eNewsletter 1612


December 2016
Issues Confiscation Laws Strategy Scorecard Ministerial Meetings Places Pinjar North Bannister Events Pinjar Maintenance Morning - December 3 Login for more information To access the Members Only area of the RTRA Web site you will need to log on as follows: User Name: {tag_recipientusername} Password: Forgotten your password? Helping to save your riding areas	Dear Member And another year draws to a close! It's been a particularly active one for the RTRA and we thank all of our members for your support and encouragement. Stay safe over the Christmas period and we hope that your Christmas stocking is filled with bike goodies! Confiscation Laws Passed in Parliament As you are probably by now aware, we were unsuccessful in stopping the passage of the government’s new Confiscation of Vehicles Bill 2016. We do not expect to see an immediate impact in popular forest riding areas, but the potential is there if Rangers and land managers want to mount a ‘blitz’ involving police. The new law won’t come into force until it is signed off by the Governor. Once that happens it will be important for anyone impacted - i.e. having a vehicle confiscated - to contact the RTRA so we can provide assistance in defence and monitor the impacts on riders. We will now turn our focus on highlighting how the new laws make it even more critical that more legal areas for family riding are created. North Bannister Roadhouse Closed Riders heading south from Metro Road to North Bannister will need to make alternative fuel arrangements, as the Threeways Roadhouse at North Bannister has closed. We are waiting to hear whether this is a temporary or permanent closure and will advise members when we can. The Riverside Roadhouse is 13.2km further south along Albany Highway and can’t be accessed directly from the Youralling State Forest. State Trail Bike Strategy Scorecard As part of our lobbying ahead of the State election in March we’ve done a quick review of where we’re at with the State Trail Bike Strategy. Thanks to DSR and DPaW we’ve been able to tick off a few items on the recommendations list and more are underway or partially implemented. Over a third of the recommendations have not yet been implemented, so we will be seeking assurances from the next government to accelerate the implementation. You can read the Strategy Scorecard here. A Tale of Two Ministers Last week we had a very productive meeting with the Minister for Sport and Recreation, Water and Forestry, Mia Davies. Minister Davies empathised with our frustration over the lack of progress with the State Trail Bike Strategy and offered her assistance. She also had some encouraging things to say about the future management of water catchment. By contrast, we still haven't heard back from Minister Miles about a meeting. We first wrote to him in late September, then in mid October. Have heard diddly squat. Cutting Trees in Pinjar DPaW have alerted us to instances of trees being cut down in the Pinjar Motorcycle Area. It’s hard to understand what would motivate anyone to do this, but then it’s hard to understand why people dump trailer-loads of rubbish, too! If you see anyone damaging trees in the area please make a note of vehicle registration and let us know. We’ll pass the information on to DPaW who will follow up.. St John Medical Care St John has launched a new Urgent Care concept, with centres designed to take care of non-life threatening injuries and incidents. Staffed by skilled doctors, nurses and paramedics, the centres suit the treatment of sprains, cuts, dislocations, minor breaks etc (in other words, most of the typical injuries suffered by riders). No appointment is necessary and the centres are open 7 days a week, from 8am to 10pm. Bulk billing is available with a valid Medicare card. There are centres in Armadale, Cannington, Cockburn and Joondalup. See apollohealth.biz for more information. Pinjar Maintenance Morning - December 3 Our next Pinjar Maintenance Morning will be 9am Saturday December 3. This day will enable us to do a general cleanup and address any trails issues ahead of the school holidays. If you're thinking about coming to Pinjar that weekend please put it in your diary and be there by 9am. If we have enough volunteers it should only take an hour to get everything done and then we can all go riding before it gets too hot. The RTRA relies on volunteers for these Maintenance Mornings to demonstrate to DPaW that riders are prepared to spend some time working on the place. This helps justify the budgets that DPaW set aside for trails maintenance and improvements. Minimal Impact: Adjust for the Dust With summer now here it's time to adjust to the dust. Here are three easy things you can do to make your summer rides more enjoyable and safer: * Give it a minute. If you use a corner man system on your rides it doesn't matter how spread out the group gets. So give it a good minute or two before you take off after the rider in front and let the dust settle. * Pick your position. After the first few regroups you should know where you sit within the group in terms of speed. Don't take off first if you know everyone is going to pass you, and don't take off last if you know you're going to pass everyone else! * Think of the guy behind. A bit less throttle equals a lot less dust, particularly when taking off or entering a dirt road. And if someone faster comes up behind, let them pass at the earliest opportunity. Adjust to the dust and you'll not only enjoy the ride more but you'll save some time on all that air filter cleaning! Help Spread the Word New to the RTRA? Here are the four key objectives the RTRA pursues: To protect and extend quality, safer off-road riding opportunities for Western Australian recreational trail bike riders of all ages. To promote and encourage safety and responsible riding attitudes, including minimising noise and trail damage. To actively pursue the needs of trail bike riders with State and Local Government, landowners and other stakeholders. To improve the perception of trail bike riding as a recreational activity. If you think the RTRA is having a positive impact for riders, just think how much more effective we'd be if we had double the members. It's actually not that hard - all it takes is for each member to find one other rider to sign up. If you have riding buddies who are not yet members of the RTRA, please forward them this email and give them a prod to join up.
Recreational Trailbike Riders' Association of WA Inc