MDHCA President, Billy Creech and Bureau of Land Management Needles Field Office Manager, Mike Ahrens after signing the MOU. 22 April 2022 by Laura Misajet Photo

On April 22, the BLM Needles Field Office entered a formal partnership with the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association to maintain the Mojave Road and East Mojave Heritage Trail segments in the Needles Field Office. Needles Field Manager Mike Ahrens signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a legal document describing the agreement between parties, with President of MDHCA Billy Creech, at the OLAF event in Goffs, CA. The MOU establishes roles and responsibilities of both parties to maintain and monitor the trails to ensure a safe, enjoyable, and educational backcountry experience.​

Greetings Goffians – I hope this Goffsgram finds you well. Apologies that you have not received updates from me since my initial “Letter from the President” regarding change in the MDHCA, but as you can imagine, it has been an extremely busy few months. This letter will serve to provide you with some of those key updates. So, grab your popcorn and get comfy, there is a lot to unpack here.

Your Board has been extremely active and engaged making substantial progress spanning tactical, operational, and strategic areas. Some are internal, some are external. Some are new, some are fixing the old. I made a promise that I would leave no stone unturned to not only save the MDHCA, but to set it up to thrive into the future – and that’s exactly what’s going on. But first, a little history:

I’d like to introduce myself, my name is Billy Creech and I am proud to be the newly elected MDHCA President. I’d also like to introduce your new Board Officers: Vice President – Bill Slutter, Treasurer – Darelyn Casebier, and Secretary – TBD. A huge Thank You to outgoing officers, though still on the Board of Directors: Andy Cohrs, Jackie Ridge, and Larry Vredenburgh. Rounding out the Board of Directors are Loris Mitchell, Rick Nisbet, Jim Donatz, and John Fishell.

As the title of this indicates, changes are happening at the MDHCA, some big and some small, they are all important, and there are many. Some of the changes aren’t changes at all, like this letter to you, but are just getting back to how some things used to be. However, in the 21^st Century, there are changes that must be embraced for us to be able to not only survive, but to bring to bear all the MDHCA has to offer and become a truly valuable and strategically thriving organization as we navigate our way into the future.