A request for help from Californian four wheelers

[PeterVahry]

A note received today from the USA

I am sending this e-mail begging for the help of the international off road community. Johnson Valley OHV area in southern California is one of the last premier off roading areas on public lands in the United States. Not only is it the home to the famous King of the Hammers race, it has become the Mecca of off roading. People literally travel from all over the world to experience the Hammers trails system. The extreme trails in the Hammers make the Rubicon trail look like child’s play. Furthermore, this area and the King of the Hammers has done much for the offroading community by become a testing ground for many different 4x4 companies. The rise in the level of off road technology in the past few years can be directly traced to Johnson Valley and the King of the Hammers. I CANNOT stress the importance of this area to the off road community. Basically the loss of Johnson Valley will seriously cripple the 4x4 community and the businesses that benefit from it.

Unfortunately, 29 Palms Marine Corps base to the East of Johnson Valley needs to expand in size. They are proposing to expand West into Johnson Valley, which would shut the public off this land forever. The Marines DO have an option to expand East, but they would have to have “wilderness” areas undesignated as “wilderness” to expand. Not only would the Marines gain more territory to train in by expanding East, it would be easier for them to keep the public out since those lands are virtually unused by the public. (They were designated as wilderness in 1994) The Marines are just going West because they figured on the 4x4 community not putting up as much as a fight as the “wilderness” folks would.

The small desert communities in the area also want the Marines to expand East because the loss of Johnson Valley OHV area would decimate their local economy. What I am asking of you Currently there is a public comment period on the 29 Palms Expansion. By the NEPA process (meaning by law) The Marines must read and consider every single letter sent in. Through a letter generator we have set up through Pirate4x4.com, we have already collected over 5,000 letters. But we need more. A LOT more. The letter generator makes it very easy for anyone to send out 28 letters on 28 different “talking points” All they need to do is add 1-2 more sentences to personalize the letter.

I am asking that you not only personally send in comments, but that you PLEASE forward this info out to as many people as possible and ask them to send in comments. This campaign will be even more effective if we can generate letters from people world-wide. Currently there is a mass give-a-way on Pirate4x4.com for people who have sent in comments. That give-a-way can be viewed on pirate4x4.com: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=977850
The link to the actual letter generator is here: http://dev.aldosgroup.com/LetterGenerator/ Currently the letter generator DOES NOT accept international addresses, so people out of the US can use: Twentynine Palms, CA 92277 Please help us save this important area.

Kurt Schneider
4405 “land-use” race team

[GotFlex]

ill help out, that place is on my to do list when i get to the states, it looks awesome!!

[lincooln]

sent a few letters, it would be devastating to lose such a magnificent area for 4wding.