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"Mountain Bike Backlash" Anti MTB article in Peninsular Living


hawkeye's picture

By hawkeye - Posted on 04 May 2012

Those who attended the NPWS consultation days last year may have noticed a small mousy woman asking you to sign a petition against mountain bikes.

It seems she has been pretty dogged with this over the last 6-8 months and has gathered 500 signatures by spending much of her weekends at local shopping malls. This has resulted in a 2-page spread in Peninsular Living this month. What follows is my proposed response.

You may wish to write to Peninsular Living, Brad Hazzard, and Warringah Councillors touching on similar themes.

Simon will be along shortly to post a link to a PDF of the offending article

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Edit: I've just been advised that this issue is less to do with Warringah Council and that approval is more to do with Brad Hazzard in his capacity as Miniser for Planning and Infrastructure.

Dear -------,

It is disappointing to read the same old innuendo and misinformation regarding mountain bike trails in this month's "Mountain Bike Backlash" article in Peninsular Living. It is interesting that the article states with greater clarity than previously that the agenda of people such as Rosemary Loughnane appears to be simply to prevent any increase in people visiting National Parks.

We need to remember that mountain biking is a mainstream activity in Warringah and elsewhere, and that mountain bikers are ratepayers in the municipality. Cycling is the fourth most popular recreational activity, and 70 percent of bicycles sold are mountain bikes. Mountain bike trails offer outstanding health and exercise benefits from unstructured recreation at a much lower cost-per-visitation than many other facilities currently supported by Council, such as sports fields and swimming pools. It's close location provides a constructive diversion for youth from less desirable activities.
Visitors from outside the area bring substantial income to local businesses and is said that mountain bike visitation to Rotorua now brings more tourist income than the famous hot springs.

It seems Ms Loughnane hopes that by repeating the same worn-out claims continuously about mountain bike “unsustainability” they will become true. I’m sorry to disappoint, but facts do not work that way. The evidence is clear from both local and international sources for a number of years now that when the trails are routed and built according to sound sustainability principles, the impact of mountain biking is similar to walkers.

The consultation process has been going on for several years, with ample opportunity for all interest groups including local residents and environmental groups to have their views heard. This latest claim about “not being consulted” is simply not true, and is a ploy to yet again delay a process that has already been dragging on much longer than it should. The truth is the decisions have not gone their way because their claims are contradicted by the overall evidence.

At the recent NPWS consultation day at Bantry Bay, I heard in person Aboriginal community representatives express satisfaction at the fact that there were no tyre marks across the cultural sites visited and that the message about their sensitivity had been taken on board. Key to maintaining this good behaviour is re-routing the trail away from these sites through less sensitive corridors, and closing and rehabilitating the old trails.

As has been provedd repeatedly, prohibition has failed.

The major environmental impact from trails in bushland areas is erosion due to water flow, caused by failure to avoid the fall line – the shortest route down the hill. Most of the old walking and cycling trails were cut along these alignments before there was much awareness of sustainable trail construction practices. These unsightly and unsustainable trails must be closed and rehabilitated to prevent further degradation and siltation of waterways, adverse impact on hanging swamps, and other downstream ecosystems. The mountain bike community as a whole supports this initiative.

The new trails that will take their place are to be built and managed following world’s-best-practice sustainability principles. These are described in the International Mountain Bike Association’s publications Trail Solutions and Managing Mountain Bike Trails. Mountain bikers have been building sustainable trails in other areas with manager permission inexpensively. Success stories can be seen at Fox Creek WA, City of Mitcham SA, Glenrock NSW, Lysterfield Victoria. Overall, we expect the number of trails through Garigal and connected areas to be reduced from their present number.

International Mountain Bike Association trail guidelines have been adopted by many government land management authorities throughout the US and in some Australian states as best practice for all their trails, not just the cycling trails. The trails provide tangible economic and social benefits to their local communities. Undesirable activity such as motor bike use, vandalism and anti-social activity is displaced.

Night time riding is not expected to have a noticeable impact. Due to the requirements of the activity, the lights from night-time mountain bike riders are narrow-beamed and focussed closely on the trail. The scope for disturbing nocturnal animals such as possums, bandicoots, bats and sugar gliders or other fauna is therefore quite limited. I'd suggest traffic noise from the adjacent Wakehurst Parkway is a more significant threat.

