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ARIZONA OFF HIGHWAY VEHICLE
COALITION MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Dear Off Highway Vehicle Enthusiast,
 Arizona
has been targeted by various radical environmental
groups with a specific agenda to close many of the
trails and roads in public lands to your off highway
vehicle. The threat is immediate and very real and
we have already seen some areas restricted and others
closed on public lands in Arizona. This will have
a direct impact on your ability to access the areas
that you and your families recreate in throughout
our state.
Since a huge percentage of public land in Arizona
is managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) and Arizona State Trust
Land, these radical groups have targeted these agencies
to get their agenda enacted. Arizonans have already
seen the impact in California and other Western
states of this type of extreme environmentalism
by the closing of vast areas of public land to all
off highway traffic. As you know once an area is
closed, the effort to reopen it requires detailed
scientific research, long legal challenges, is extremely
expense and is not always successful.
We all do not want that to happen in Arizona,
so two years ago a small group of Off Highway Vehicle
(OHV) clubs, businesses and organizations met in
Phoenix to begin the process of assembling a Statewide
Non Profit Off Highway Vehicle Coalition that would
act as a counter to these groups. The goal of this
coalition would be to represent all off highway
groups on land management issues when dealing with
Federal, State, Local agencies and private land
owners.
We realized that only by combining our resources
from the various OHV groups could we begin to challenge
poor land management decisions. Our goal with a
large diversified Coalition was to develop a political
base to enact moderate land policies that allow
joint usage of all public lands which includes Off
Highway Vehicles.
The Arizona Off Highway Vehicle Coalition (AZOHVC)
was incorporated in 2004 as a 501(C)3 Non Profit
Organization and a website (www.azohv.org)
was built to begin informing Off Highway Groups
of critical land manage issues in the state.
Our next step is to invite you and selected members
of your group to come listen and investigate the
AZOHVC. Come weigh the benefits of becoming a member
of this Coalition. ATV, Motorcycle, 4x4, Rock Crawlers
Clubs, as well as OHV businesses and manufacturers
will be invited from all over the state.
Next week your organization will receive an invitation
to attend the First General Membership of the AZOHVC:
October 8th, 2005 at 10:00 A.M.
Paradise Community College
18401 N. 32nd Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
Over the next two months additional details,
maps and reminders of our meeting will follow.
Now is the time for you to be heard and to join
together with other OHV groups, businesses and clubs
to affect how public lands are managed. Only though
participating in the process will we be able to
affect how it is used.
Thank you in advance for your attendance,
Steve Carmickle
President
Arizona Off Highway Vehicle Coalition
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