Flashback and a View of the Future
Twenty some years ago I was riding at Carnegie solo and saw some people by a bunch of hay bales at the base of some hills near Middle Track. I rode over and leaned my bike on a bale and sat and watched with about 50 people. I had never seen a hillclimb competition live before so it was a real treat to see and hear the big bikes master the hill.
Over the years I came to know the Hillclimb Family – Skip, Lynn, George and Heather Horne. From events with 50 people they now sponsor 4 California Hillclimb Rounds and one National Event every year. Because of their dedicated hard work Carnegie gets: national publicity for free, 15,000 spectators bringing in fees to the park, and goodwill from thousands of riders and their families looking forward to an event that has become a part of their life.
After the suit to close Carnegie was filed, the Park responded with a MASSIVE demarcation program to protect the dry creek bed. One area that was completely fenced was the hillclimb area. I have grave concerns about the future of the hillclimb program if this location becomes off-limits. Carnegie without the hillclimbs is like The Constitution without “We the People”. Also we are loosing our recreation rights because of opinions and feelings of a very small group of anti-OHV people.
Here are two examples:
- Clear Creek is closed because of assumptions that asbestos in some areas can be hazardous to riders’ health. Fact – there is no data of excessive health/lung problems from riders who have been there from 1945 on.
- Carnegie is under orders to close because a Judge believes data submitted by 2 environmental organizations that the creek in the park is polluted by OHV’s. Fact – The creek is dry for 10 months and any serious pollution (if any) comes from other sources.
There are no winners in this stupid game. The OHV community accepts restrictions and “punishments” based on false assumptions. The environmental community is painted as a bunch of arrogant, elite fools. The legal system is viewed as a hammer instead of a level. The State ends up looking powerless to defend our family recreation rights.
My prayer is that the attack on Carnegie is the beginning of the end of the power of so few over so many.
Dave Duffin
I wrote my last blog [link added by admin] in the spur of the moment to express my rage. OK… I got some of my facts wrong. Connolly owns nine thousand acres and Carnegie Freedom Day was December 28th. Carnegie owns 1.5 thousand acres not including the land we purchased, but have not been able to use. My blogs might be a little long, but stay with me and read on.
What really irkes me is that the litigants are using a bogus environmental suit to overcome the will of the people as expressed by the California Legislature. Go to http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=prc&group=05001-06000&file=5001-5019.5
There you will find the California Recreation Code. Scroll down to Section 5006.48,entitled Alameda and Joaquin counties; Carnegie Cycle Park; Acquisition; administration; lease; fees, which creates Carnegie Cycle Park.
…(c) Upon acquisition of the property, the Director of General
Services shall transfer jurisdiction over the property to the
Department of Parks and Recreation, which shall administer the
property as a unit of the state park system. The Department of Parks
and Recreation shall carry out a program in that unit of planning,
development, construction, maintenance, administration, and
conservation of trails and areas for the recreational use of
off-highway vehicles and for other related purposes of the state park
system. Areas for the recreational use of off-highway vehicles shall
be administered pursuant to Chapter 1.25 (commencing with Section
5090.01).
Then go to “Public Resources Code Section 5090.02 –Legislative Findings and Declarations. There you will find the following:
(1) Off highway motor vehicles are enjoying an ever increasing popularity in California.
(2) Off-highway recreation includes both motorized recreation and motorized off-highway access to non-motorized recreational activities.
(3) The indiscriminate and uncontrolled use of those vehicles may have deleterious impact on the environment, wildlife habitats, native wildlife and native flora.
(b) The legislature hereby declares that effectively managed areas and adequate facilities for the use of off-highway vehicles and conservation and enforcement are essential for ecologically balance recreation.
(c) Accordingly it is the intent of the Legislature that:
(1) Existing off-highway motor vehicle recreation areas, facilities, and opportunities should be expanded and managed in a manner consistent with this chapter, in particular to maintain sustained long-term use.
(2) New off highway vehicle recreational areas, facilities, and opportunities should be provided and managed pursuant to this chapter in a manner that will sustain long-term use.
(3) The department shall support both motorized recreation and motorized off highway access to non-motorized recreation.
(4) When areas or trails or portions thereof cannot be maintained to appropriate established standards for sustained long term use, they should be closed to use and repaired, to prevent accelerated erosion. Those areas should remain closed until they can be managed within the soil conservation standards or shall be closed and restored.
