Take Action to Increase Opportunities for Bicycling in National Parks

[ScottS]

http://www.imba.com/news/action_alerts/12_08/12_18_nps.html

From a bike industry site.

-ss

BOULDER, CO-IMBA is asking all of its riding friends to take action and support improved mountain biking opportunities in U.S. national parks.

It's down to the final week for public comments, so this is your last chance. Please forward this alert to everyone who rides; IMBA needs your support to create better trail experiences in America?s most treasured parks.

IMBA's online form (url above) makes it easy to send your letter to the National Park Service (NPS).

This important rule change will let individual parks - using established processes for public comment and environmental review - decide whether to expand mountain biking on dirt trails. This is a monumental change that benefits mountain bikers in several ways.

"I am writing to personally ask you to help IMBA win the biggest policy battle we have taken on in our 21-year history - to increase opportunities for mountain biking in national parks," said Jenn Dice, IMBA's governmental affairs director, in an email.

"National parks represent the most treasured, iconic places in America and IMBA stands ready to help build and open trails in these epic, breathtaking lands. From a policy perspective, our national parks set the bar and it is critical that they embrace mountain biking as their policies shape those of state, county, and city parks. We only have until Feb. 18 (a week from Wednesday) to submit comments, and five national organizations have waged an all out battle to defeat this proposed rule. I know many of you have already written, but we need your co-workers, your customers, and your riding buddies to weigh in as well. This is big."

-ss

[david_f]

Boy, I've got mixed feelings on this one.
I've been building and maintaining hiking trails here in the santa monica mountains for mor than half a dozen years.  The greatest human source of wear and tear is from mountain bikes, next comes horses.  Mountain bikers often take trails that are not designated for bikes ignoring posted signs etc.  These trails were not built to withstand mountain bikes and erode much faster than if they were used as designed.  All to often when I've been on the trail. some biker would come racing down hill nearly killing a hiker coming the other way.  Not all mountain bikers are assholes but way to many are, indifference is tantamount to being an asshole.  Hardly any come forward to maintain the local trails IMBA & Corba do a few events a year but not nearly enough to make up for the accelerated wear bikes cause on local hiking trails.  The parks have been underfunded for a very long time it's volunteers like the ones I work with that do a lot of the maintenance of local hiking trails.  Everyone has a right to use our parks, but that use should not cause excessive damage & destruction.

rant over, peas
davidf

[Steve Mattson]

Yeah. I gotta say I kind of take the side David is advocating here.  I grew up 90 miles north of Yellowstone park and that environment is so stressed from roadways clogged with cars all summer then snowmobilers (WTF!?) in the winter.  Most NPs in the USA are in unique and incredibly beautiful places, and because of it, they draw a lot of travelers.  Sadly, they've become "closed/island" environments, blocked by roads, development, private range land, etc. and because of it, the wild life is stressed and can't migrate like they did before we showed up.  This is bad enough.
I used to do a lot of mountain biking in the SM mountains, I'm sadly admitting I never did any trail repair yet I never rode where I wasn't allowed, and I always slowed and yielded for hikers and horses (they do dig things up, deposit non-native species in their dung{don't get me started...}). 
When I was riding more, I had (have) a front suspension bike.  Many mtn bikes are designed with huge, long-travel full suspension frames now and you can travel a lot FASTER downhill.  My impression is this doesn't make for more conscientious riders but turns mtn biking more into a form of aggressive BMX or off-road motorcycling. 
NP's are about preserving some wild space and access should be limited, my opinion. I've always held that NP's should be for hikers.  It's bad enough walking around a corner and surprising a feeding Grizzly mother with her cub (just ask my brother-in-law)--but to be bombing down a trail and surprising a Grizz, yuck.