Not so happy trails

Re: “Tranquil Trails,” NSO, July 10

Tranquil trails? The trails may be “tranquil” for the mountain bikers, but it is and will continue to be far from tranquil for hikers, residents living adjacent to the trails, and for the flora and fauna residing next to them.

This very expensive and unbalanced plan was ill won by the mountain biking advocacy on a very unlevel playing field, where intimidation, bullying and subverting fair and democratic process was the name of the game. 

Sadly, these tactics have been successful, as DNV has rewarded them for it – at great cost to future biodiversity of our temperate rain forest ecology.

In effect, extreme “free-ride” mountain biking sprawl will continue on the backs of DNV taxpayers, if  DNV chooses to “aggressively fund” it (Mayor Walton’s own words).

 Mountain View Park and adjacent environs, in particular, are habitat to a species-at-risk amphibian.

How will more mountain biking trails and yet another exit proposed to be built nearby help preserve its highly bio-diverse ecological integrity for future generations to enjoy? Mayor and council completely ignored a petition signed by 340 people urging proper conservation of this area, acknowledging that some critical species-at-risk habitat does need to be made completely off limits to mountain biking.

 DNV has gone against the grain of many international pleas urging governments to better conserve remaining biodiversity and species-at-risk habitats. Most recent is the BC Biodiversity Report,  “Taking Nature’s Pulse; The Status of British Columbia Biodiversity 2008” (a comprehensive 290-plus page report, www.biodiversitybc.org), which states that “the cumulative impacts of human activities in B.C. are increasing and are resulting in the loss of ecosystem resilience. Connectivity of ecosystems in B.C. is being lost and, among other impacts, this will limit the ability of species to shift their distributions in response to climate change.”

The Fromme Trails Plan does nothing to address this problem and, instead,  exacerbates it – encouraging the ongoing mountain biking sprawl, when containment and proper enforcement of this extreme sport is direly needed instead. All that so-called “volunteerism” mountain bikers have been putting into their trails has been happening since it was considered an “outlaw activity”, and is, in fact, a vital part of the whole extreme mountain biking  lifestyle/culture. “Ride, build, ride some more...”

 Meanwhile, the loud mountain biker tailgate parties on residential streets continue south of the “Residents’ Parking Only (RPO)” zone in Upper Lynn Valley. A couple small parking lots are not going to solve this problem, especially while the mountain biking advocacy is pushing hard for DNV to also do away with the existing RPO, so they can have “dispersed parking” with easy access to their trails. Something like going back to pre-2003 conditions? No thanks! “Build it and they will come...”

 Save the mountain bike trails? Or save a species-at-risk habitat? DNV Mayor and council made their very expensive choice clear when they unanimously accepted the Fromme “Mountain Bike” Trails Plan. What else can you expect during election year, where the mountain biking advocacy have flexed their political muscles in past elections? Nothing much has really changed since the mountain bikers first came onto Mt. Fromme to build their trails and structures behind the backs of the landowners and residents. Only the terminology has changed. The questionable behaviour, both on and off the trails, continues. 

 Mt. Fromme and Mountain View Park have now officially become a “sprawling amusement park for mountain bikers”, taking DNV two steps backwards in their attempt to become environmental leaders. The spoils have gone to the victors. And that, dear folks, is a crying shame!

Monica Craver, North Vancouver