Honda Combines OHV Training with Environmental Learning Center


OHV Training
	Motorsports-Network.com

American Honda Adds Environmental Learning Center
To Colton OHV Training Facility
- June 1, 2001 -

Center Locations
Honda's addition of an Environmental Learning Center with their existing OHV training center creates a unique and one-of-a-kind facility that demonstrates how off-road rider training and environmental stewardship can coexist.

The venture is Colton's Off Highway Vehicle and Environmental Learning Center (OELC), a 2-acre addition to the 12-year old REC that incorporates 1/3 mile of trail and five distinct ecosystems. Students who come here learn real world off-road riding techniques and environmentally responsible rider ethics at the same time.

"Our mission statement for the OELC is to provide a public facility that teaches environmental awareness and the safe operation of our off-road products, thereby instilling in the students a responsible land-use ethic," says Colton Administrator Lowell Christensen.

"It is a one-of-a-kind facility," says Honda's OHV Press Coordinator Paul Slavik. "To our knowledge, there is nothing that has married these two concepts--OHV training and environmental education--in the same program."

The genesis of the OELC came in 2000, when the Motorcycle Safety Foundation launched a nationwide curriculum for off-highway motorcycle training called the Dirt Bike School (DBS).

"When the MSF came up with an off-highway curriculum," Slavik says, "it seemed like a good opportunity to expand what we were doing at Colton." Conventional MSF dirt bike training is done on a level, 150-to-200-square-foot range, with cones that delineate certain exercises.

"It was very apparent that training a new rider on a flat riding range, while appropriate, left some of them wanting more. The transition to a real world situation, with rocks and turns and uphills and downhills, was intimidating for some people," says Slavik.

The initial solution was to model a real-world environment where students could take their basic DBS skills and use them to learn to ride effectively in natural terrain. From that preliminary concept, Honda expanded the vision to include instruction on environmentally responsible trail riding.

The resulting OELC is a place where off-highway students learn riding techniques and ethical riding practices in five ecosystems found in the nearby San Bernardino National Forest and Mojave desert.

The five native plant communities are grassland, chaparral, desert, woodland, and riparian (land that includes streams, rivers or ponds).

Dirtworks, the same firm that builds Supercross racing tracks in stadiums around the country, trucked in 7,000 yards of dirt--more than 300 double truckloads--to create the setting. Some 2,541 plants representing 43 different species of plants and trees were utilized to create the five ecosystems. They are irrigated by 16,000 feet of PVC pipe and 49 different watering systems. The capital investment in the OELC range by Honda is nearly half a million dollars.

To broaden the use of the OELC, Honda associates at the Colton REC invite schools, universities and other entities to study the ecosystems at the Center. The site is available for student field trips, research and more.

"We intend to bring young people here," Slavik says. "For some, riding a motorcycle or ATV might be the farthest thing from their minds, and that's OK. Here we can help them to identify plants and soils, and talk about ecosystems in an environmental class--there are so many ways this Center will fit into things they are doing in school."

Christensen has investigated additional uses. "Other possibilities are the Regional Occupation Schools (ROP), where they teach irrigation, irrigation planning and landscape planning. We've offered the Center to them to come and study as well."

The San Bernardino National Forest Association (SBNFA), a longtime partner with American Honda, sees another benefit. "At the San Bernardino National Forest Association, we've created the Children's Forest so that children can study ecosystems in a real life setting," says SBNFA Executive Director Kris Assel. "Not all schools can afford to send kids this far, so, working with Honda, these schools can now take students to Colton. The OELC has similar plants and terrain, modeled on a smaller scale, and the field trip could be accomplished in a day's time. For other schools, students could visit Colton first, which better prepares them for a trip to the Children's Forest."

Another important goal for the OHV & Environmental Learning Center is to serve as a model for an urban off-highway vehicle park. "That's another exciting part of the OELC," Slavik says. "There is a great need for small OHV parks in urban areas, where kids and young adults can easily get to them, where people don't have to drive two hours to go for a ride.

