Contents of this page:

CHANGE OF ADDRESS AND MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION - The intent of our organization is to keep current members informed of information concerning ATV and dirtbike related activities and news to the best of our ability.  In order to do this, we need members to help keep us informed of where they are. 

To change how we can contact you, select one of the items below:

Email Addresses

E-mail and Web Site - NOHVA members with access to email can receive emailings that contain announcements and other information of concern to ATV and dirtbike riders. If you wish to be added to the email list or if you with to be removed from the list, visit the EMAIL UPDATE FORM.  We welcome your additions, comments, artwork, thoughts, photos or otherwise.

I HAVE NOT BEEN RECEIVING MY NEWSPAPERS - There could be several reasons for this.

WHEN DOES MY MEMBERSHIP EXPIRE?  -  We will send you a notice in the mail when your membership expires.  Memberships expire AT LEAST one year after you purchase it on March 31st or August 31st.  Make sure your address we have is current with our records.  If you moved, we may not be able to find you.  

NOHVA membership number - Each member is issued a membership number to make their membership unique.  At last count, we had 36 Johnson's on our membership list, some with the same first name.  Your membership number has two parts, for example, 88-0013.  The first two digits (such as the example "88"") is the year you first joined NOHVA.  The last four digits (such as "0013") is the number of the membership purchased since day one, November 1987.  As of this number, NOHVA has over 3500 memberships in it's membership file since 1987. 

How do I get information on places to ride in Nebraska?  -  Check our your membership package that we sent to you after we received your membership application.  We do not release riding area information to non-members.

How long does it take to get my membership package?  - From the date we receive your membership, it takes about 4 to 6 weeks.  Due to the volume of memberships we receive at jamborees, it may take a bit longer to get your membership package to you.  

What does the membership packet contain? - In your Membership Packet you should find:

If you did not receive your membership package within six weeks after you mailed it in, visit our CONTACT PAGE. 

All I am interested in is the riding area information.  I lost my original copies of the letter and the Ride Guide.  How can I get one?  - Simply visit our CONTACT PAGE and we will confirm your membership.  Once it is confirmed, we will mail out the packet.  WE DO NOT MAIL OR DISTRIBUTE RIDING AREA INFORMATION TO NON-MEMBERS.

What is NOHVA All About? The Nebraska Off Highway Vehicle Association (NOHVA), is a Nebraska not-for-profit corporation organized to represent the interests of Nebraska's recreational ATV and dirtbike users.

NOHVA advocates environmentally sound, law abiding, safety minded and responsible off-highway recreation. Our goal is to represent the interests or recreational ATV and dirtbike riders. Our job as an organization involves work to preserve, manage and maintain current places to ride in Nebraska, and work to help find new places to ride in our state.

With the help of our members, we try to defend ATV and dirtbike riders against discriminatory actions and special interests who wish to see our sport eliminated. We try to educate Nebraska's riders and the public, and most important of all, we try to have fun.

We serve the interests of individual riders as well as families. Our activities include jamboree events, group rides and camp outs at various locations in Nebraska and surrounding states. Members of our association are very involved with local, state and federal government agencies to find and develop places for Nebraskans and their families to ride.

Membership for 2007 is over 2800 members. For more info, check out our Who We Are page

Membership Benefits - In addition to your membership card, a member sticker and information concerning places to ride and event are included as well. NOHVA members may receive free magazine subscriptions from time to time and discounts at participating ATV and dirtbike dealers. Ask your local dealer if they give discounts to NOHVA members or check out one of the advertising business members in our magazine newsletter. Members can place "For Sale, Trade or Want To Buy" ad's free in the "Nebraska OHV Advisor" newsletter. Contact the business office.

All membership classes offer the following benefits

Membership classes:

Meetings and Events - Meetings and events are announced on our webs site at http://www.nohva.com/home.htm , via email and usually by our quarterly magazine newsletter, the “Nebraska OHV Advisor".  Meetings are open to members and by invitation only non-members.  Due to insurance regulations, riders are required to be members in order to attend or participate in our off-road events.

NOHVA Officers and Voting for Officers by members - A list of current NOHVA officers is listed in the "Nebraska OHV Advisor" magazine newsletter and on our webs site at http://www.nohva.com/officers.htm . If you would like to become involved in the management of NOHVA or serve on a committee, please contact the business office or an officer. Officers are nominated and elected in November and December. Once the nominations are completed, ballots are distributed to the members at the annual meeting. Each single member is allowed one ballot per membership and family and business members are allowed two ballots per membership. A copy of our association by-laws are available upon request.

Where Your Membership Fee's Are Spent - Membership fee's from single, family and business memberships are used to print and mail newsletters, fliers, important notices, educational materials, and special rider "action alerts" mailings to members. Membership fee's are also used to pay for improvements riding areas such as fencing, signs, and other needed improvements. We receive no funding or support from any ATV or dirtbike manufacturers and distributors, and we do not receive any funding for NOHVA operations from state or federal governments.  For a copy of the NOHVA Annual Report and Financial Statement, members can contact our Business Office at our CONTACT PAGE .

