North County Mountain Bikers:
Here's what's happening around North County
PENASQUITAS CANYON - TUNNEL TRAIL:
If you've been following the status on the Del Mar Mesa Resource
Management Plan draft, you know that the City of San Diego's Open Space Division has told us the Closure of Deer Canyon is temporary while they wait for the California Department of Fish & Game and the US Fish & Wildlife Service to review the input and materials they received at the September, 2008 public hearing (and subsequent private government meetings) in regard to our suggestions that over 65% of the longstanding, migrant-worker created trails be closed and re-vegetated while a modicum of the most valued, least impactive trails be adopted into the Open Space Trails System as these pre-existing trails become part of the City's property.
The Agencies delivered their letter on February 27th, and I have
uploaded a copy of it to the Files section on the MTC's Yahoo site.
The letter is not good news. In simple summary, the agencies (which have no people on the ground at all, as anyone in these areas can attest after seeing decade(s) of 4x4 activity on the lands these agencies "manage") recommend that the entire area be closed, subject to the City's negotiation with SDG&E to allow use of the utility road only, and then subsequently pending a review of other trails that will begin in late 2009 and is predicated on the fencing, closure and enforcement of trail closures throughout the entirety of Deer Canyon. The agencies do recommend that equestrian trails be located in McGonigle Canyon and that an "equestrian use plan" for the Del Mar Mesa should be created.
The agencies also report that they, " have recently been made aware by City staff and the public that unauthorized trails have been apparently created, mainly by and for mountain bikers, throughout the Del Mar Mesa Preserve and to a lesser extent in the Carmel Mountain Preserve." They continue, "...illegal creation and current high density of bike trails is incompatible with the main purpose of the Preserves (i.e. biological preservation) and must be curtailed and corrected". You might find these assertions fly in the face with the known facts, the pubic record and your own personal knowledge, and you might find them suspiciously consistent with the misinformation published and professed by particular anti-access, anti-environmental groups known to approve the bulldozing of habitat and trails on the Del Mar Mesa. Draw your own conclusions but, note also that the City staff have either been wrongly quoted by these agencies, or they also perpetrated the same misinformation they know to be erroneous and misleading.
The second page of the agency letter describes a series of six tasks or goals that they have nothing to do with, but would like the City Open Space Division to implement. Give it a good look and ask yourself whether the agencies have just provide a recipe for failure by land managers that require your participation and support for reasonable policies and responsible management of the lands we own as the public.
Read the document and post your thoughts for our coordinated response.
Erik Basil
Multiuse Trails Coalition
____________________ ###____________________
CARLSBAD:
Trail work at La Costa on Jan 10 at 8 a.m. -Intersection of Camino Junipero and Corte Romero, right off of Rancho Santa Fe in La Costa
URGENT: The City of Carlsbad is embarking on a multi-year project called "Envision Carlsbad." The City is reaching out to the community to learn what is most important to its citizens. Carlsbad mountain bikers need to be involved in this process. First meeting is Wednesday, January 14 at 6pm, room 173, City of Carlsbad Faraday Center. Please contact me and recruit fellow Carlsbad mountain bikers to pitch in. This could be a pivotal opportunity to maintain trail access.
There will be an SDMBA sponsored trail day at Calavera on March 8. More details to follow.
If you know who is building illegal trails in Calavera (or anywhere else for that matter), tell them to knock it off! It's going to erode our credibility and cost us trails in the long run if they keep it up.
OCEANSIDE:
The City of Oceanside's Bicycle Committee has embraced the "Bicycle Skills Park" concept and has identified a 4 acre parcel near I-5 that could accommodate a pump track, jump park, progressive skills area, BMX track, and even some XC trails. Please contact me if you are interested in working on this project.
Erik Trogden
North County Coastal Liaison
SDMBA
Here's what's happening around North County
PENASQUITAS CANYON - TUNNEL TRAIL:
If you've been following the status on the Del Mar Mesa Resource
Management Plan draft, you know that the City of San Diego's Open Space Division has told us the Closure of Deer Canyon is temporary while they wait for the California Department of Fish & Game and the US Fish & Wildlife Service to review the input and materials they received at the September, 2008 public hearing (and subsequent private government meetings) in regard to our suggestions that over 65% of the longstanding, migrant-worker created trails be closed and re-vegetated while a modicum of the most valued, least impactive trails be adopted into the Open Space Trails System as these pre-existing trails become part of the City's property.
The Agencies delivered their letter on February 27th, and I have
uploaded a copy of it to the Files section on the MTC's Yahoo site.
The letter is not good news. In simple summary, the agencies (which have no people on the ground at all, as anyone in these areas can attest after seeing decade(s) of 4x4 activity on the lands these agencies "manage") recommend that the entire area be closed, subject to the City's negotiation with SDG&E to allow use of the utility road only, and then subsequently pending a review of other trails that will begin in late 2009 and is predicated on the fencing, closure and enforcement of trail closures throughout the entirety of Deer Canyon. The agencies do recommend that equestrian trails be located in McGonigle Canyon and that an "equestrian use plan" for the Del Mar Mesa should be created.
The agencies also report that they, " have recently been made aware by City staff and the public that unauthorized trails have been apparently created, mainly by and for mountain bikers, throughout the Del Mar Mesa Preserve and to a lesser extent in the Carmel Mountain Preserve." They continue, "...illegal creation and current high density of bike trails is incompatible with the main purpose of the Preserves (i.e. biological preservation) and must be curtailed and corrected". You might find these assertions fly in the face with the known facts, the pubic record and your own personal knowledge, and you might find them suspiciously consistent with the misinformation published and professed by particular anti-access, anti-environmental groups known to approve the bulldozing of habitat and trails on the Del Mar Mesa. Draw your own conclusions but, note also that the City staff have either been wrongly quoted by these agencies, or they also perpetrated the same misinformation they know to be erroneous and misleading.
The second page of the agency letter describes a series of six tasks or goals that they have nothing to do with, but would like the City Open Space Division to implement. Give it a good look and ask yourself whether the agencies have just provide a recipe for failure by land managers that require your participation and support for reasonable policies and responsible management of the lands we own as the public.
Read the document and post your thoughts for our coordinated response.
Erik Basil
Multiuse Trails Coalition
____________________ ###____________________
CARLSBAD:
Trail work at La Costa on Jan 10 at 8 a.m. -Intersection of Camino Junipero and Corte Romero, right off of Rancho Santa Fe in La Costa
URGENT: The City of Carlsbad is embarking on a multi-year project called "Envision Carlsbad." The City is reaching out to the community to learn what is most important to its citizens. Carlsbad mountain bikers need to be involved in this process. First meeting is Wednesday, January 14 at 6pm, room 173, City of Carlsbad Faraday Center. Please contact me and recruit fellow Carlsbad mountain bikers to pitch in. This could be a pivotal opportunity to maintain trail access.
There will be an SDMBA sponsored trail day at Calavera on March 8. More details to follow.
If you know who is building illegal trails in Calavera (or anywhere else for that matter), tell them to knock it off! It's going to erode our credibility and cost us trails in the long run if they keep it up.
OCEANSIDE:
The City of Oceanside's Bicycle Committee has embraced the "Bicycle Skills Park" concept and has identified a 4 acre parcel near I-5 that could accommodate a pump track, jump park, progressive skills area, BMX track, and even some XC trails. Please contact me if you are interested in working on this project.
Erik Trogden
North County Coastal Liaison
SDMBA
