Hiyall. Im a MTBEer from Bemidji, MN and recently, Movil Maze got logged for a month. Me and my schools MTB club went to the logged trail, and they didnt even clean up anything. Ive had to pick up several fallen branches and trees that the loggers cut. The trail is a hazard for mountain bikers, advice?
by PurplePhoenixGT
11 Comments
Call your local politician and ask who donates more to their campaign, loggers or mountain bikers. Write a term paper on the injustices of our system.
That looks fairly typical. A lot of the trails where I ride are either DNR land that gets logged or even commercial tree farms. Lately the land manager will ask the loggers not to destroy the tread and they’ll do their best but it’s still a big mess afterwards. The local MTB advocacy group goes in and does some trail work.
So my suggestion would be to find out who maintains those trails and volunteer to help out. I wouldn’t get too worked up until you know who’s paying what to whom.
Contact the landowner if the trails are sanctioned. Keep in mind that we as mountain bikers are often guests on land managed for other purposes. It could have been an honest mistake by a logger who doesn’t understand mountain biking or the clean up may be someone else’s responsibility (subcontractor, landowner, trails club, etc.)
Really this is a case where someone needs to be clear about land ownership first (use a parcel map).
Then contact the land owner if it’s not public land. If it’s public talk to who is responsible for resources management in that area.
Then go clean up your trail if you’re allowed to.
Then have a mature discussion about what happened. And show before the logging after the logging and then after you cleaned up.
If all goes well you may have an area that may be easier to maintain in the future.
On a more personal level:
OP this sucks to see I’m sorry. Do you have sponsors for your team? Id also let them know what happened and they may be able to help rally up some support to help clean up.
In all likelihood the loggers probably have long lasting rights to log in that area your use is likely considered to be tertiary. So they likely can’t prevent long term stakeholders from continuing operations. I hope you and your team continue to have fun out there.
That sucks, but also freshly logged land is an opportunity for you to finally blaze that trail along the sweet new line you’ve been eyeing, without fear of environmental impact. The impact has been made already for you, and if you’re clearing branches anyway, might as well get some buddies and clear it over some sweet jumps or make an easier switchback climbing network.
I’ve seen loggers forced to clear debris from the trail, but leave any actual repair to the local trail group.
Be careful not to raise too much of a stink about it without knowing too many facts. We just lost access to some excellent trails because the landowner has been great for years, letting us build trails on his land. But this past summer, he was logging some on the land, and people put up a bit of a stink about it and started raising safety concerns. Now, we are banned from the land due to safety concerns.
That’s a bummer, man. Hopefully you guys get it sorted out and cleaned up. I rode Movil Maze this summer and had a great time.
It happens. It depends on the land ownership. I’ve lived in places where the logging companies own the land, but allow people access including mountain bikers. Old trails get wiped out, new ones are built. Sometimes, you just gotta clear up the trails from the debris.
So most of the areas where I ride are owned for the main purpose of logging. The ability to form trails is a bonus. A lot of time and effort goes into the trails, but ultimately, for the land to be financially sustainable as MTB trails, it needs to be logged. When the logging happens, it becomes a mess. Even if they actively try not to destroy trials, it is still a by-product of logging. If they carefully work around every trail, it then takes too long to log and again becomes unaffordable. This is where Dig days and team efforts come into play. Cleaning up the trails, adding new features based on what is left, developing additional section etc is all part of it. While it’s not something we like to do, occasionally it has to be done to ensure land owners keep allowing MTB access and trails.
On BLM land they are supposed to clean it up. We’ve also used logging as an excuse to move and rebuild trails without having to go through NEPA. So this could be a scenario to bring in some contractors and upgrade your trails without involving the lawyers.