(5) Prompt and effective implementation of the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Program by the department and Division of Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation should have equal priority among other programs in the department…
As you can see our park was created for long term use by our elected officials for “we the people”. Of course laws enacted by the legislature can be gutted by the courts if they violate the constitution, if they, for example, discriminate against certain minorities. This is not the case here. I am not saying that they can’t do it, but the judge’s actions are an outrage. The park was created with environmental concerns in mind. Our money goes to mitigate all environmental risks and if they cannot be mitigated the areas are closed down, as we have experienced only too often to our great disappointment. Once an area has been closed it is never re-opened. This is B.S. Does anyone expect the burnt area in the East hills to be re-opened?
If you read the blogs of others, you will see that Connolly and his wife both have hidden agendas. Their economical interests are at steak. The president of Sports Fishermen of America is a good friend of Connolly’s. I have been told that PEER uses bogus environmental suits to extort money from small businesses and their sole reason for being is to make a profit. If anyone has any personal experience with PEER or know of anyone who has, please let us know.
My suggestion is that we investigate some of these issues. Let’s keep up the good work and if we need to, even hire a private investigator that has tools that we do not have. For example if anyone has access to on line litigation tools like Westlaw there is information on these sites about groups like PEER which might be helpful.
Civil litigants that engage in unfounded litigation can be labeled as vexatious litigants and they can be prevented from using the courts to file these types of lawsuits. Does this apply to suits against the state using petitions for writs of mandate? Not my area of law… I will do some more research. If anyone has answers to these types of questions, please let us know.
One last concern: I was riding on Dead Bird Trail recently and I noticed that someone had cut a wide swath through the grass, which will become rutted in the next rain. This endangers our right to ride there and please let everyone know that this is not acceptable behavior. The area where the trail was created is not part of the hill climbs but is on a gentle slope between the two sides of the valley. It looks like a four wheeler track. This might be our enemies work. I doubt that experienced riders are to blame, but we need to get the word out or we will all loose the right to ride there. What do you think about this issue? Am I way off?
“The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.”
Winston Churchill
That quote is aimed at the info you found Diana and not at your post. That being said,thank god we have someone in our midst who knows the system! I have really enjoyed reading your posts and look forward to more. Getting the numbers not quite right is understandable, we forgive you, and thanks for correcting them.
I agree with you that a P.I. would be a good idea. Our opponents are quite devious and , having more experience in dealing with the system than most, have done a good job of hiding their tracks. Not perfect, the internet can be an unforgiving place, but I feel that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these people. I’m sure a professional investigator would be able to dig up much more than we have.
As for Westlaw, I have sent emails to friends of mine who work in law offices. Not sure yet if they access to this or not. If they do, I will be back in touch for more details on what they should look for specifically. I hope they do, seems like a great resource.
Finally, as to the swath near Dead Bird, sounds like it could have been an emergency vehicles path. I
agree with you that we have to police our own though. I also think the trails could be better marked, and that there should be some large maps out on the trail with “you are here” marked on them. Would make it much easier for newbies to get a lay of the land and the areas that are open riding and those that are trails only. Let’s face it, Carnegie is packed with people new to the sport and thusly, new to the park. It only helps us to get these people on track as early as possible.
One last question. Am I being naive thinking the burned area will be reopened soon?
Have you seen the fence across the burnt property? it does not look temporary to me. Chuck Oliver has some interesting comments. Here is his posting
My Reality Check Just Bounced
What just happened? This is my look at the facts. I also have some questions. If my facts are wrong please let me know. If you have answers to the questions please let me know.
We started riding off road in 1978. Looking for where to go we ended up at Carnegie. At that time it was a privately owned motorcycle park. The park was then acquired by the State in 1979. According to their web site.
“Carnegie was purchased by the state in 1979 with OHV Trust Fund monies”
Now it seems to me that it was money that we paid that was used to get the land. We paid for it. People go to parks every day without knowing who pays for it. We all do. Our taxes support these parks. My taxes go to help support these parks. But I also pay extra money to support OHV parks. Vehicle registrations, and Park use fees.
