Baltimore Okays Mountain Biking In Watersheds
IMBA Trail News
Volume 11, Number 2
May-June 1998
Two years after the Baltimore City proposed banning off-road bicycles from its watersheds, mountain biking is now officially legal in the popular Loch Raven watershed and two other watersheds north of Baltimore, Maryland.
On March 5 Baltimore Public Works Director George Balog announced his approval of a plan developed by the Maryland Association of Mountain Bike Operators (MAMBO) and the Mountain Biking Task Force, and approved by the Friends of the Watershed Committee.
"This is the most significant achievement we made," Balog told the Baltimore Sun, referring to the compromise worked out with mountain bikers in a set of new recreational regulations on more than 17,000 acres surrounding Loch Raven, Prettyboy and Liberty reservoirs. All of the forested lands are located in Baltimore County and owned by Baltimore City.
The proposed ban on bikes along more than 40 miles of woods roads, announced in March 1996, triggered protests from cyclists, TV reports from DPW offices and watershed trails, many newspaper articles, a flurry of letters to newspapers, a letter-writing campaign directed at the City. . . and a surge in MAMBO membership (which now tops 500). In response to the outcry, Director Balog chartered the Mountain Biking Task Force to come up with a solution.
Task force members included local cycling activists, members of the Friends of the Watershed Committee, and City employees. The task force met weekly throughout the summer of '96 to develop the mountain biking plan, forging a compromise which will allow off-road cyclists to continue to use the woods roads, as well as other designated bicycle routes, while assuring the protection of the drinking water for 1.8 million people living in the Baltimore area.
With the new privileges come responsibilities. "We turned the city government around 180 degrees," MAMBO President Roger Bird said. "We not only befriended them, we did a lot of hard work. But this is just the beginning."
A proposal submitted by MAMBO was the basis of the new plan
The cycling community, led by MAMBO, is required by the City to provide educational outreach at bike shops and at trail heads, regular self-policing by woods roads cycling patrols, and volunteer maintenance projects to improve trails. All of these programs have already been initiated by MAMBO and will continue. The City will provide materials such as maps, copies of watershed regulations and signage on the woods roads.
The Friends of the Watersheds Committee, a group that monitors the environmental quality of the three watersheds, will review the mountain biking plan on at least an annual basis. The committee's review will be used by the City when considering whether to further restrict cycling in the watersheds or to add to the approved system of bike routes. MAMBO's Bird serves on the committee.
The new regs allow a grace period of one year before watershed police will begin imposing fines (ranging from $100 to $1,000) and confiscating bikes of cyclists who ignore the new rules; impounded bikes will be charged a storage fee of $50 a month. During the grace period, police and watershed officials will warn violators as MAMBO and other cycling groups work on educating bikers on the new rules.
Other highlights of the new regulations include the continuation of a no-riding rule on footpaths and deer trails; and a ban on riding through watercourses, wetlands or other environmentally sensitive areas. Cyclists must yield to hikers and horses; bikes must be equipped with bells for warning other trail users; and racing and "excessive" speed are banned. Permission must be obtained in advance for organized rides.
"It's been nine years coming," said Bird. "But cyclists need to understand that it was either this agreement or nothing. If we continue to move forward, we'll be able to get more trails opened. But unless everyone pitches in and helps, the City could put a fence around the watersheds and no one will be allowed to ride there."
Penny Troutner, owner of Light Street Cycles in Baltimore and a member of the Mountain Biking Task Force, said the new regulations reflect IMBA's Rules of the Trail. "Mountain bikers are environmentalists and want to avoid doing damage," she said.
For more information, call MAMBO at (410) 902-1295 or point your browser to www.bikemobile.com/mambo.
