated $9 billion annually to the California economy; now, therefore, be it