More than 85,000 acres of magnificent desert are open for off-highway exploration and recreation within the boundaries of Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. Ocotillo Wells SVRA is operated by California State Parks. To the south and east large tracts of BLM land (U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management) are also open to off-highway vehicles. The western boundary and part of the northern boundary of Ocotillo connect with the half-million acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is closed to off-highway recreation, but open to exploration by highway-legal vehicles along established primitive roads.
Category Archives: California
The Pacific Southwest Region of the US Forest Service has released a statement of its Leadership Intent for Ecological Restoration, which laid out the Region’s guiding vision and goals for its stewardship of wildland and forests for the next 15-20 years. The following draft document reflects the Regional leadership’s current thinking on how the Leadership Intent will be implemented. This draft is a beginning point for discussions with employees, partners, tribes, agencies, communities of place and interest and those who care about the future of their National Forests.
Like the Leadership Intent the Implementation Plan is fluid and we expect that adjustments will be made over time as the Region continues to collaborate; follow new science; and seek out and form new alliances. These ongoing processes will reveal new and smarter ways to increase the pace and scale of restoration work while balancing the ecological, social and economic benefits of our restoration actions. Regional leadership has committed to editing and improving this document following these discussions and then reviewing and updating it at least annually in the future years. Hence we invite discussion, input and insight to ensure that the Implementation Plan reflects and is responsive to new information, partnerships, and conditions.
The U.S. Forest Service has proposed changes that would allow public access to an additional 30,000 acres of the Cleveland National Forest for free.
The changes to Recreation Fee Areas would eliminate or reduce the size of six existing recreation areas where visitors are now required to have Adventure Passes.
The public comments period is open now through December 13, 2013. Comments may be submitted to:
Cleveland National Forest
Trabuco Ranger District
1147 East Sixth Street
Corona, CA 92879
or by email to: jfrodriguez@fs.fed.us
The full press release follows (you may also view it HERE):
Press Release from Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ):
Washington, D.C. – United States Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), today introduced S. 1750, the Public Access to Public Lands Guarantee Act. The legislation would require the federal government to enter an agreement with any state or municipality willing to offer funding to keep public lands, such as national monuments, national recreation areas and national parks, open during a shutdown of the federal government. S. 1750 seeks to prevent the federal government from delaying – or denying – the negotiation of these agreements, as it did when Arizona offered local and state funds to keep the Grand Canyon National Park open during the recent shutdown.
Big Bear Mountain Resorts website is reporting that there’s still plenty of ground left to cover for your biking pleasure.
From the website:
Lift accessed mtn biking may be over for the season but the riding in Big Bear is still really good! The valley did get a small snowstorm but did not receive a substantial amount making the trails clear and tacky. Get out your warmer gear, temperatures are lower and the winter breeze makes the ride a bit cooler. Big Bear offers tons of cross country type rides and the south facing slopes of the mountains tend to warm up and melt off snowfalls quicker than the north side. Meaning trails on the north shore of the lake like Grout Bay are accessible for large parts of the winter.
You can find out more on their website HERE.