Tragedy of the ORV Playground: Politics of Land Abuse

Tragedy of the ORV Playground: Politics of Land Abuse

Posted on December 16, 2013 at 2:15 PM

Wreckreational ORVs include mountain bikes, motorcycles, and ATVs.(pg.287)  More people now drive off-road vehicles across forested…areas than pursue the less damaging activities of hiking… Off-road vehicles (ORVs) are everywhere, and mountain bike use has jumped more than 200% (pg. 289)

"Birds of a feather..." (Vedder Mountain, BC)

The Hits Keep Coming… (via consumptive mtn. bike riding and trail building)

“Unmotorized mountain biking is quiet, lacks exhaust, and may seem a relatively benign use of prepared trails and roads. But the bikes’ knobby tires compact and erode soils like motorcycles, with all the ancillary effects of changing  soil temperatures, reducing infiltration, and accelerating hillside erosion. A mountain bike damgages one acre of land in 44-50 miles of travel, comparable to a hiker’s 40 miles. The bikers cover ground much faster, however, so cumulatively they damage much more land per outing. The tires also compress soil to a much greater degree than do hikers’ feet and achieve maximum soil compaction with fewer passes.

Mountain (Dirt) Bike

Cross-country mountain bike travel also destroys and fragments habitat. Mountain bike (riding)  does not destroy larger plants, but the biker expression “bring home a Christmas tree” represents a predilection for crashing through underbrush, tearing branches from trees and shrubs (a lot of underbrush and branches, roots, etc. are  torn and damaged by NSMBA's very consumptive trail building activities.  Large, mature trees are also compromised by so much new trail building). Fast bike speeds on mountain and hill slopes and blind corners in dense forest vegetation make mountain biking difficult to combine with hiking and horse riding. Opening remote areas to mountain bikers to win support for wilderness designations threatens to heighten this incompatibility – and to segment more habitat in and beside wilderness acres. (page 290-300)

(Source: The American West at Risk : Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery, 2008)

Now, with the advent of DNV's "Trail Maintenance Service Agreement" signed with the NSMBA, thePolitics of Land Abuse has come full circle on the North Shore, (with the District of  West Vancouver, soon to follow)    While the NSMBA also builds a NEW "All Access Trail" for three and four-wheeled mountain bikes... (the odd motorized dirt bike and ATV will be sure to follow...) Welcome to the DNV ORV playgrounds inside our public forests... 

What will be in store for 2014?

Most likely, this documentary film -- too little, too late: "The Woods Belong to the NSMBA"

http://thewoodsbelongtous.com/

...examines two conflicting lifestyles: mountain biking and environmentalism, and the outcome when they collide.

"Our film features some builders and riders some of you may know, including:

Douglas Johnson (GFRA, Hood River, OR builder who frequents DNV)
Digger (he needs no introduction here)
Dangerous Dan
Peter Morin
DNV Mayor Richard Walton
Michael More (Marin Co., arrested in 2008 for building in China Camp)

... and a man I'm willing to bet you guys heard of - M.V."

http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=135126

(...and nary a protest to be heard on the North Shore....)