CORVA members should know that our land-use advocacy is active across California. We are not simply watching agency decisions after they are made. CORVA is writing letters, submitting comments, asking agencies direct questions, participating in meetings, working with legal and recreation partners, and making sure the motorized recreation community is represented before access decisions become permanent.
Our work currently spans California State Parks and the OHMVR Division, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, FERC, county governments, and other agencies whose decisions affect off-highway vehicle recreation and public access.
The West Mojave remains one of CORVA’s highest-priority land-use issues.
The January 2026 federal court decision resulted in the closure of approximately 2,200 miles of routes—about 37% of the WEMO route network—affecting more than one million acres of public land. These closures do not only affect trails. They affect access to historic communities, memorials, dispersed camping, mining areas, recreation destinations, and businesses that depend on OHV visitors.
CORVA has gone beyond simply objecting to the closures.
We are working with EcoLogic Partners and allied recreation organizations on the legal response, while closely tracking the Department of Justice and Department of the Interior appeal in the Ninth Circuit.
CORVA has also become directly involved in helping Randsburg-area business owners document the economic harm caused by lost recreation access. This has included outreach to individual businesses, coordination with legal counsel, gathering economic-impact information, and supporting efforts to give affected business owners a voice in the appellate process.
Our position is straightforward: public-land decisions have real consequences for communities, and those economic impacts must not be ignored.
CORVA continues to track:
Ninth Circuit proceedings.
BLM implementation of route closures.
Closure signage and enforcement.
Potential administrative restoration of routes.
Future BLM environmental review of the WEMO route network.
Opportunities created by changes to federal travel-management policy and minimization criteria.
If BLM begins a new route-planning or NEPA process, CORVA intends to be there from the beginning.
CORVA has taken direct action regarding the proposed Rubicon Trail realignment.
CORVA formally submitted a letter to the Placer County Board of Supervisors requesting that the County assert and protect any existing RS 2477 public right-of-way interests associated with the historic Rubicon Trail.
This was an important step because the issue is larger than a short-term trail reroute. CORVA’s concern is ensuring that a temporary or emergency realignment does not unintentionally weaken the public’s long-term legal access to one of California’s most historic four-wheel-drive routes.
CORVA has also communicated with the California State Parks OHMVR Division and OHMVR Commissioners regarding our concerns and the action we have asked Placer County to consider.
CORVA continues participating in discussions involving the Tahoe National Forest, Eldorado National Forest, Placer and El Dorado County representatives, Rubicon Trail Foundation, Rubicon Soda Springs interests, and the OHMVR Commission’s ad hoc process.
The proposed realignment has remained on hold while these issues are worked through.
That is exactly why CORVA’s involvement matters: decisions affecting historic access should not move forward until the consequences are fully understood.
CORVA remains deeply involved at Oceano Dunes.
We continue monitoring litigation, the Habitat Conservation Plan, Incidental Take Permit, snowy plover management, camping capacity, seasonal closures, the 48-acre foredune area, air-quality requirements, Coastal Commission involvement, and vehicle access south of Arroyo Grande Creek.
CORVA has raised direct questions with State Parks/OHMVR and the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District regarding PM10 data and the scientific basis being used to justify additional restrictions.
One of the questions CORVA continues to press is fundamental:
What do the actual monitoring data show, and are proposed restrictions proportional to demonstrated impacts?
CORVA has also raised the issue of the foredune camping closure and requested greater transparency regarding how much land is actually being removed from public recreation when buffers and exclusion zones are included.
Our advocacy at Oceano Dunes is not about ignoring environmental responsibilities. It is about insisting that restrictions be science-based, proportional, transparent, and balanced with the public’s right to recreate on lands specifically designated for OHV use.
CORVA has also engaged on the Carnegie SVRA General Plan update.
State Parks reported that additional alternatives were being considered to reduce dust in response to a court order. CORVA raised a serious concern: how can meaningful dust-reduction alternatives be evaluated when there is insufficient site-specific PM10 baseline information showing the actual existing conditions at Carnegie?
CORVA prepared comments emphasizing that any alternative reducing riding acreage or operating hours should be supported by defensible data.
Carnegie is a rural OHV recreation area surrounded largely by open hills. CORVA’s position is that restrictions should not be imposed simply because an alternative can theoretically reduce dust. Agencies should first demonstrate the problem being addressed and quantify the expected benefit.
CORVA has become engaged in the proposed Scott Dam decommissioning and Lake Pillsbury removal because of the potential consequences for recreation access in the Mendocino National Forest.
