M
Mike Vandeman
Guest
The Effects of Mountain Biking on Wildlife and People -- Why
Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited Michael J. Vandeman,
Ph.D. May 31, 1997
Mountain biking is a relatively new sport. According to
a mountain biking (MTB) web page (http://www.mtb-
bike.com), "The commercial Mountain Bike evolution
didn't start until 1974 and its first production bikes
didn't appear in stores until about 10 years later".
(Lower gearing, fat, knobby tires, sturdier
construction, but particularly the sealed bearing --
which could be ridden in dirt without getting destroyed
-- are what made "mountain" (off- road) bicycling
possible.) Partly for this reason, and partly because
the MTB is, from one point of view, just a special case
of an ORV (off-road vehicle), environmentalists and
scientists have been slow to study and recognize the
special threat that the mountain bike represents to
wildlife. Although there are many studies of ORVs, I am
not aware of any solid scientific studies specifically
on MTBs and their effects on wildlife.
To most environmentalists, bicycles have always been
the epitome of good. We are so used to comparing bikes
to cars, that it never occurred to us that the bicycle
would be ever used for anything bad. Indeed, replacing
motor vehicles with bicycles deserves our adoration.
But anything can be used for good or evil, and using
bikes to expand human domination of wildlife habitat is
clearly harmful.
Human beings think they own every square inch of the
Earth, and that they therefore have the right to do
what they want with
it. This is, of course, absurd. It is also the reason that
we are losing species at an unforgivable rate: we have
crowded wildlife out of its habitat. Even in our
parks, where we have vowed to protect wildlife, it is
not protected from hikers, equestrians, park
"managers", firefighters, mountain bikers, airplanes,
helicopters, cars, roads, concessionaires, or
biologists. Thus, the primary reason that mountain
bikes are harmful to wildlife is that they, like other
technological aids (cars, skis, rafts, rock- climbing
equipment, etc.), make it much easier for people to
get into wildlife habitat.
(Sadly, most people have forgotten that the only thing
that
makes parks worth visiting is the wildlife that live
there: it is
_____
precisely the wildlife (and paucity of humans) that
make a park a
_______________________________________________________-
__________
park. Without wildlife (i.e., all nonhuman,
nondomesticated species
____
-- plants as well as animals), the parks would be boring
piles of bare rock.)
Biology
_______
First and most obvious, mountain bikes kill organisms
that live on and under the soil: "When it comes to pure
recreational destructiveness, ... off-road vehicles
(ORVs) far surpass powerboats. ... It is a rare
environment indeed where a vehicle can be taken off-
road without damage. ... Standard ORVs with their
knobby tires are almost ideal devices for smashing
plant life and destroying soil. Even driven with
extreme care, a dirt bike will degrade about an acre of
land in a twenty-mile drive. ... Not only do the ORVs
exterminate animals by exterminating plants, they
attack them directly as well. Individual animals on the
surface and in shallow burrows ... are crushed. ... One
great problem with ORVs
_________________-
__________
is that they supply easy access to wilderness areas for
_______________________________________________________
unsupervised people who have ... no conception of the
damage they
_______________________________________________________-
__________
are doing" (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, pp.169-171; emphasis
added).
_________
(Although mountain bikes were hardly known when this was
written, it is obvious that the same applies to them.)
Recently, one of the largest Alameda whipsnakes (a
California threatened species) ever found was killed by
a mountain biker in Black Diamond Mines Regional
Preserve near here. Others have been killed on other
East Bay regional parks. Kathryn Phillips in Tracking
the Vanishing Frogs described how ORVs crossing creeks
____________________________
crush toads and their eggs (both buried in the sand). Bikes
are generally ridden too fast to avoid killing small
animals. Obviously, the animals didn't evolve in the
presence of mountain bikes, and can't be expected to deal
very effectively with such quiet, fast-moving objects. Even
hikers can kill small animals, if they aren't careful. The
one time I went to look for an Alameda whipsnake, I almost
stepped on one, which was lying in grass growing in the
trail, and didn't move until I had almost stepped on
iu.
Soils are extremely complex communities of living
organisms. They sometimes are very fragile and once
destroyed take decades to be recreated (e.g. desert
cryptogamic soil). Soil destruction is hastened by
acceleration (braking, speeding up, climbing, and
turning, which apply horizontal forces to the soil), by
tire lugs, which break the surface, and by water, which
softens the soil and makes it easier to demolish.
In the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA),
"park officials noted serious erosion problems on
certain steep narrow trails and determined that
restricting bicycle use would slow such erosion. [They]
noted that on narrow trails bicyclists passing other
users would either leave the trail or force the other
users off the trail to the detriment of off-trail
vegetation and wildlife. ... Downhill bicycle travel on
steep slopes is usually accompanied by braking and
often by skidding which tends to push dislodged surface
gravels into ditches, water bars, and drains. Heavy
bicycle use on steep trails usually requires that these
ditches, water bars, and drains be cleared more
frequently than those used by hikers and equestrians
only. ... Park staff and visitors reported that
bicyclists on these ... trails often skidded to control
their speed, slid off of trails on sharp turns, or cut
across off-trail areas at certain 'switch-backs'"
(Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Bruce Babbitt).
