Mountain Bike Clubs and Patrols Ready to Aid California State Parks

For Immediate Release 8-14-2009

Contact Mark Eller
IMBA Communications Director
markeller@imba.com
303-545-9011 ext. 115

According to recent reports, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is prepared to close as many as 100 state parks after Labor Day. Park managers would be ordered to reduce services to additional parks by eliminating seasonal staff positions and consolidating permanent staff. While seasonal staff reductions are normal in the park system, it is expected that dozens of parks will not open their gates next spring unless the state's financial woes take an unexpected turn for the better.

IMBA is urging its affiliated clubs and mountain bike patrols to contact the state parks they use in their areas and discuss with them ways that the mountain bike community can help relieve the financial stresses on individual parks. Nationwide, mountain bikers volunteer almost a million hours to public trails and other facilities annually. California state parks stand to benefit from volunteers who give their time to repair trails, keep an eye on maintenance issues and perform other tasks as determined by park staff.

"Mountain bikers have partnered with California parks on literally hundreds of projects over the years, providing free labor and a heartfelt desire to help protect and preserve these public resources," says Tom Ward, IMBA's policy advisor in California. "The specific services our volunteers provide will be unique to each park. We hope to create action plans with a number of parks in the next several weeks," says Ward, who himself served as a director of recreation during a 20-year career with California State Parks. He notes that the final list of which parks stay open may be influenced by the number of local groups that come forward to help during the financial crisis.

Ward is available to assist clubs in making agreements with their local state parks:

Tom Ward
IMBA California Policy Advisor
916-441-6035
tom@imba.com

IMBA also offers dozens of free online resources to guide successful partnerships between volunteers and land managers, including these:

• Creating Strong Partnerships for Trails
• How to Organize Volunteer Workdays
• Volunteer Management: 10 Steps for Successful Events
• Working with Land Managers: 12 Steps for Success
• Getting to Know Your Local Land Manager

Visit IMBA's resource pages for much more on how mountain bikers can form partnerships with land managers.