CORVA submitted comments focused specifically on the need to protect motorized route connectivity, campgrounds, staging areas, crossings, dispersed camping, emergency access, and recreation infrastructure.
Our position is not limited to whether Scott Dam ultimately remains or is removed.
CORVA’s position is that if the landscape is fundamentally changed, the agencies and project proponents must address public access before infrastructure disappears.
We have called for a comprehensive Recreation and Motorized Access Mitigation Plan so that routes and crossings are preserved, replaced, or relocated where necessary.
We have also raised concerns that recreation displaced from Lake Pillsbury could increase pressure on Middle Creek, Stonyford, and other Mendocino National Forest OHV areas.
CORVA is closely monitoring the U.S. Forest Service’s reconsideration of the 2005 Travel Management Rule.
For more than two decades, the Travel Management Rule has shaped which roads, trails, and areas are legally available for motorized use.
Changes to this rule could affect:
Route designation.
Motor Vehicle Use Maps.
Restoration of previously closed routes.
Local decision-making authority.
Maintenance priorities.
Emergency and wildfire access.
How agencies apply route-selection criteria.
CORVA has cautioned members against assuming that any federal policy change automatically means that National Forest lands will become “open unless closed.”
Actual implementation will depend heavily on future regulations and local Forest Service decisions.
That means CORVA must remain engaged nationally and forest by forest in California.
CORVA also followed the Forest Service proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Our advocacy has emphasized the need for land managers to retain flexibility for wildfire prevention, fuels reduction, forest health, emergency access, road maintenance, and responsible recreation.
California’s catastrophic wildfire experience demonstrates why management flexibility matters.
CORVA supports environmental protection, but we also believe decisions should account for public safety, active forest management, recreation, and access.
Wildfire closures remain a growing access issue across California.
CORVA understands the need for immediate emergency closures following major fires. However, once the immediate danger has passed, agencies should be able to explain:
What routes are actually unsafe? What work is necessary to reopen them? What funding is required? Can volunteers assist? What objective conditions must be met? When will access be restored?
CORVA continues to monitor Forest Service and State Parks closures so that emergency restrictions do not quietly become multi-year or permanent closures without adequate justification.
CORVA continues monitoring BLM renewable-energy, transmission, battery-storage, conservation, ACEC, monument, and land-use proposals across the California Desert.
These projects often appear to affect only a limited number of individual roads.
But losing one road can sever an entire recreation network.
CORVA therefore evaluates projects based not only on mileage lost but also on route connectivity, access to staging areas, camping, historic sites, race corridors, neighboring riding areas, and regional recreation networks.
CORVA remains active with the OHMVR Division and OHMVR Commission.
Our involvement includes formal letters, direct communication with State Parks leadership and superintendents, participation in public meetings and ad hoc committees, comments on proposed plans, and continued advocacy regarding recreation capacity and public access.
Whether the issue is Oceano Dunes, Carnegie, Prairie City, Hungry Valley, Rubicon-related grant funding, or statewide OHV policy, CORVA’s goal is to make sure the perspective of California’s motorized recreation community is represented.
Effective land-use advocacy is not simply sending an angry letter after a closure occurs.
It means developing relationships with decision-makers before the decision is made.
CORVA is communicating directly with Forest Supervisors, BLM officials, State Parks leadership, OHMVR Commissioners, county supervisors, recreation managers, attorneys, local businesses, clubs, and our coalition partners.
Sometimes our role is to submit a formal legal or administrative comment.
Sometimes it is to ask the question nobody else has asked.
Sometimes it is to bring local businesses into a federal lawsuit.
Sometimes it is to request the data behind an agency claim.
Sometimes it is simply making sure that when government agencies discuss California’s public lands, someone at the table is speaking for motorized recreation.
That is the role CORVA is increasingly filling.
CORVA members should understand that this work takes place throughout the year—not only when a major closure makes the news.
A short agency notice, a Forest Service meeting, a BLM planning document, a CEQA proposal, or a county agenda item can determine the future of a trail years before the public realizes access is threatened.
CORVA intends to be involved early.
We will continue monitoring, questioning, commenting, collaborating, challenging when necessary, and working constructively with land managers whenever possible.
California off-roaders deserve an organization that does more than report closures after they happen.
CORVA is working to prevent them, challenge them when appropriate, and build solutions that keep our public lands accessible for future generations.
Protecting public lands FOR the people, not FROM the people.
Mike McGarity President California Off-Road Vehicle Association (CORVA)
Protecting public land for the people, not from the people, since 1970
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