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Sustainable Mountain Biking in NSW - Management Strategies for NPWS Discussion


Rob's picture

By Rob - Posted on 13 August 2009

Sustainable Mountain Biking in NSW - Management Strategies for NPWS Discussion (cover)

As some of you may have read, Mike Baird is helping mountain bike riders with issues they have been having with regards access in National Parks, and particularly here on the Northern Beaches (Mike's electorate of course, which is where his interest lies).

As the press release linked above points out, yesterday Mike met with Carmel Tebbutt (Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, and Minister for Commerce) to discuss these issues.

I was privileged to attend this meeting and put the case for mountain bike riders in the discussion. We as a group should also be very thankful that certain individuals are so generous with their time as to support these efforts and produce documents like the Oxford Falls Submission.

To support the meeting agenda yesterday these tireless authors again came up with another outstanding document on sustainable riding practices and strategies for an amicable way forward. Copies of this were handed out at the meeting and have linked a soft copy here for reference:

Sustainable Mountain Biking in NSW - Management Strategies for NPWS Discussion

Massive thanks once again to Mike and his assistant for their support and everyone else involved in this.

As for the meeting... In my view it went very well and was very positive. We are awaiting clarification on a couple of points but hopefully there will be some nice news to report shortly. Stay tuned!

ar_junkie's picture

To all those involved, I sincerely thank you!

CB's picture

Hi Rob

Many thanks to yourself and the nobmob killer report crew.

Never in the field of human conflict... etc. etc.

CB

Matt_B's picture

Been posting the last few days about this but the wheels seem to be way further in motion

nrthrnben's picture

This is trully amazing work

will this meeting have any gravity for the LCNP meeting?

Thanks to all involved....just read the whole thing, i cant get over how good that was!!

evan's picture

Once again to Rob and the other people involved, what an awesome effort. The document was a fantastic read.
Also a huge thanks to the efforts of those who attend the meetings as our voice.

Cheers
Evan

hawkeye's picture

Excellent document, Rob. You've been busy! Smiling

Dicko's picture

Great Work once again Rob !!

Very professional report providing the right level of objective insight of what MTBr's have been needing in this area.

Thanks again for all involved in the preparation of this report on behalf of our wider group. I for one am very appreciative of your commitment.

Fingers crossed this report and others like it will provide the necessary increased awareness for changes to be implemented.

D

mudgee's picture

I wish i'd found this joint press release from the Federal and State Governments prior to writing up the Sustainable Mountain Biking report.

http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/garrett/2...

"As a result of this investment by the Australian Government the local community will benefit in terms of employment and building specialist trade skills. This is also a great opportunity for businesses to supply the necessary materials and services for these vital works,” Mr Garrett said.

The project will provide an enhanced visitor experience of the environment through interpretive signs and improved visitor safety. It will also reduce visitor impact on the environment, especially erosion associated with the high numbers of visitors to the area."

Point being that when you have a lot of walkers:

1. You have an unacceptable level of erosion.
2. You chose to accomodate the extra use because it meets a social need.
3. Managing the impact requires you to spend $1.3m to upgrade the track (in addition to the $1.5m you just spent to do the same to another popular track down the road)
4. The resulting impact is considered to be managed within sustainable limits for the level of usage
5. When the direct local economic benefits, facilitation of increased park visitation and improvement of the tourism profile of the area are considered, the considerable government funding is well justified.

This reasoning sounds eerily familiar....as it is identical to that proposed in our report. On this basis, I'm hopeful that the NSW Government and our local councils can recognise that applying the same approach to mountain biking is relatively straightforward.

In short, spread the usage over more trails and ensure that any high usage trails are appropriately designed. The management costs incurred to ensure that the level of usage remains environmentally sustainable will usually be economically justified when the wider benefits are considered.

ar_junkie's picture

I wonder how old mate from NPA (Andrew Cox) would respond to this?
Eye-wink

rocksteady's picture

yeah good work guys. I thought the comparison to expenditure on walking tracks was a very good one, and a point that I hadn't seen emphasized before. The fact that endurance events, which represent only a subset of MB'ers, are selling out thousands of tickets in hours shows that the demand is there.

Alexd's picture

Anyone putting this amount of time back into the MTB community needs a pat on the back.

Thanks from me !

mmf3000's picture

I thank everyone involved, this is the best news of the year.
keep up the good work
Please keep me posted on how to help
I can provide some cut aluminium sheet for signs- can guillotine and round corners
regards
Blomie

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