Meet Christopher Johnson, NOHVCC’s new state partner for New Mexico

Christopher recently retired from an 11-year stint with New Mexico’s Game and Fish Department OHV Safety Education coordinator, where he was responsible for 99% of the OHV safety education (mostly ATV) for the state. He has retained his ATV safety instructor and US Motorcycle Coaching Association (USMCA) Level 100 dirt bike school licensing.

In 2005, New Mexico (NMX) had a OHV safety training model utilizing private companies, but due partly to the size of the state, in wasn’t fulfilling the need. In 2009, the NMX legislature created an OHV program to address safety training and other items required by legislation. The program developed with the help of OHV advocates like NOHVCC’s own Marc Hildesheim as its manager and Johnson as its safety coordinator.

In his work with the NMX OHV association, Christopher has inventoried trails, created numerous OHV alliances with clubs and was even their Vice-president for a few years. The COVID pandemic wreaked havoc with the Association and they’re still working to reach the participation levels they enjoyed pre-Covid. Christopher currently volunteers as their recreation manager and works with the newsletter too.

“I’m hoping to learn from other states how their associations and organizations are recovering from the pandemic,” says Johnson, “we need to grow again – we need a jumpstart!”

Christopher is very knowledgeable in OHV Safety Education for different disciplines and various age groups and now brings this skill to our NOHVCC table.  “My emphasis still remains with safety education, and I’d like to share my experience with to help and assist other state partners.”