The Ridgecrest Area Task Group of the BLM Desert Advisory Council’s WEMO Subgroup will convene its second meeting, this time at SpringHill Suites in Ridgecrest, on May 24th from 6:30-8:30 pm. The first meeting was held at Jawbone Station with nearly 40 people in attendance, about fifteen of which contributed route data in various forms.

For the next event the task group hopes to see additional people turn-out with their route maps and other information. Once again, staff will be on-hand to directly enter the data electronically, offer assistance in sorting through our vast collection of maps, and answer any questions you may have about the process.

The purpose of the Task Group meetings is to engage and assist members of the public in identifying important motorized routes in the greater Ridgecrest area that should be designated open by the BLM.

We knew it would happen eventually, but as of this week it is official: our OHV Green Sticker funds are under attack.

For those of you who aren’t aware, when you register your OHV and receive your ‘Green Sticker’ your fee goes into a money-pot which is then used to fund the restoration, safety and education, law enforcement, development, planning, and ground-works which are so vital to keeping our public lands accessible, safe, and open.

In the past few years our access to the full pot of funding has been steadily eroded.  Now, this past week it was proposed that the Green Sticker funds be commandeered in their entirety and used to fund State Parks as an effort to prevent their own closures. As a result this would deny us access to the $30 million dollars in funding which OHV recreation sites have come to rely on.

This Sunday, May 20th, a partial solar eclipse will be occurring across Southern California. The Maximum eclipse (that is, the time when the moon will most obscure the sun) is expected to be at about 6:38 p.m. and it will cover roughly 78.6 percent of the sun’s area. Good news for us desert dwellers is that the weather is expected to be clear and warm out here: perfect for viewing the solar eclipse as the sun will be low in the western sky in a spot where even a few clouds can spell disaster for sun-viewers.

Even at its totality during our partial eclipse it will not be safe to look directly at the sun. There are eclipse viewing goggles that one can purchase online or at specialty stores, but, if you don’t feel like making the investment there is a simple way to do it:

1. Take two index cards and poke a hole in one with a pin

2. Line up the two index cards with the sun so that it shines through the one onto the other (please see illustration below!)

The Stewards of the Sequoia volunteer organization is having a fundraiser on May 2, 2012 at The CycleSmiths in Kernville, CA. There will be BBQ in the offering, fun raffle prizes and, for a donation of $150, Jimmy Lewis will be hosting one of his famous Off-Road Schools at nearby Keyesville (a class normally offered at $300). Raffle prizes will include overnight accommodations at Kern Lodge, Motion Pro goodies, Demo Dirt Riding gear and much, much more. All funds raised will go to helping Stewards of the Sequoia campaign to stop trail closures during up-coming BLM and National Forest trail designation plans.

For more information, please visit www.stewardsofthesequoia.org. Raffle tickets can be purchased ahead of time by visiting this link. If you cannot attend the fundraiser but would still like to make a tax-deductible donation, please click here.

To download the flyer, click here.  To View a map of this destination click here.