You've got to fight, for your right to mountain bike

Group wants to be at negotiating table for recreational planning

By BRETT FRENCH
Billings Gazette
12/27/2007

Bozeman mountain bikers alarmed at the threatened loss of nearby riding areas have organized a group to present a more unified front as the Forest Service negotiates travel and forest plans.

"There's been a real hard push in the last little while to remove bicyclists from a lot of trails," said Corey Biggers, 50, one of the founders of the Montana Mountain Bike Alliance and owner of Rocky Mountain Truck Center. "We're trying to have a voice for the whole state."

Formed in November, the group has launched a Web site (www.montanamountainbikealliance.com) and is seeking members, although Biggers admitted that the group's numbers are small and that bikers are often hard to organize.

"Our goal is to get bikers politically motivated and off the proverbial couch," said Bob Allen, 46, another founder and senior photographer for Bike magazine.

The threats the men see facing the state's mountain bikers are several and have gathered into a perfect storm recently.

Among the challenges they say mountain bikers face are:

- The Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest is in the process of releasing its forest plan. In its draft environmental assessment, 248,000 acres of the 3.5 million-acre forest were recommended for wilderness where mountain bikes are not allowed. The final plan is expected to be released in January, followed by a 45-day public comment period.

- The Gallatin National Forest's travel plan designation for the Hyalite Porcupine Big Horn Wilderness Study Area has been challenged in court by wilderness advocates. As written by the forest, the travel plan had allowed motorcycle, mountain bike and snowmobile use. Wilderness groups are charging that those uses are inconsistent with management of a wilderness study area.

- Also on the Gallatin, an attempt to negotiate a trail-sharing plan on routes around Bozeman between bikers, hikers and motorcyclists disintegrated after 10 meetings, Allen said.

"We lost an opportunity to experiment with trail sharing and do some monitoring," he said. Instead, the Gallatin National Forest will devise a plan.

- Region 1 Forester Tom Tidwell issued an informal directive to forest supervisors to maintain areas that supervisors are serious about recommending for wilderness in a wilderness state - meaning no motorized or mechanized vehicles.

- Region 1, which oversees nine national forests in Montana, has also issued a general directive to supervisors to manage the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail primarily for hiking and stock use.

"There's no blanket policy banning mountain bikes," said John Favro, trails coordinator for Region 1 in Missoula. "It's more of an issue of, if there's a conflict, then either the trail needs to be moved or an adjacent trail should be built."

But mountain bikers aren't seeing the issues quite the same.

"Now that our mountain biking tradition is being threatened, we feel we need to get the word out," said Estela Villasenor Allen, a Bozeman mountain biker and photographer. "A lot of people don't realize that wilderness excludes mountain bikes.

"We need to move forward without blanket policies that are approved without real research and hard facts," she added. "That needs to happen."

The possible loss of riding areas has put mountain bikers at odds with people they usually share ideals with, namely hikers and wilderness advocates.

"It makes us feel like we're caught in the crack," Biggers said. "We're trying not to be anti-anything, we just want a voice for mountain bikers."

"We are muscle-powered, silent, green," Allen said.

Pushed to the fringe, mountain bikers have found themselves sometimes ideologically opposed to hikers, while advocating for the same access as motorcyclists.

"We're trying to let everyone know that mountain bicyclists appreciate the lands as much as anybody else, but we also want to preserve our riding areas," Biggers said.

Biggers said that since mountain bikers have not been well organized in Montana, their voice is not being heard during land management negotiations.

"I'm delighted they're getting organized and want to come to the table," said Peri Suenram, planner for the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National Forest.

She said the forest did consider mountain bike trails in devising its final plan. On his own, Biggers delivered a list of important trails.

"We've been looking at specific trails and that has factored in to whether or not to recommend areas for wilderness," Suenram said. "Our goal was to provide a spectrum of uses across the forest."

Mountain bikers in Butte and Helena worked with other user groups to carve out an agreement on a portion of the Beaverhead.

The Montana High Divide Agreement, presented to the forest for consideration, keeps 202 miles of the Continental Divide Trail open to mountain bikers. It's been hailed as an example of a cooperative agreement by the 10 groups involved, such as the Montana Wilderness Association.

"Overall, I'm fairly happy with the outcome," said Mike Borduin, who was president of Butte's Highlands Cycling club when the deal was formulated.

But he conceded that all sides had to give. "I'm not going to pretend like this is a panacea for mountain bikers," he said.

Unifying at least got the bicyclists a place at the negotiating table. Otherwise, Borduin said, the wilderness association in alliance with logging interests would have left mountain bikers out in the cold.

"The more wilderness you get, and the more logging areas and four-wheeler roads you get, the fewer places there are for mountain bikers," Borduin said.

Forest planners view such consensus agreements favorably. "It certainly helps us," Suenram said. "When they come together, that brings a very concerted voice to the table. That was a really consistent message that came through to us."

Although both Allen and Biggers praised the agreement the alliance forged, they say other areas of the forest were neglected because there wasn't a statewide mountain biking group looking at the big picture. As a result, Allen said the northern part of the forest was ignored, and some key alpine riding areas could be lost to wilderness designation.

When the final Beaverhead-Deer Lodge plan is released for comment, Allen said it will be important for cyclists across the state to speak out with a unified voice.

"There's definitely a need for bicyclists to stand up and say, 'Hey, why are you doing this?' " Biggers said.

"Once we start losing lands, I don't see anything out there telling me we can get them back," Villasenor Allen said.

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