NMOHVA News & Announcements

Last Updated: December 16, 2008

The state Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Safety Board was born when the OHV Act was passed in 2005. Rick was elected as the first Vice-Chair. He was recently elected Chairman. This is of great importance, since critical issues have not yet been resolved, and new ones are building on the horizon. With strong leadership we have a better chance that the Board will successfully face these challenges:

1. How the Trail Fund money is spent

This Fund holds the money we pay for the OHV stickers, which are now required. The OHV Act says the Board will make recommendations to the Tourism Dept. (who controls the Fund) for how the money should be spent. Anti-OHV forces want it spent on law enforcement, rather than projects which would actually benefit OHV recreation. For instance, go to www.newmexicoplan.org. New Mexico Plan's 'goals' include getting the Trail Board to pass a resolution to spend at least 65% of the funds on law enforcement, and to prohibit all spending on new trails until 'self-sustaining' law enforcement is in place.

2. Trail Fund at Risk

This past year the New Mexico Legislature passed a Senate Joint Memorial authorizing a study on OHV recreation and its effects. The wording is clearly anti-OHV (to assess the costs to the state of environmental damage caused by OHVs and costs from accidents.) Our concern is that our Trail Fund will be tapped to pay for this study, because the bill as passed included no money for the study. The OHV Act says the money should not be used for studies, but politics are powerful.

3. Filling the OHV Seats on the Board

The OHV Act who would control appointments to the Board. For each of the 27 seats a specific agency is assigned to appoint someone to that seat. All that is, except for the three OHV seats. The three OHV seats are not clearly defined, because they overlap with the six seats assigned to Tourism Department. The OHV seats are the only seats on the Board which are so vague and complicated. We are still trying to get OHVer's appointed to those seats.

4. Implementing a statewide program for youth training

The OHV Act requires that youth get safety trained and carry a certificate of training. Some ATV training is available but outside of the free training offered by some manufacturers to buyers of new ATVs, it is expensive and hard to find. Dirt bike training is even more difficult to find in the state. The Board is making progress with the ATV Safety Institute (ASI) in developing the training program but there is still a lot of work to be done to get the program fully implemented. There is additional progress being made towards setting up private sector training program certification for ATVs and dirt bikes, but it's going to take time, negotiations and money. This means someone has to stay on it, to make sure it gets done.