Failed Sediment Basin in Non-Motorized Recreation Area
Trail bigotry is ugly and counterproductive to ongoing
collaborative efforts between OHV, conservation groups, local government, and
land agencies to manage motorized recreational opportunities in a sustainable
manner.
I was prompted to write this response after reading Jan
Ziman’s Editorial: “We're being taken for a costly ride” in the Wyoming
Trib.Com.
Link to Ziman’s Editorial
Cherry-picking anecdotal stories about trail impacts to
the resource, user conflicts, and planning challenges is an old literary trick
that is outdated and ineffective.
I could cite a recent incidence in the San Gabriel Mountains
where an equestrian jumped off his mule and sliced the rear tire on a kid’s
bike when the small group of mountain bikers pulled off the trail to let him
pass.
Or, I could include a picture (which I am going to do at
the top of this story) of a failed soil catchment basin along a “Hiking only”
trail in a large non-motorized recreation area in East Contra Costa County,
California.
As I work with various land agencies and user groups of
all persuasions in California and elsewhere, I have found such illustrations –
when used to try and impugn other user groups – to be nothing more than a cheap
shot that makes the presenter look small and mean-spirited.
Merriam-Webster defines a bigot as a person who hates or
refuses to accept the members of a particular group. In my view, there is not a lot of room left
in the land use debate for trail bigots who seem stuck in a 1960s-era mindset.
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