I cannot remember the last time I saw a dirty mountain bike at the start of a ride. The risk of carriage of weeds and seeds from outside the area is – again, unsurprisingly – similar to that of walkers.

It is interesting that it has taken Ms Loughnane more than six months and countless hours spent midweek and at weekends at local shopping malls to gather her 500 signatures. It seems her petition is more reflective of her dedication to campaigning and pursuing her misinformed agenda than any real level of concern in the community.

Best,

hawkeye

Winco's picture

A well thought out, well written letter Hawkeye. Excellent! Well done!
Let's get the pens, quills and keyboards out folks and take a moment to counter Ms Loughnane and her divisive campaign.

moggio's picture

Nice one.

BM Epic's picture

Maybe that last paragraph should be left out, she only needs mentioning once, to mention more may get sympathy votes for her, otherwise brilliant, sounds fractionally like having a dig at her!

Renno's picture

Sounds good, I wanna read the article.
Stupid b......

Chuck's picture

Nice work Hawkeye. Wish I could write that well.

Best to keep the comments civil to people.

staffe's picture

Perhaps approaching PL to get our side of the story published. I guess there are more MTBers than there are intolerant narrow minded anti MTB advicates. Journalistic principles suggest an article needs to give equal amount of space to either side of the story and we should give PL a chance to demonstrate their journalistic integrity. Seems like the article is already written for them......

BIGnige's picture

Dear,
Regarding your article "Mountain Bike Backlash" in this weeks PL magazine, I’m writing to express my disappointment at the reactionary, ill-informed and misleading content in this piece.
Mountain biking is, (apart from being one of the most popular recreational activities in Australia), a sport that offers very considerable health benefits to those who partake: surely a desirable state of affairs with our aging population. In fact, after suffering a near fatal motorcycle accident three years ago, it was riding my mountain bike that proved pivotal in my recuperation and return to health, and at no cost to the health system I might add.
It seems Ms Loughnane’s agenda is simply to keep people out of National Parks for fear of damaging them. Might I suggest that there is little point in having National Parks if the aim is to prevent people from enjoying them, and that it’s entirely possible to provide fair access to a wide cross-section of the community without destroying the natural environment.
The same old, well worn cliches about the damaging effect of mountain bikes and the trails they ride have long since been disproved, and there is ample evidence from around the globe to suggest that on well built and thought out tracks, mountain bikes have no more impact than walkers. Thankfully the local powers that be have actually looked at and understood the facts, and appreciate that it’s entirely possible to build sustainable tracks which do not cause ongoing degradation of the bushland through which they run.
Furthermore, to suggest that council have not given non-riding members of the community a voice in this process is totally wrong. The consultation process has been going on for several years, with ample opportunity for all interest groups including local residents and environmental groups to have their views heard.
Arguments against night riding are also misplaced and I would suggest that having Wakehurst Parkway and Warringah Road bordering the area in question would have a much greater impact that a few bikes passing almost silently through the bush. And even though 69% of respondents to the councils questionnaire said they would ride at night, I would suggest that for most people in the mountain bike community this is a rare occurrence. I myself would have responded in the affirmative to this question, but have in fact only ridden at night twice in the last four years!
And finally, I totally and absolutely refute the claim that there has been any conflict between local residents and bike riders in the Bantry Bay area. I find Ms Loughnane’s comment on this both vitriolic and inflammatory. By attempting to garner support by conjuring up fake notions of bad-blood existing between bike riders and residents exposes the flimsy nature of the whole argument and the true sentiments behind it. I actually live just off Bantry Bay Road and have done so for nearly five years. I ride at least once or twice every week and have never seen any evidence whatsoever to suggest there is any conflict between local residents and bike riders, either on the tracks or on the roads. In fact in my experience, which amounts to about 3000kms of riding trails in the area over the last five years, I have never found mountain bikers to be anything other than considerate and polite to walkers or other users when on any track.
In conclusion it is a shame that once again mountain bike riding has been cast as the villian of the piece. Far from being intent on wrecking the incredible natural environment afforded us by this amazing country, we as a group are committed to preserving it for everyone to enjoy.
Best,

hawkeye's picture

Regarding Wakehurst Parkway, you might like to mention the roadkill toll, which I missed.

