Mountain Biking to Continue at Nisene Marks
For Immediate Release
04-11-05
Contact: Pete Webber, IMBA communications director
pete@imba.com
303-545-9011
A legal settlement has been reached between California State Parks and a group of citizens who sued to ban mountain biking in Nisene Marks State Park near Santa Cruz, California.
The settlement is the final chapter in a 2003 lawsuit filed by an anti-mountain biking group claiming the park's original land deed prohibited bicycling. California State Park officials and mountain bikers disagreed, arguing that the original deed, which pre-dated mountain biking, allowed for a variety of recreation. But in late 2004, the court sided with the citizens group and ruled to eliminate biking from a large portion of the park.
Under the settlement, cyclists can continue riding the Aptos Creek fire road - the same route open to bicycling before the controversy. The fire road is especially popular because it connects to other properties and trails above the park. The lower 1,000 acres of the park remain open and were never threatened by the lawsuit because deed restrictions do not apply to that portion of the park.
But the compromise stops efforts to open more trails to mountain biking, an idea favored by some land managers and mountain bikers, and the spark that started the lawsuit.
Mountain bikers have rallied around this issue, sending more than 500 letters to the State urging them to appeal the court decision - an unprecedented volume of mountain biking-related comments for State Parks. IMBA and the IMBA-affiliated Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz led the efforts to protect trail access.
The Nisene Marks property was donated to the state in 1963 by the Marks family. The transaction included deed restrictions that there would be no horses allowed on the trails because of erosion. California State Parks interpreted the deed to allow for other uses and made the decision to develop a park with multiple use trails, including mountain biking.
Read an article about the settlement in the April 9, 2005, Santa Cruz Sentinel: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/April/09/local/stories/01local.htm
