Want the insider’s view of Land Use? This is the episode you need to listen to, then go back and listen to Del Albright and John Stewart and stay tuned for future episodes. Michael McGarity leads the conversation in Episode 145; the current President of CORVA brings a lot to the table, so listen close. Find us on your favorite podcast app – a new episode releases every Thursday at 2 a.m. – if you subscribe on an app or YouTube, you’ll get notified weekly.
5:54 – the Sheriff would just wave and tell us to be careful
11:10 – the accident changed the course of my life
33:59 – servant leadership and followship
45:13 – in collaboration with the land they manage, they don’t own it; they manage it
54:36 – what’s going on with the Rubicon trail – TODAY!
1:10:32 – we need a Panda Bear to protect
1:25:30 – I need others to object and rip them on social media so I can refer to that
1:40:39 – let me tell you about the 30×30
1:59:20 – Support where you recreate
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:47.800] – Big Rich
On today’s episode of conversations with big rich, we have michael McGarity. He is what I’d call a land use warrior. He’s one of our staunch supporters of public lands. He’s right now the president of the California Offroad Vehicle Association, known as Corva. He’s a former board member of the Oceana Dunes, which is Pismo, former vice president, Cal four wheel drive Central District. And you work with the school district. You’re a program supervisor, so we’ll get all into that. Personally. I met Michael the first time in Sacramento at the state capitol where Michael was doing. Wouldn’t call it a sit in or protest, but we were there all to support Oceana Dunes and the Pismo area. And then we sat together two years ago at ORMHOF induction gala at the same table and had a chance to talk then.
[00:02:52.130] – Big Rich
So it’s good to have you on here, Michael. Thank you for spending the time with us.
[00:02:56.330] – Michael McGarity
Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity.
[00:02:58.620] – Big Rich
So let’s jump right in this. And where were you born and raised?
[00:03:03.920] – Michael McGarity
I was born in the Bay Area. In East Bay. I was born in Castro Valley, born and raised in San Lorenzo, which is an unincorporated area of the East Bay in between San Leandro and Hayward. Graduated from San Lorenzo High and spent my time there. Attended Chabot Junior College. Got a degree there in child development. My mom was always working with children, so I took a liking to working in the after school programs and working with the kiddos and worked my way up to a program, a program manager of a site and then that led on to other things that I did in the life. But my start I started in the Bay Area. I left for a couple of years. My, my dad owned an electrical business and when the bottom fell out of everything in 1979, my dad lost his business and he actually lost the house. So we had to move and we moved up to Calaveras County. And not a lot of people know of the area but it’s up above Valley Springs, up above Macomie Hill, way up in this little town called Glencoe. My grandfather had a cabin up there and I went and I lived up there for two years and I guess that’s probably where my interest in Offroading and the Forest Service and out in the wilderness in the woods, that’s where everything started happening for me was up there during that time.
[00:04:54.820] – Big Rich
I know that area pretty well. Valley Springs and Hogan’s Reservoir spent a lot of time there. Dodge Ridge, Mccollumy Hill, all that area and beautiful. It’s gorgeous. Anybody doesn’t understand where that area is at the western side of the Sierras is what we call the foothills. And the foothills come from the valley up to the mountainous region of the Sierras and the foothills? Along the foothills there’s a highway called highway 49 and it’s called the Golden Highway or the Gold chain? And it’s where? All the mining during the in the 1800’s. All those big camps that for gold mining were found along the foothills and just into the mountains. So that’s a really nice area and I would imagine that was much better. You enjoyed that better than being down in the big city?
[00:05:54.520] – Michael McGarity
Well, it was a big change for sure. Little city slicker boy. And all of a sudden thrown into a very rural, totally different lifestyle, I suppose. But I quickly adapted and ran all over the woods with my, with my friends at the age of twelve. I was twelve and 13 before I moved back down into San Lorenzo. During those two years I became part of the Explorer post and I went on 100 miles backpacking trips from Sonora Paths to EPIT Summit. I did that for two years. It was a week long backpacking trip. I was one of the youngest who had ever gone on that trip and that taught me a great deal about just sleeping and living and hiking out in the woods and out in the wilderness. We traveled to Pacific Crest Trail so then that gave me my love for backpacking. And I backpacked several years up until probably about ten years ago when life just got busy and my bones and legs and knees started hurting. So I spent a lot of time out in the woods and then we had friends with dirt bikes that lived up there. We were able to ride dirt bikes on the main roads up there, the sheriff would just wave to us and just tell us to be careful. READ MORE