Questions and Input From Members - We welcome input or questions from our members, and we welcome signed letters and information from anyone that are of interest to our members. Letters or articles intended for our newsletter are welcome and should be sent to the business office. CONTACT PAGE

Riding Area Information - Our organization helps manage the Headworks OHV Park near Genoa and trails at the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey. Important information is detailed in the NOHVA Nebraska Ride Guide and is included with your membership packet. We hope to find new places to ride in the near future. Watch the "Nebraska OHV Advisor" for more details. If you know of a place that would make a good place to ride, we may be able to help you keep it open.  Our organization offers limited man power, funding, insurance and can address ANY liability questions. Please contact the business off or a NOHVA officer for more information or visit our CONTACT PAGE .  A NOHVA membership is not required to ride at the Headworks OHV Park.  However, those who attend or participate in our jamborees at that location are required to be member for that event.  A membership is not required to ride at the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey, but a daily or annual use fee is required. 

The Nebraska Off Highway Vehicle Advisor, our official newspaper - The Nebraska Off Highway Vehicle Advisor is published four times a year by our organization and is edited by Dan Nitzel, our business manager.  We welcome input to our publication from our members and interested parties. 

NOHVA By-Laws - Download a copy of our By Laws. 

NOHVA Annual Report and Financial Statement - Contact our Business Office at our CONTACT PAGE . These documents are available by request only from paid members.

History of NOHVA - NOHVA’s 20th Anniversary

NOHVA will be 20 years old on November 11th, 2007. We originally formed this organization as the TBQ Sport Club, Inc., and we still use that name for legal purposes. We are incorporated as a Nebraska not-for-profit organization under the TBQ name. TBQ stands for Trikes, Bikes and Quads. Our group was originally founded in Grand Island by Dan Nitzel and Gary Gibbs. We started with about 20 riders and now have over 2000 members.

Our original purpose of the TBQ Sport Inc. has changed little over the last 20 years. Our original goals were:
1. Fight laws that would ban ATVs and dirtbikes.
2. Find places to ride.
3. Run moto-cross races (we no longer do that).

In 1986, groups of citizens interested in safety and various environmental groups wanted all ATVs and dirtbikes banned in the US. The Sierra Club announced that it was one of their main goals to ban motorized recreation from all public lands by the year 2000. As ATV and dirtbike users we did not want this to happen and we knew that something had to be done, so we formed the roots of our current organization.

From 1988 until 1992, we operated the TBQ Raceway, located eight miles north of Gibbon Nebraska. Gary Gibbs ran the races with the help of other club members, friends, riders and local dealers. In 1988, members of NOHVA organized the first ATV safety training courses in Nebraska. In 1990, we prevented the first closing of Headworks and came up with a management plan that was acceptable to the sheriff, land owners and riders. In 1991, we defeated proposed laws in Lincoln designed by the Sierra Club in Nebraska aimed at banning ATVs from nearly everywhere in Nebraska.

In 1994 and 1995, after severe flooding on the Loup River erased the entrance trails and the permanent closing of Headworks loomed once again. We got our members together and wrote letters to Loup Power. The effort convinced the land owners to replace the entrance trails and re-open Headworks. We continued to work with Loup and the Sheriff’s Department to help educate the riders about the area and help manage the area. We have to thank Loup Power for all their help and understanding in allowing us the privilege to ride at Headworks.

Also in 1995, members of NOHVA wrote 300 letters to the Nebraska National Forest Service asking for ATV and dirtbike trails. The Dismal River Trail, Nebraska’s first and only multiple use trail was the result and it was built by volunteer NOHVA member ATV riders for use by ATVs, dirtbikes, snowmobiles, horses, hikers and bicycles. We continue to work for more trails at the Nebraska National Forest and donate labor and materials to help maintain existing trails that exist there now.

Over the last couple of years, the ownership of ATVs for recreation in Nebraska has exploded. Since there are few places to ride now, too often people ride in areas that are either environmentally sensitive, or have been trespassing on private land. We would like to see these problems stopped. In order to find and create more places to ride, and after being ignored and misled by trails people on the state level, we have been asking state senators for help.
 
Members of NOHVA have served on various state committees to help steer the state toward recreational ATV and dirtbike trail development. Dan Nitzel and Gary Gibbs served our states original Nebraska Recreational Trails Plan and Dan Nitzel served on the Nebraska Recreational Trails Program (RTP) committee. Currently, NOHVA members Chris Didamo of Bellevue and Dennis Walz of Grand Island serve on the Nebraska Recreational Trails Committee representing ATV and dirtbike riders.

As of this writing, two new projects have begun to be developed near Hebron Nebraska and Harlan County Reservoir near Republican City Nebraska.  One of our more immedeate goals is to help find and develop a new OHV park in eastern Nebraska.  We have kicked around the idea that if we want trails, we should consider paying for them via some type of registration program or a trail sticker fee administered on the state level. Other methods of developing trails include the development of privately owned OHV parks, or parks owned and managed by local government sub-divisions funded with day or annual use fees.

NOHVA works with various groups across the country to discover and learn about new and existing trails and learn how to manage them better. NOHVA is chartered with the American Motorcycle Assn., and we are club members of the BlueRibbion Coalition and the Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition. Other groups or agencies we work closely with include the U.S. Forest Service/Nebraska National Forest, Loup Power District, and the National Off Highway Vehicle Conservation Council.

As far as our future in concerned, we want to continue our work to keep Headworks open, continue our projects at the Nebraska National Forest, and help our chapters in Alliance, Sutherland and Hebron.  We hope to continue our efforts to help other motorized recreationists in Nebraska to become organized to find new places to ride.

People who enjoy motorized recreation need to become involved and we need to let our state and local government representatives know that we want programs to provide us places to ride.