Mountain Bikers Working For Conservation
some highlights from the past decade...
IMBA Special Report - Mountain Biking & Conservation
1. New England Cyclists Help Rescue Turtles
New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) volunteers helped the Army Corps of Engineers rescue spotted turtles, an endangered species, at the Wompatuck State Forest in Massachusetts in 1997. The Corps needed to tear down unsafe World War II bunkers, but did not have enough manpower to separate their project from the nesting location of the turtles.
2. Hardwood Forests Protected in Long Island
A citizen's coalition started by mountain bikers blocked the construction of a golf course in Bethpage State Park in New York in 1997. The new golf course would have obliterated 300 acres of pine and oak woodlands.
3. Tennessee Club Fights for Environment
The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club in Knoxville, Tennessee, rejected an offer from the Champion Paper Company to develop trails on 7,000 acres of timberland because of Champion's negative environmental record. The club also launched a successful lawsuit against the state parks department to block the construction of a golf course at Panther Creek State Park. The golf course would have destroyed a hardwood forest.
4. Crested Butte Cyclists Support Wilderness
Mountain bikers in Crested Butte, Colorado, supported Wilderness protection in the Oh Be Joyful valley to protect the area from a proposed molybdenum mine. The valley had been an excellent riding area. The valley was designated Wilderness in 1993.
5. IMBA Backs Utah Wilderness Coalition
In 1998, IMBA formally stated that all land in a Utah Wilderness proposal be protected, either as Wilderness or with other designations.
6. IMBA Board Member Lobbies for National Park
Pima Trails Association leader and current IMBA President Steve Anderson lobbied in Washington D.C. to upgrade Saguaro National Monument to a National Park. Congress elevated Saguaro to National Park status in 1994.
7. Cooperation in Pacific Northwest
The Seattle-based Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club (BBTC) and the Washington Trails Association (WTA) worked together in 2001 to provide mountain biking opportunities and create Wilderness. The BBTC endorsed an expansion of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, while the WTA supported opening a non-Wilderness trail to bicycling.
8. Santa Cruz Cyclists Raise Funds for Park
The Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC) raised thousands of dollars and donated it to the Save the Redwoods League to help secure Gray Whale Ranch as a state park in 1997. MBOSC also worked to improve and maintain multi-use trails in the park.
9. Mountain Bikers Guide in Nature Conservancy
Bicyclists serve as docent guides in southern California's Laguna Canyon Wilderness Park managed by the Nature Conservancy. The guides offer visitors informative tours of the park, which is not yet open to the general public. The cyclists also provide land managers with vital information regarding wildlife habitat in the park.
10. Native Forest Restoration in New Zealand
Cyclists planted 12,000 native trees on Mt. Victoria and Makara Peak between 1997 and 2001 to help restore the popular mountain biking area to a native forest. The land was originally covered with tall trees, but was cleared for farming 100 years ago.
