Letters Needed Now to Keep Competition OHVs on California Public Lands
The Motorcycle Industry Council is calling on all powersports companies to add their names, on their letterhead, to an MIC-drafted letter in support of legislation to allow continued use of competition-model OHVs on public lands in California.
“Without the passage of California Senate Bill 708 in the state assembly, the use of competition OHVs on public land in the state will be in jeopardy,” said Scott Schloegel, senior vice president at the MIC Government Relations Office. “We’re facing this threat because the state’s Red Sticker Program for competition OHVs was terminated by the California Air Resources Board in 2021. A solution, SB-708, has passed the Senate but it’s currently being held up in the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee. So we need immediate assistance from across the powersports industry to advance this important legislation and keep access open for these popular competition machines.”
HOW TO HELP NOW
1. Please take this letter, fill in your company name and contact in the appropriate spaces, and sign it.
2. Attach the letter in an email to MICGR@mic.org by this Friday, June 30.
3. The MIC Government Relations Office will submit all the letters to the Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee chair, vice chair, and the bill’s sponsor.
Authored by State Senator Brian Jones, a longtime motorcycle advocate and rider himself, SB-708 would create “sanctioned event permits” – starting on January 1, 2025 – that would allow California residents to operate competition OHVs at sanctioned events.
The new event permit will help facility staff and law enforcement to quickly identify such vehicles at these sanctioned events held on public lands. SB-708 would also restore funds historically slated for important conservation and law enforcement efforts that were lost with the termination of the Red Sticker Program.