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2007 Moose Anderson Days! April 28-29, 2007 Flyer (.pdf) Flyer (.doc)
2005 Photos 4/30-5/1/05 |
Friends Of Jawbone Meeting Minutes Friends of Jawbone meeting 3/17/04 9 a.m. The meeting was called to order at 9:03 a.m. by vice president Paul Kober. Members and guests introduced themselves. Patrick Landewe explained the Student Conservation team’s restoration efforts in the Rand Mountains and in the ACEC area in Jawbone/Dove Springs. They are creating visual barriers to prevent incursions on illegal trails. Each of the SCE team introduced themselves. The minutes were approved as written. Robin Mallow made the motion and Craig Peterson seconded. Treasurer’s report. Rick Fisher was absent so the report was given by Robin Mallow. She gave an overview of sales for Friends of Jawbone items. Income exceeded outgo by $481.61. Vice President’s report: Paul passed around photos of the rescue airship. He was able last month to go out with Robin’s outreach program in the schools. He was very complimentary of the program and its educational value. He asked for volunteers to go out with Robin and assist with the program. He commended Robin for the work she has done with the program. County, city and sheriff’s report: Both Don Maben and Craig Peterson had nothing new to report. Eric Hurtado reported on California City. He said he has sold 100-150 maps every time they are out in the desert. Paul asked if they could come up with a list of their most often occurring violations and how this is affecting our presence in California City. He will hand these out at trade shows, etc., so that people can see what violations are occurring and what the fines are. He noted a copy of a ticket/fine in a motorcycle shop where the person was fined more than 600 dollars for a violation at Hungry Valley. He asked what Eric thought was the number one violation in his area. Eric replied people riding without helmets. Also there are a number of people riding with a beer can in their hand. Laurel Spahr mentioned that there is a problem in the Piute mountains with people riding on the county road without a steet license. She added that they are putting up signs to route people on the trails. They hope to put maps out in the kiosks that people can take with them. She also wants to put an article in the local paper noting the cost of fines for violations. Jim Wilson asked about the Claraville area. He said St. John’s ridge takes off from the road and goes into Forest Service land to a group of homes and then runs into the road that goes to Sorrel peak. He said there are trails that are connected by roads and you have to take the road to get from one to another. He asked if they could make exceptions up in the Piutes on dirt roads. Laurel said this was possible, but on dirt roads only. Don Maben asked Jim to mark the roads on the map and get them to Jim Welling so they could determine whether they could be legal. Jim said he would do this. Sue Bouche noted that the dirt part of Jawbone road should also be made street legal because it is a problem for rescue crews. BLM report: Craig Beck was absent. Margaret Harris noted that the BLM web site has been shut down due to the lawsuit and they don’t know how long it will be out of service. Paul asked about the Ridgecrest office, and Margaret noted that there were paint spots on the carpet and it is a mess, but it is functional. Paul Kober noted that he and Ed Waldheim were able to tour the area with Craig Beck and Randy Masner to see the areas just north and south of Robber’s roose. Some of the areas they went up were 176 to 103 up the hill by the mine. The trail was in beautiful shape and had just been graded and 103 had been graded down into the bowl area. SC 94 had been improved by the DWP. This is in accord with an agreement that DWP maintain the roads they use to access the aqueduct. Up in Little Dixie Wash they came into some areas where there was some vertical mulching. They saw a herd of cattle in the midst of the restoration area. Paul asked what the outcome will be with cows trampling the work recently done by the SCE crew. He noted that the cows were everywhere, eating the hay bales that were set out to stop any incursion. Also, two bales had been set aside and tracks were coming from a large camping area with fire rings. He said that when you block off one end of a wash you just block off the other end or you defeat the purpose. He would also like to see bales block off the trails now instead of waiting for the crew to do the restoration. This would show evidence of work in progress. You need to direct the people and let them know where to go and where not to. Although camping is allowed on BLM land, the work in progress areas should be blocked off. One of the SCE crew members said that the incursions are occurring in the middle of the wash, that the far end is locked. The strategy is to work in polygons to restore all areas in that area, working polygon by polygon. They are trying to address all the issues. Fred Watkins asked who makes the decision to close a trail or a campground. The SCA member replied that they are not closing trails, they are closing illegal areas where people have made illegal trails. Paul said that because this area is close to the freeway and is a very flat