Carnegie is a State Park and must comply with the laws that established them. The State says that it is complying with the law. This lawsuit says that the State is negligent in its duties. This requirement for a waste discharge report, that has never been required before, seems to me to be just another attempt to shut us down.
From the CSPA’s web site. http://www.calsport.org/12-16-09.htm
Bill Jennings wrote.
“Second, Parks and Recreation could have avoided this situation had they applied for and obtained mandated wastewater discharge permits required of industry, municipalities and mom-and-pop businesses –“
Does this include a 9000 acre cattle ranch, the Mark Connolly and Celeste Garamandi mom and pop business? Have they complied with the law and filed a wastewater discharge report?
So who is Bill Jennings?
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story/push?article-UPDATE-+Carnegie+to+remain+open%20&id=5351931
“Connolly has known Bill Jennings, the head of the Sportfishing Alliance, for more than 20 years, the two said, and Jennings said he’s been a regular at Connolly’s annual picnic.”
Now also from the OHV web site
“In 1998, over 3,000 acres located west of the current riding area, were purchased by the state for inclusion into Carnegie SVRA. “
This land was purchased with our money. Now years later we still cannot use that land. So where is Carnegie today? We have approximately 1500 acres to ride. 1500 acres and over 100,000 visitors a year.
Who is really behind this? The neighbor “farmer” Mark Connolly is a Tracy Attorney. From his web site “http://www.connollylaw.net/about.html” we learn
“Mark V. Connolly is President and operates Connolly Ranch, Inc., a 9,000 acre 330 head cow/calf operation located in San Joaquin and Alameda Counties. The Connolly Ranch has been a family owned and operated ranch since 1872. The Ranch participates in the Department of Fish and Game Private Lands Management Program for the management of a herd of 120 Tule Elk. Mr. Connolly is a licensed game guide for wild pig and elk hunting.”
This to me raises a lot of questions.
What kind of a deal does this guy have with the Department of Fish and Game? I have heard that he charges a considerable amount of money for people to come to his ranch and shoot wild pig an elk. He does admit to being a licensed guide for wild pig and elk hunting.
http://www.mumwildlife.com/mum/site/hunting_programs/connolly_ranch.php
2009 Hunt Prices
1×1 4 day Tule Elk Hunt $10,500
I don’t know about you, but that to me is a lot of money.
I have also heard that the new lands WE have purchased have a herd of elk. Could there be a connection. Follow the money.
Now there is a group calling themselves “Friends of Tesla Park”. They want the whole area to be a hiking park. So who is behind this, Celeste Garamandi.
http://www.livermorehistory.com/Archive%20-%20Newspapers%20-%20Independent/IND%202008-01-03.pdf
This is the sister of John Garamandi, just sworn in as the Congressional representative for the 10th district. The 10th district includes Livermore, but John himself doesn’t live in the 10th district. And by the way she is the wife of Mark Connolly.
When you go to write to your Congressman remember THIS.
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Big+hill+to+climb+at+Carnegie%20&id=2763665
So this is our 3000 acres right now.
“For now, access to that land is restricted, with the exception of a neighboring cattle rancher, some local historians researching the old towns and those who can otherwise arrange tours or secure permission to travel in the area.”
A neighboring cattle rancher, is that Mark? Looks to me like he is already making money from the land that we paid for.
Arrange tours? Does this include hunting trips??
It looks to me that this is not about the environment but more about Mark’s bottom line.
So I guess what you’re saying is that I am being naive.
(
My question now is, how do we go after this guy? At the least, how do we get him the hell off the land we payed for? I’m starting to think the “we’re mad as hell” quote was too kind.
Maybe I’m being too pessimistic, but during all my years riding at Carnegie I have seen numerous areas shut down and not one of those area have been re-opened. Check out the side I provided. Carnegie and the 3,000 acres of new property was bought using our green sticker funds. The property is maintained in an environmentally sustainable manner using our green sticker funds and if an area does not meet environmental qualifications it is shut down until it does. The park service does not seem intent on restoring these areas, so that out of 1,500 acres of land available for our use, not counting the new property, we probably get to ride on only about 1,000 acres. (I don’t have the numbers, but this is based on my observations and not any empirical data)
I am thinking that the sleeping beast has arisen. At this point we do know that ” For now, access to that land is restricted, with the exception of a neighboring cattle rancher, some local historians researching the old towns and those who can otherwise arrange tours or secure permission to travel in the area”. We don’t know who the neighboring cattle rancher or the local historians are, but we have our suspicions. Are cattle being grazed on our land? If so how can that happen without an environmental impact report. Are the tours that are being arranged hunting tours? Is Celeste Garamendi one of the local historians given access to out area. See her website provided in Chuck’s blog concerning her proposal for historical tours being conducted on our land. Since when are environmentalists interested in coal mining? Are these left over mines spewing heavy metals into the creek? It seems likely as we have leaned that coal contains heavy metals. (see the SF Chronicle article I referenced in my previous reply). We need to know the answers to these questions and others.