If you're cc'ing Councillors, one of the Warringah councillors responded very diplomatically to hint that my letter was probably too long to be readily comprehended, so shortening yours may improve its impact.

moggio's picture

Is there a link to the article in PL magazine?

Simon S's picture

The Manly Daily has featured her this morning. She has added to her argument the danger of MTB to walkers.

jimnobob's picture
The Brown Hornet's picture

"She said the trails may also attract organised race events, increasing traffic in residential areas."

Now where have we heard this little beauty before? Nothing like the trumped up threat of races being held at your front door to gain supporters.

hawkeye's picture

Good pickup - thanks!

BIGnige's picture

Guys, you can respond to the Manly Daily article on
[email protected]

DudeistPriest's picture

What about the danger of walkers to MTB.

hawkeye's picture

I'd suggest that danger is mutually negligible if both parties use courtesy and common sense.

In other words, continue current practice!

However, some riders have been getting snarky with peds on the bike only sections of Manly Dam.

I'd suggest this is where the lovely Rosemary is getting her "aggressive" comments from. Many of those walking the trails are locals who have lived in the area for over 20 years, and who are familiar with bikes and are happy to share the trails with us. Being Jobsworths and getting them offside will not help us. I'd go so far as to call it really counterproductive

We should be encouraging their civil disobedience on this matter. Walker exclusion from teh singletrack was not our idea and we do not support it. Not only is the risk of collision unfounded in fact, shared trails work in our favour.

herzog's picture

Great letters, but one comment for BigNige, is that I would avoid mentioning anything to do with motorcycles.

Appreciate the role MTB had in your recovery from a motorcycle crash, but a lot of the old pensioners have got it in their heads that Mountain Bikes are a form of motorbikes (e.g.: at the Lane Cove NP MTB forum, an old betty got really worked up about this). Any mention of motorbike really confuses the issues at hand.

Ultimately, we are talking about 12 kg bikes, with the same power plant as a hiker (i.e.: a human body). That's it. 12kg about the same weight as a large camping backpack.

Hop fiend's picture

get confused with Moto's?-it cannot just be the fat knobby tyres????

herzog's picture

Stuffed if I know. Mountain Bikes didn't exist back in the day of these old pensioners, so it's quite alien to them.

Sometimes I wonder if Mountain Biking was called something like "eco-cycling" all these trail access issues would suddenly disappear.

hawkeye's picture

is a mouthful, but needs to be substituted much more often, methinks.

Simon S's picture

Here's Cr VIrginia Laugesen's response to an email I sent this morning:

"Hi  Simon,
 
We’re getting a lot of emails on this subject. I hope the mountain bikers are running a ticket at the election. The change will need to come from within, given the present culture.
 
There’s never been a better time to get involved in local government.
 
There’s a candidate seminar this Saturday at W Council chambers, run by the Division of Local Govt, from 9am to noon. Send some people along.
 
Virginia"

hawkeye's picture

Scan of article can be found on the TrailCare website, here: http://www.trailcare.com.au/files/pdf/oxo_penins...

Please note changes to letter recipients in original post. No more need to bombard Council - they are not the approving authority. Latest information I have is that is Brad Hazzard, which is why the petition was sent to him.

danielschipper's picture

Rosemary says "I contend that if night riding is permitted there would be an impact to bats, possums, bandicoots..."

I contend that there would be no impact as all the bats, possums and bandicoots are in my backyard digging up my lawn, eating my vegetables and crapping on my deck! I wish they'd go back to the bush and pollinate some flowers Eye-wink

moggio's picture

You know I am going to play devils advocate here.... firstly respect to her that she is doing what she believes is right and respect that she raised 500 signatures and got media. She is doing something that we as riders disagree with but I can respect her effort, she isn't doing this to piss off riders, its to do what she thinks is right. Also why haven't riders got 500 signatures and why aren't we in the media with a big spread on the benefits?

A big assumption riders have is that we have some divine right to trails with no opposition. Unfortunately we know a lot about riding and trails but really why should anyone else who isn't a rider? Yet we expect people to either know this stuff or to suddenly change their firmly rooted , I'll say beliefs, in what defines conservation or protection of the natural environment just upon reading one of our well argued letters or something.

