PRESS RELEASE DRAFT!! Not the final final yet....
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
El Dorado County: Friday March 7th, 2008
Virtual on-line Rally to be Held by 4x4 Enthusiasts
Off Highway Vehicle enthusiasts organize to hold first ever online rally over trail closures
In a landmark event, thousands of Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) users across the world will participate in an online, Virtual Rally to voice their concerns over a popular OHV area in Southern California. On Wednesday March 12th, 2008 Pirate4x4.com, a leading website for the OHV community, will hold this rally from 2 to 6 PM PST.
The Hammers trail system in Johnson Valley, California is being considered for requisition to expand the United States Marine Corps training facilities, which would effectively eliminate public access to Johnson Valley's unrivaled OHV Mecca.
Virtual Rally participants will be asked to post their experiences, photos and history recreating with their families in the Johnson Valley Area, and the concerns they have with losing this unique recreational resource. These comments will be posted and tracked in bulletin-board format, with a goal of creating a lasting record of how important this unassuming stretch of desert is to a vast number of people from many places -- some who visit Johnson Valley multiple times a year, and others who just dream of the opportunity of visiting the Hammers in the future. Interested parties are encouraged to attend the rally and read the thread, as this is a public rally, you do not need to be a member of Pirate4x4.com to read what is posted.
Families and clubs have recreated in this area for many years with OHV’s, and competitive rock crawling, rock racing, motorcycling, and ATV events have been held there for more than a decade, with significant rewards for the area economy. In February, the famed “King of the Hammers� annual rock race crowned its king.
The Bureau of Land Management currently owns the Johnson Valley's varied landscape of steep red rocky mountains, rolling hills, open valleys, dry lake beds, dunes, and sandy washes. The main attraction for most visitors is family OHV recreation: trail-rides, competitive racing events, and general OHV free play. Johnson Valley sees hundreds of thousands of recreation days with users motorcycling, ATVing, 4x4ing, rallycrossing, camping, hiking, rock-hounding, and wildlife-watching.
“It is ironic that the BLM has OHV users recreate responsibly by staying on marked trails and not having campfires at certain times of the year, but now they sell the same area to the Marines who will tear all over the area and conduct live fire drills�, said Todd Ockert, The United Four Wheel Drive Association Director of Environmental Affairs.
More information is available at
www.pirate4x4.comThe link for the rally on Wednesday, March 12th will be
www.pirate4x4.com/jv