Pennsylvania Off Highway Vehicles Association

We were informed today of the Senate version SB 1045 of the Dirt Bike Registration Bill. This bill is sponsored by Senator Mike Regan and now in the Senate Community, Economic, and Recreational Development Committee. https://www.legis.state.pa.us//Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm

INFO ALERT! Check out this webinar presentation of the 2022 PSSA DCNR Snowmobile Fund Update. Registration required: February 7th from 7:00pm-8:00pm https://www.pasnow.org/events/#id=136&cid=1016&wid=8601

Please review this news on our website ASAP and contact PaOHV for assistance with the grant application or portal. ATV grant applications will open 2/1/22 and close 4/6/22 at 4:00pm. Let's work together to put these funds towards OHV projects around the state! https://paohv.org/alert-dcnr-announces-grant-cycle-for-2022/

News ALERT!! DCNR Now Accepting Applications for 2022 Community Conservation Partnerships Program Grants!! Reach out to PaOHV for grant-writing assistance! The annual application period for DCNR’s Community Conservation Partnerships Program (C2P2) grants is now open. Applications for the 2022 grant round will be accepted through 4:00 PM on Wednesday, Apr. 6. Funds can support projects such as: Planning, acquisition, development, and rehabilitation of public parks... Trail planning and construction River conservation and access Land acquisition and conservation Streamside tree planting Regional and statewide partnerships In 2021, the Community Conservation Partnerships Program awarded over $70 million for more than 300 recreation and conservation projects across Pennsylvania. Applicants should contact their Bureau of Recreation and Conservation Regional Advisor to discuss project ideas and application requirements prior to submitting. You can find that information here: https://elibrary.dcnr.pa.gov/GetDocument To apply for a grant, please use the DCNR Grants Customer Service Portal at https://apps.dcnr.pa.gov/grants/. For more information on each grant type, check out the DCNR YouTube page’s grant workshop playlist at https://youtube.com/playlist. Please note that for those applying for funding under the ATV or Snowmobile Management Restricted Accounts, grant applications will open Tuesday, Feb. 1. With our 2022 grant round open, we’ll be bringing you grant application tips in each e-news during the application period. These grants are competitive, so it’s important to submit the best application you can. This week’s tip: contact your Bureau of Recreation and Conservation Regional Advisor early. Even if you aren’t starting your application right now, it’s still good to connect with your regional advisor. Your advisor can visit your site and offer suggestions to refine both your project idea and your grant application. Our regional advisors get very busy with these site visits, which is why it’s so important to contact them early. That way you can get your visit scheduled and still have time to complete your application. Dates to Remember Tuesday, Feb. 1 Spring ATV/Snowmobile grant round opens Friday Saturday, Feb. 25-26 Keystone Coldwater Conference (State College) Saturday, Feb. 26 Environmental Advisory Council Network Conference (virtual) Wednesday Friday, March 16-18 Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference (Gettysburg) Tuesday Friday, Mar. 29-Apr. 1 75th annual Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society conference (Pocono Manor)

Online survey on proposed OHV trail in central PA: The trail vision is to provide legal access from Flight 93 National Memorial to Mountain Ridge ATV Resort, Central PA historic sites such as The Altoona Curve (Railroad Museum), The Allegheny-Portage Railroad, then connect to numerous other riding destinations Including Rock Run ATV Park and Potentially Martin Hill ATV Trails. On the northern end, this trail system connects into The Central Mountains ATV Association’s 7 Coun...ty ATV Trail System aka ‘The Northern Initiative’. With several pieces of legislation now pending, including potential registration of dirtbikes (not all, just those that want to ride public trails), new legal trail access would become available for shared use of ATV and Multi-Use (authorized motorized) trails. Other legislation has already been passed such as the DCNR’s Repeal of policy for ‘No New Trails in State Forest Lands’, which opens hundreds of thousands of miles of potential trails that were previously not able to be considered. This will include considerations for expansion of public single track trails! Please solicit this invitation to complete a 10-minute survey that seeks input on the potential for a 6-County OHV Heritage Touring Trail in Central PA: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx The better a response we get, the more DCNR will see the level of interest and demand by so many responsible citizens who simply want legal places to ride.

Michaux State Forest 5h The Michaux State Forest ATV trails will open for the winter riding season starting Sunday, December 13th. The trails will remain open until April 1st, 2021. Michaux State Forest ATV trails are open to Class 1 ATV's only. State forest roads are NOT open to ATV use. The following items are required to ride: a DOT approved helmet, proof of insurance and a current, valid DCNR registration for the machine being operated. ATV riders between the ages of... 8 and 16 must have completed a DCNR approved safety course. Youth riders must possess their safety certificate while operating an ATV on DCNR lands. Persons under 8 years of age may not operate an ATV on DCNR lands. While riding please be safe and courteous to other forest visitors. Plan accordingly for the conditions and be respectful by staying on the marked trails. Please note that cell service is spotty at best throughout the forest. Happy holidays and enjoy the winter riding season. See more

PA - From Ed Fisher (SORR) This is more for you to share with all the PA clubs. I've been meaning to contact you on this matter for a month or so now. An issue has come up with the PennDOT Special Event permits. This came to my attention the end of August and into early September. In a Township... I handle for engineering a group was planning their yearly triathlon, actually postponed from May to September due to Covid. Anyway, the issue is PennDOT is not issuing Special Event permits until and unless the municipality(s) where the event is taking place provides a letter stating they fully imdemifiy the Commonwealth of Pa.. We have never had this requested in the past for any Special Event Permit. The letters we receive from municipalities were an acknowledgement of the event only. However, as it turns out the indemnification by the municipality is in the PennDOT regulations. It was not enforced until this year. Yes, this is something pushed by the Wolf administration to curtail public events, I'll leave it at that. The fear is even when we are not dealing with significant Covid breakouts this requirement will still be enforced. Once a regulation is enforced it's difficult to roll it back. So we have no guarantee this won't be an issue in 2021 and beyond. The problem is multi-fold, first is not legal for a municipality to fully imdemifiy the Commonwealth of Pa. It's not in the Pa. Municipal Code, and makes no sense, how could a small or any municipality imdemifiy the Commonwealth? No thinking municipality will do it, certainly if they ask their solicitor, they will be told no you can't do that. I have talked to PennDOT directly on this and there is no flexibility currently. This affects 5k runs, bike races, parades, fairs, etc. anything that uses a PennDOT right-of-way. The good news is the Pa legislators are working to change the regulations. This effort is being lead by Rep. Bret Miller of Lancaster's 41st District. However, to change regulations it takes time, and it's an election year. So things will move even slower and depending on the election this could derail. We don't think that will happen, but it's 2020 anything can happen. The hope is by mid 2021 this will be resolved but there's no guarantees on that. PA Clubs should contact their local PA Rep’s and Senators and inform them of this issue and ask that they support this Bill by Bret Miller. I know Bret has a number of co-sponsors, the more support the better to get Bill out of committee can take a lot of work.

https://www.nohvcc.org/help-nohvccs-partners-identify-lwcf/