Arguing and butting heads is not the way. Sure this information that refutes the regular claims needs to be constantly out there but in this type of issue with people with strong beliefs (which in many ways includes us riders) no one is going to change their views. Got to go around and engage and educate (rather than refuting) with the type of people that signed those 500 signatures and engage with the people who make the decisions. The noisy ones need to be ignored and heck lets hope they go away and get noisy on some other environmental issue that we agree with.

Mr Curly's picture

Sensational letter. Totally nails it.

danielschipper's picture

From what I see Mountain Bikers are a group who just like to get out and ride, love the bush and can mount a case for increased access to trails.

Yeah our demographic happens to mean that we often work in 'professional' type jobs, live in a good area and earn some good coin. But....."an affluent and politically powerful mountain bike riding lobby group..."

I tend to think we need to let Rosemary wake the bear! Now is the time that the opposition will start to rise. We need to wake up and realise that all of the hard work can be undone by an individual with some time on her hands and the ear of the media.

Is there an opportunity to get a number of NobMob'ers together and craft a localised strategy to counter the opposition with positive messages. This would be a short / medium term focus to complement the longer term focus that others; i.e. Trailcare, have been successfully executing.

What do you think?

hawkeye's picture

@moggio: NPWS reps, members of green groups, Trail Care and the Guringai people have been trying to engage with with this woman for some time to correct her misunderstandings.

The unfortunate truth is she doesn't just want to be educated. Facts are inconvenient and just get in the way of a good story. A female version of Mike Vandeman PhD in some ways, fortunately without the vitriolic trolling.

moggio's picture

Exactly hawkeye, so why bother with her.. a waste of energy. You are not going to change her opinions.

Working with her only keeps her focused, go around, ignore and dismiss. Do things on your terms not reacting to hers. make her an irrelvant squeeky wheel that goes on and on about the same old things while you guys go on and do what is needed to get the job done.

hawkeye's picture

We're not trying to educate her any more. Lost cause IMO, mtb trails can never he sustainable as far as she is concerned.

It is the Minister for Planning we are attempting to reach, to make sure his understanding of the facts and evidence is not distorted, and to reinforce our support of the NPWS evidence-based assessment process.

If the NPWS result is they say a trail through a particular area fails to meet the assessment hurdles, tough luck for us, their decision will be based on a proper assessment and I don't want to be wrecking the environment. Move on, find another candidate location and start again.

That said, two of the three candidate areas under consideration look very promising and all the issues she identifies can be resolved by routing the trail corridor appropriately.

What pisses me off is the blatant attempt to jawbone the process by pushing people's buttons because she didn't get her way when she and her associates were dismissed as uninformed trolls by the subject matter experts.

Now NPWS people are being diverted by the Minister to answer this rubbish, wasting time and resources. The amount of money that has been wasted trying to appease these extremist green groups is ridiculous.

jht013's picture

I thought I would send the MP an email on the enjoyment i get from MTBing and the envirnomental attitudes (in my opinion) the MTB community has towards new trails.

Mr Hazzard

No doubt by now you have had many emails regarding the proposed mountain biking trail for Garigal Nat Park and the objections from some locals. While I am a keen mountain biker I am not an expert on trail building, nor do I have any evidence that refutes the claims of people like Ms Loughnane (I will leave that for those far more knowledgeable than I). I do however enjoy spending time in our amazing bushlands.

I truely believe that by opening up places like Garigal, it offers a chance to share our wonderful landscape with a wider segment of the population, one of my most fond memories is watching an echindna burrowing under some rocks as I stopped for water while riding around Manly dam. This type of interaction fosters an appreciation for flora and fauna which then develops into respect for the environment as a whole. Respect for the trails we enjoy and for the bushlands they run through. This surely has to be a good thing for our Nat parks long term.

The wider community is becomming more and more envirnonmentaly conscious, the mountain biking community is no different. We do not want to see a precious resource damaged beyond repair, we want trails that are planned carefully and built with sustainability in mind. We want to be able to share the bush with other user groups in an environmentally sustainable way. We have the same passions as those who oppose us using our Nat parks; the love of the outdoors, healthy pursuits and the love of the Aussie bush and everything in it.

Kind Regards

James Thompson

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