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NPA at it again
The National Parks Association is at again, promoting their special brand of misinformation - this time in Brisbane's Courier Mail.
These guys know no shame, it seems. I've sent a letter off to the Courier Mail in response, but I guess the points for us are:
- the battle will be ongoing with these guys
- expect it, and not be disheartened when they continue to trot out their irrational rubbish
- keep "hitting the ball back" by pointing to the objective evidence that sustainable trails are all about water flow management
I view it partly as a game: hit me a ball, I'll smack it back 
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to quote John Elliott-"pigs ass"
Npa have been a part of retaining some of the green areas we now love. The hard liners among them are reluctant to embrace us but I think a lot of their members are aware that to stay relevant they need to work with other low impact user groups.
That said some member want every one excluded from some areas, walkers included and some areas left for minimum impact zero track walking.
Personally i agree that there are some areas that should have exclusions but there is some areas suitable for a wider ranges of trail development. Extreme, alarmist blanket statements are made mostly with the aim of finding a more acceptable compromise
his first paragraph states "a destructive trail will be built" !-where is his evidence?
Without them and their activism, a lot of the green areas and aboriginal cultural sites we have - especially in the Blue Mountains - would no doubt have been lost to farmland, strip mining and other "uses" [shudders].
And I do agree there are some highly sensitive areas that people should be excluded from and others that are either inappropriate for mountain bike trails or too expensive in which to build sustainably.
What continues to disappoint though is the blanket painting by the NPA of *all* mountain bike trails as destructive and unsustainable by their very nature, as though they were somehow intrinsically different from foot trails on the same alignment.
As we know, and as the more moderate elements in the environmental movement know, it is simply factually incorrect. Having lost the argument on the hard evidence, elements in the NPA are now trying to sway it by turning public opinion with misinformation.
And I agree with RobbieO, it is another depressingly common example of News Group publications practice of dressing opinion as fact, but my letter was never going to get published if I took the journalist (using the term loosely) to task over his writing standards.
Probably too long again, and toffee-nosed sounding, but we'll see how we go.
All
I'm sticking up for NPA NSW here. As far as I am aware this is a different organisation so it's not the same guys. There is an umbrella affiliation for them, perhaps someone should hit them up.
We are now on good terms with NPA NSW. Also note that while we were battling here NPA Tasi from memory was promoting mountain biking.
For example of current relations please see mine and NPWS article in NPA NSW's summer journal on pages 23 to 26. This also includes an insert from NPA NSW referencing NZ and how well it's working which directly contradicts Qld's comments in the Brisbane paper.
http://www.npansw.org.au/index.php/publications-...
Thanks, correction issued.