area it is a very popular area and is becoming a semi-quasi open area. Fred asked who would make that decision. Paul replied that BLM makes these decisions. He said Randy Masner explained they need all the paper documentation before they can go into an area to do restoration. Chris Horgan said there is very little single track in this area and the SCE is virtually closing all single track, and he feels this should be looked into. Jim Wilson said he was part of the team who surveyed all the single track for WEMO and when the maps came out there was no designation between single and two-track trails. He has had a constant battle with single track in the plan. He said quads are allowed on single track which turns them into wider tracks. Paul Kober said the reason there aren’t as many single tracks in this area is that without maintenance most of them have been widened into two-track trails. Paul said on issue is that so many routes were designated single track, jeep track, or multi track and we have to work with the information given us. We need to find more tracks to be designated as single track. Sue Bouche asked how much of this restoration that we are doing is on private land versus what is on government land. The SCE representative said it I all BLM land. Paul Kober added that BLM cannot legally do restoration on private land. Steering Committee report: Jim Wilson attended and said he had to leave early. Most of the conversation befor he left concerned the horse. Jawbone Station: Robin said we are getting ready for Moose Anderson Days. Margaret Harris said we have 65 people registered. They will handle on-site registrations at the table. BLM waivers must be filled out at that time. They will also be given tickets for the 4WD tour and the poker run. Erika Sosenik said she has given raffle tickets to several people and only one person, Sue, has returned them. The t-shirts will be given after the cleanup. Sue Bouche asked if we will allow people to buy lunch if they didn’t work the cleanup. It was decided we could do this and they will be charged $5.00 for the meal. Margaret added they will have a few games in the afternoon and each child will get a prize. Maybe the top three winners will get a bigger prize. Robin added they have sent out their fifth newsletter. They need to have contributing writers for this and asked if people want to put an article in it. Paul wanted to report that across from SC94 in the Red Rock State Park there is a road that goes to the Opal Mine. State Parks provided a gate but it was being left unlocked so it was padlocked. This forced people to go around. Ranger Rob said he would put a sign on the gate to close it. The sign was installed and since then the gate stays closed without a padlock on it. Chris Horgan noted that a trail ride in Lake Isabell with conflict with Moose Anderson Days. Paul Kober said we need to find a way to get more weekends. Paul said one of the projects for Moose Anderson Days will be a clean up around Burro Schmitt’s tunnel. Paul and Ed have reservations about this because there are two sides to what should be retained and what should be hauled away. Craig Beck provided photos which Paul distributed showing the trash around the area. Paul said the photos show areas he would not be averse to cleaning. Craig has suggested we run tape around the area of both cabins and mark them “out of bounds” so people on Moose Days won’t be going into this area and removing artifacts. Fred Watkins suggested we stay away from the tunnel area and the effort should go toward cleaning the trails. Jim Wilson added that he heard at the steering committee meeting that things are disappearing from the cabins. Paul said BLM is looking for a caretaker for the area and that Maturango wants to take over this area. Paul said that in the area there is a lot of stuff which is just junk. Paul added the Opal mine and the mining area in Last Chance Canyon have been completely cleaned up. However, nothing is there and a lot of this would have been covered under the antiquities act. Roger Vargo noted that the camp just east of Burro Schmidt has been cleaned out. He feels a lot of history has disappeared. Laurel added that a lot of people pick up artifacts, not knowing that they are protected. Sue Bouche said that a lot of stuff out there is just trash and that we are organized on Moose days and pick up only the actual trash. She said there are sites there where there is broken glass, and beer cans from recent occurrences, and bag after bag of just trash. The whole site is an eyesore and needs to be cleaned out. She asked that BLM overlook the cleanup. Paul added that BLM always has a presence at the cleanup. Paul added that you have a choice of several sites and if you would rather work on the PCT this would be an option. Robin asked if we could recycle the items. Myrtle explained that the people who haul the trash away for us and they recycle it. Paul said he has sent a copy of the MOU to Bill Bishop and asked him to make comments so we can move along with it. Paul said another issue is the signing on the east side of Hiway 395. There are many trails and only a few have carsonite signs, but no numbers on them. Jim Wilson said there is nothing we can do until WEMO is signed, then we can work from it. They have chosen a trail to get