(a) The Legislature finds all of 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 nonmotorized recreation activities.
(3) The indiscriminate and uncontrolled use of those vehicles may have a 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 balanced recreation.
(c) Accordingly, it is the intent of the Legislature that:
(1) Existing off-highway motor vehicle recreational 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 motor 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 should support both motorized recreation and motorized off-highway access to nonmotorized 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 standard or should be closed and restored.
(5) Prompt and effective implementation of the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Program by the department and the Division of Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation should have an equal priority among other programs in the department.
(6) Off-highway motor vehicle recreation should be managed in accordance with this chapter through financial assistance to local governments and joint undertakings with agencies of the United States and with federally recognized Native American tribes.
(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 541, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2008.)