"We can bring a county supervisor, county planner or a recreation and parks planner to this site and say, 'Look. This can happen. It doesn't require a lot of space and it's quiet.' Off-highway vehicle recreation and the urban environment are compatible if they're done right."

For now, the Colton OHV & Environmental Learning Center is a remarkable example of how to merge two apparently diverse interests--off-road riding and environmental awareness. And while that's exciting, what's really thrilling is the Center's potential in the future.

"This place is in its infancy, the very beginning," Christensen says. "The Colton Center is nothing like it will be five years from now. This is fresh, brand-new. So what we're doing now is an experiment, a work in progress. It's a learning process to get all of this going in one direction, because what we're doing has never been done before. Working with riders and environmental educators, we'll change whatever is necessary to keep the concept fresh and viable."

The Colton OHV & Environmental Learning Center is another great example of how Honda has made efforts to be a good community citizen. By providing education--about both motorcycle and ATV rider training and environmental ethics--for people who use off-road products on public lands, an environmentally sound future for off-highway vehicle recreation is alive and well here in Colton.

Some might point to this effort as being a self serving step by Honda. We see it as taking the lead in addressing the current and future needs (and demands) of off-highway vehicle users. Our helmets off to American Honda for taking the initiative to go where no other company in our industry has dared to go.

MN

Honda Rider Education Center Locations

1. Colton REC
1301 Via Venita
Colton, California 92324-4009
(909) 824-7080
Opened: October 1989
Classes offered:
- Street: Motorcycle Safety Foundation Motorcycle RiderCourse: Riding and Street Skills (MSF:RSS)
- Motorcycle Safety Foundation Experienced RiderCourse (ERC)
- ATV: ATV Safety Institute (ASI) ATV RiderCourse
- Off-Road: Motorcycle Safety Foundation Dirt Bike School
Classes per year: approx. 125
Instructors/coaches trained per year: approx. 100
Number of motorcycles and ATVs for training: 54
Trails: 1/3 mile
Site acreage: 3
Building space: 8,640 square feet

2. Irving REC
4529 Royal Lane
Irving, Texas 75063-2584
(972) 929-5455
Opened: July 1990
Classes offered:
- Street: Motorcycle Safety Foundation Motorcycle RiderCourse: Riding and Street Skills (MSF:RSS)
- Motorcycle Safety Foundation Experienced RiderCourse (ERC)
- ATV: ATV Safety Institute (ASI) ATV RiderCourse
Classes per year: approx. 90
Instructors/coaches trained per year: approx. 100
Number of motorcycles and ATVs for training: 38
Site acreage: 3
Building space: 3,100 square feet

3. Troy REC
101 S. Stanfield Road
Troy, Ohio 45373-8010(937) 332-6175
Opened: July 1990
Classes offered:
- Street: Motorcycle Safety Foundation Motorcycle RiderCourse: Riding and Street Skills
(MSF:RSS)
- Motorcycle Safety Foundation Experienced RiderCourse (ERC)
- ATV: ATV Safety Institute (ASI) ATV RiderCourse
Classes per year: approx. 60
Instructors/coaches trained per year: approx. 100
Number of motorcycles and ATVs for training: 38
Site acreage: 3
Building space: 3,100 square feet

4. Alpharetta REC
1450 Morrison Parkway
Alpharetta, Georgia 30201-2199
(770) 442-2043
Opened: July 1990
Classes offered:
- Street: Motorcycle Safety Foundation Motorcycle RiderCourse: Riding and Street Skills (MSF:RSS)
- Motorcycle Safety Foundation Experienced RiderCourse (ERC)
- ATV: ATV Safety Institute (ASI) ATV RiderCourse
- Off-Road: Motorcycle Safety Foundation Dirt Bike School
Classes per year: approx. 90
Instructors/coaches trained per year: approx. 150
Number of motorcycles and ATVs for training: 56
Trails: 1.5 miles
Site acreage: 4

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