Will the parks department provide us with answers voluntarily. Anyone with contact with the parks department should get back to us on this one. Otherwise we will be able to do a freedom of information act request just like our enemies did against us. The three thousand acres belongs to us. What sort of sweetheart deal was made?
Are we getting paid for the use of our land?
Why are we being foreclosed from using this land by the pseudo environmentalists when the current uses are arguably more environmentally destructive than trail riding in the area? Why did Connolly and his cronies try to shut us down now when he may now be enjoying the use of our land? The answers to these questions, although not exactly pertinent to the issues before the appeals court might be very helpful later on as we fight this pseudo environmental suit which is really about expanding the bottom line for our wealth friends, Connolly, ad al. We don’t have all the facts yet, but with a little more digging we might get the ammunition we need to uncover this sleazebag and his cronies.
By the way, I would just like to point out that Dave Duffin has done more to save Carnegie than almost any other person. He organized Carnegie Freedom Day, was a superb moderator and has given us this website to exchange ideas. I nominate him the Ricky Carmichael of Carnegie, i.e., the GOAT of Carnegie.
Reply
…By the people, for the people. Or by the lawyers, for the special interest!
It’s how it “works” in America now! It’s so unfortunate that an attorney for one or two beneficiaries can circumvent the will of so many.
What bothers me is the Connolly/Garamendi spin that this an environmental issue. This is about their personal gain and nothing more. I wish they’d come clean and tell the truth. Yeah right. Let’s be real though, truth and integrity is not how they operate. It’s shameful!
As Diana writes: FOLLOW THE MONEY. Then things become crystal clear.
Found this on the states OHV site. Will have to drop them an email too. Maybe they can answer some of these questions.
The OHMVR Commission Wants to Hear From You!
The Commission wants to hear the views of the OHV Community and others about what is happening in riding areas. The Commissioners welcome your thoughts on ways to improve OHV recreation, where you feel grant money should be spent, or any problems you may see, along with suggestions for solving them. If you cannot attend a local meeting, please submit your written comments to:
OHMVR Commission
PO Box 942896 – Sacramento, CA 94296-0001
Tel: (916) 324-5801
Fax: (916) 324-0271
E-Mail: OHVCommission@parks.ca.gov or OHVInfo@parks.ca.gov
URL: http://www.ohv.parks.ca.gov
I submitted this comment to the OHV Commission
Dear OHV Commission:
The state OHV recreation parks department has been meeting with off road riders who ride at Carnegie for over ten years now. Many of these riders, who belong to CORE (Carnegie Off Road Enthusiasts), are contractors, landscapers and people involved in planning. They have specialized knowledge of techniques that they use in their jobs for minimizing erosion and know the regulations relevant to erosion control. They have been documenting the effects of bad maintenance practices by the parks department at Carnegie and have brought their concerns to the attention of the OHV officials. These officials, who in most cases have no education or experience in erosion control, trail maintenance or trail design, rationalize their past practices and ignore the advice of CORE members whose only goal is to prevent erosion and keep Carnegie environmentally sustainable for continued recreation. At the meetings notes are taken but nothing is done and the same unprofessional practices are continued in trail maintenance and design which does not serve to minimize erosion. Please listen to our concerns and maintain our park in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Thank you for soliciting our opinions.
Diana Tweedy
It is time for a major round table meeting – CORE, OHV Commissioners, OHV division Deputy Director, D36, BRC, political representatives from NorCal, Mayors of Tracy, Livermore, Supervisors from NorCal, press, Chambers of Commerc, etc. There are OHV Commission meetings that are held around the State at different times and now it is time for one at TGracy/Carnegie.
Dave Duffin