IMBA Participates In High-Profile Hiker/Mountain Biker Roundtable
IMBA executive director Tim Blumenthal was a featured speaker August 14 at a hiker-biker roundtable discussion August 14 at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show in Salt Lake City. Blumenthal joined American Hiking Society president David Lillard and National Park Service assistant director Destry Jarvis on the list of opening speakers. This trio then fielded questions for the next hour from a select group of newspaper and magazine journalists. The event was coordinated by Backpacker Magazine, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
Among the participating journalists were Backpacker editors John Viehman, Thom Hogan and John Harlan, Mountain Bike magazine publisher Nelson Pena, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Paul McHugh, Salt Lake City Tribune reporter Tom Wharton, and Mark Fenton of Walking magazine. Bob Woodward -- journalist, mountain biker and mayor of Bend, Oregon -- spoke about his work with the IMBA-affiliated Central Oregon Trails Alliance.
Blumenthal characterized the forum as, "constructive and useful, but just not long enough to really explore the key issues." He said, "I was encouraged by the many reasonable comments expressed by participants on IMBA's Wilderness positions as well as the positive words about IMBA's work made by Destry Jarvis of the National Park Service."
Blumenthal's Speech
A portion of Blumenthal's opening comments are reprinted here:
Mountain bikers are just like other trail users. We have the same motivations as other trail users, including backpackers and runners. We're out there for recreation, nature observation, exercise and personal accomplishment.
Mountain bikers don't need special trails or special facilities. The 1985 U.S. Forest Service trails handbook said that mountain bikes can use trails constructed for other purposes. This remains true today. The same elements that make a trail appealing to hikers and horseback riders make it appealing to mountain bikers.
Research to date says there's no significant difference between bicycle impacts and hiker impacts -- on trail treads, on wildlife, or on flora. Let's face it, the root of most discussions about appropriate trail access is trail-user tension and social impacts.
IMBA is convinced that most trails and most trail systems should be shared-use. This is not only best for bicyclists but best for building trail communities. IMBA doesn't say that every trail should be opened to bikes, but we believe most trails should be. Why?
- A generally open trail system is most environmentally friendly. Separate
trail systems often create parallel trails, leaving small slivers of undisturbed
space between them.
- A generally open trail system provides the most trail mileage for all users.
- A generally open trail system encourages the socialization of new trail
users by experienced users.
- A generally open trail system is less expensive for land agencies -- cheaper to sign, cheaper to monitor and cheaper to maintain. Most important, it builds a community of trail users who view trails as a shared resource.
A trail is a trail. It's a path on the ground designed to guide and reduce human impact on the ecosystem. Thatís why we have trouble with the American Hiking Society's new policy that tries to establish the primacy of hiking trails. Many so-called hiking trails were created by wildlife. Others were ridden in by motorcycles. The hiking experience deserves to be respected and fully supported, but it shouldn't be universally prioritized ahead of other environmentally sustainable (and popular trail modes) such as mountain biking.
The notion that mountain bikers don't connect with nature simply isn't true. Every bicycle ride is a nature ride. The more you ride -- and it's the same the more you walk -- the more you see. While technical terrain and higher-speed riding require concentration, an experienced mountain biker blends with the bike, and feels free to soak in the surroundings. In many ways the experience of a beginning mountain biker is a lot like a first backpacking trip. At first, you're preoccupied with the task of steering and controlling your bike...or shouldering the weight and girth of a 50-pound pack. On your bike or on foot, it takes time to get comfortable with your equipment and free your mind to see and feel.
One of the problems with the idea of trail-user displacement (often cited by hikers) is its assumption that bad users are forcing out good, appropriate users. Bicyclists are good, appropriate users, too.
