This commentary is by Ned Farquhar of Waitsfield, former director of Mad River Path, former president of Friends of the Mad River, former executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, and former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The director of the statewide mountain biking group is quoted in VTDigger as a devotee of community-supported stewardship: “The model we’re really trying to establish is community-supported stewardship,” said Nick Bennette, the state association’s executive director.
This is an important and welcome commitment and it should be applauded.
The commitment should extend not only to maintenance and operation of the trails network, but also to lands not dedicated to mountain bikes. Stewardship is not only about managing uses — it is also about leaving some areas alone.
Most “sports” are confined to recreation fields. Mountain biking is different. It occurs in the great outdoors, needs a fast-moving machine, often includes a large number of participants in an event, and sometimes takes place in areas valued for solitude, peace and quiet, and wildlife habitat, in ways that can conflict with quieter activities such as hiking (particularly with children or dogs) and birdwatching.
Mountain bike groups should work with local conservationists to make sure the mountain bike trails network avoids ecologically sensitive areas, including habitat, endangered and threatened species, wilderness qualities, and water sources.
Recently the Mad River Riders wisely backed away from a proposal submitted to state agencies to construct a trail in the 2,600-acre Phen Basin, a sensitive area permanently protected by a tight, straightforward conservation easement and included in the Camel’s Hump State Park. The land was originally protected by private buyers. State taxpayers helped move the land into the public estate via the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Vermont Land Trust.
The proposal to construct a mountain biking trail was a surprise to many locals. The proposal would have required 16 stream crossings and the trail would have crossed through the sensitive ecological protection zone in the Phen.
Unfortunately, despite local objections, the state agency approved the concept of a trail within the easement-protected area, a mistake that the Mad River Riders should help correct, since the proposal for a trail originated with them.
The easement is clear: Construction of trails for mechanized and motorized activities is not allowed.
Hundreds of riders ride on existing upland trails in the Mad River Valley on some summer days. Seems OK where planned for — but not everywhere, and certainly not in an area where people and agencies have invested lots of money to conserve land principally for natural and ecological values.
A new Mad River Valley recreation consortium will start looking ahead to where mountain bike trails should — and presumably should not — be considered in the future. This kind of planning should help take sensitive areas off the trail planning map.
But we don’t need to spend the next three years deciding whether to support new trails in areas such as the Phen Basin that have already been dedicated to conservation. And we don’t need to start with the assumption that every trail, for hiking or anything else, is a multi-use trail by definition, including mountain bike use. Let’s leave some areas for people who want to walk or hike quietly with young children, who value quiet solitude and wilderness values.
The Mad River Riders, and the Vermont Mountain Bike Association, would help reduce tension and would conserve participants’ time and energy by clearly stating that they do not want to build trails in areas protected for ecological and natural values and non-mechanized recreation.
They should announce that they will not propose new bike trails in the Phen Basin and will help revise the state park plan to remove reference to the proposal the Riders subsequently withdrew.
With that kind of commitment, making the real commitment to community-supported stewardship, we can all get along.