into the gas station, but right now everything is on the interim closure so there is not much signing we can do on the east side. Roger Vargo has a question on the work list about Burro Schmidt mine. Paul said the tunnel is the “mine”. Paul said they have a grant for five toilets. One will be in the Dove Springs bowl, another in the camping area along SC 94 at the power line road. He is looking forward to the installations. Old Business: The WEMO is to “be in the mail” by June. Jim Wilson said item 92 on the work list notes “Tehachapi trails” and asked where these are. Sue Bouche noted there are several trails in the Bean Canyon area, etc. Several people were ticketed for riding on private property when they actually were on BLM land. Jim Wilson asked about Antimony Flat. Sue Bouche said that area is left closed and this area is left open because of the agreement with the Rudnick family. Sue said there is a problem with the checker boarded areas, and trails into the wildernesses where people get in “the back way” and don’t know they are in a wilderness area until they come to a fence with a sign on the other side denying entry. Paul asked Chris Horgan to speak about his work on the trails. Last weekend he got nineteen volunteers and cleared two miles of trail. He said he will do this again on the weekend of March 27,28 and wants us to encourage people to come out and help. Jim Wilson asked if Damon Powell and the dual dogs came out. Chris said only one of them came. Chris is hoping that this will continue and expand. Paul said nineteen people is fantastic for the first weekend. He applauded Chris for his efforts. Chris asked if he could get letters of support from the police, Friends of Jawbone, etc. Paul assured him that Friends of Jawbone will do a letter. Robin brought up the idea of stickers which tells everyone you have to stay on designated trails. She showed several ideas for stickers and asked if anyone has any ideas. Steve Bouche suggested “Trail aware” on stickers. “Ride Smart” was also suggested. Jim Wilson asked about a sign at the entrance to Jawbone Road telling people to stay on trails. Robin asked them to choose a color. Roger Vargo said bright colors are easier to spot. Ed Lucio suggested black with red lettering. Roger Vargo suggested the lettering in a mid-range light green which would contrast with the dark background. Yellow with green lettering was suggested. Jim Welling made the motion and Laurel Sphar seconded. Paul said if you are putting a grant, they are due May 15, 2004. If Friends can help you with the grant request, let us know. Closing comments: Laurel Sphar said she thinks different agencies in different areas need to see what we can do about publishing certain restrictions and/or fines. We need to get that message out to the public. They need to know how much it is going to cost them if they commit illegal acts. Ed Lucio agreed this is needed. Jim Wilson asked whether they have signs along the road and Laurel said they are not looking at the signs. Fred Watkins asked if fire permits are legal anywhere in California. They are. Roger Vargo said he will give Robin a map of the route for Moose Anderson 4WD tour. Length of vehicles, etc. was discussed. If Goler is not right, they will go out through Iron or Benson canyon. Barbara Anderson discussed getting trails approved in the Sequoia National Forest. She said if possible, they keep the trails open. If not they close them. Jim Wilson asked about Bright Star trail. She said they have not been through that area yet. Eric Hurtado said there are more and more riders in the California City area and they are trying to expand education. Paul said some people say that we need to educate people before we cite them. Eric said people who have never touched dirt buy trailers and quads and think dirt is open to ride anywhere. Sue Bouche said that after someone is injured it is bad to say we are going to cite you. She feels people will not call for rescue if this happens too often. Barbara Anderson said people shouldn’t be cited for getting injured, but many of them are obnoxious and should be cited for attitude. Sue added that law enforcement sometimes gives too many tickets for first offenses. Chris Horgan said they are looking into having dealers give a packet with a three month membership to CORVA, and rules and directions for how and where to ride. Chris reiterated the need for volunteers. Bob Sosenik said the city put up traffic signs with red flags on them and he notices them. He suggested we have volunteers go out and change sign sites, so people will notice them as new signs. The restoration lead noted that there is information available in the station as to where they are working. He lauded the crew on their efforts. Tim Noland said he is from Oregon. He feels communication helps people to ride more responsibly. He is pleased to see this group and their involvement. Paul asked the SCE crew what their majors. The crew members each discussed their majors and interests. Paul wished everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. The meeting was adjourned at 10:47 a.m. Myrtle
Railey, Friends of Jawbone Secretary
The next meeting will be April 21, 2004 - Click through for the agenda. Old Minutes 3/17/04 Minutes |
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