Mud containing seeds and spores sticks to bike tires,
thereby often carrying species of plants into areas
where they had not existed (becoming "exotics"). This
is worsened by the fact that bicycles travel long
distances, and are often carried to distant locations
(sometimes even foreign countries) by motor vehicle. It
is well known that such exotic species can cause havoc
when introduced into new habitats.
Most of us were raised to believe that "non-
consumptive" recreation is harmless to wildlife. We are
taught to enjoy ourselves in nature, guilt-free, as
long as we don't directly harm wildlife. However,
recent research, and the huge scale of current
recreation activities, have discredited this idea.
"Traditionally, observing, feeding, and photographing
wildlife were considered to be 'nonconsumptive'
activities because removal of animals from their
natural habitats did not occur.... nonconsumptive
wildlife recreation was considered relatively benign in
terms of its effects on wildlife; today, however, there
is a growing recognition that wildlife-viewing
recreation can have serious negative impacts on
wildlife" (Knight & Gutzwiller, p.257).
In other words, the mere presence of people is
often harmful
________
to wildlife, and the more, the worse. "The notion that
recreation
has no environmental impacts is no longer tenable.
Recreationists
often degrade the land, water, and wildlife resources
that support
their activities by simplifying plant communities,
increasing animal mortality, displacing and disturbing
wildlife, and distributing refuse" (ibid, p.3) "Recreational
disturbance has traditionally been viewed as most
detrimental to wildlife during the breeding season.
Recently, it has become apparent that disturbance outside of
the animal's breeding season may have equally severe
effects" (p.73) "People have an impact on wildlife habitat
and all that depends on it, no matter what the activity"
(p.157); "Perhaps the major way that people have influenced
wildlife populations is through encroachment into
wildlife areas"
(p.158). "Outdoor recreation has been recognized as an
important factor that can reduce biosphere
sustainability.... Indeed, recreational activities,
including many that may seem innocuous, can alter
vertebrate behaviour, reproduction, distributions,
and habitats" (p.169).
Knight & Gutzwiller's book contains numerous specific
examples of how these negative effects are created. We
may not know what the organisms are thinking, but the
effect is that they die, are forced to expend extra
energy that may be in short supply, become more
susceptible to predation, or are forced to move to less
suitable habitat, losing access to preferred foods,
mates, nesting sites, etc. Since most of us live safely
in the midst of plenty, it is hard for us to understand
wildlife's predicament. We are flexible enough to
survive almost anywhere; they are not. Often they have
no other place to live. None of the existing "studies"
on mountain biking evaluate its effects on wildlife.
They are usually concerned only with visible effects on
the trail. In Tilden Regional Park, there are three
separate, heavily used mountain biking trails through
the middle of supposedly protected Alameda whipsnake
habitat areas!
"Displaced animals are forced out of familiar habitat
and must then survive and reproduce in areas where they
are not familiar with the locations of food, shelter,
and other vital resources.... Hammitt and Cole ...
ranked displacement as being more detrimental to
wildlife than harassment or recreation-induced habitat
changes.... Densities ... of 13 breeding bird species
were negatively associated with the intensity of
recreation activity by park visitors, primarily
pedestrians and cyclists" (ibid, pp.173-
4); "off-road vehicles can collapse burrows of desert
mammals and reptiles" (p.176).
Sociology
_________
Hikers, especially the elderly, have been abandoning
their favorite trails, due to bikers that scare them,
hit them, harass them, and destroy the serenity of the
parks. Parks are supposed to be a refuge from the crush
of humanity and the noise, danger, and artificiality of
urban areas. Why bring to our parks the very
_____________________________-
__
things that most people go there to escape?! There is
absolutely
____________________________________________
nothing wrong with bicycling, in its proper setting (on a
road). It is a wonderfully healthful activity. But wildlife
is already in
_______
danger due to loss of habitat (worldwide, one quarter of all
animals are threatend with extinction, according to the IUCN
(International Union for the Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources)). It can't afford to lose any more. And
people have very similar needs for being in nature. Our
elderly are like wildlife, in that they have nowhere else to
go for the experience of nature that they are accustomed to.
By definition, hiking trails are the minimum size
necessary for a person to hike (approx. 18 inches
wide), since they are supposed to have a minimal
impact on the environment. They aren't wide enough for
a bicyclist to safely pass a hiker or another
bicyclist. Mixing bikers and hikers is dangerous for
both. In fact,
mountain biking is also dangerous for lone riders, since
hiking trails don't follow a predictable pattern and have
very short sight distances (the distance that one can see
ahead on the trail). Emergency room doctors report that a
large percentage of mountain bikers incur serious accidents.
"The record includes hundreds of letters from park
users recounting stories of collisions or near misses
with speeding or reckless bicyclists on all kinds of
trails but particularly on steep and narrow trails.
Hikers and bird watchers repeatedly told how they have
been forced off of trails by speeding bicycles and how
they have had their peace and solitude on the trails
interrupted by bicycles that -- because they are quiet
and fast -- seemed to appear out of nowhere and be
immediately upon the hikers and other users.
Equestrians told how their horses have been startled by
speeding or oncoming bicycles and have become restless,
on several occasions even throwing and injuring
experienced riders. Though most users admitted that the
great majority of bicyclists were polite and safety-
conscious, letters from hikers, equestrians, bird
watchers, joggers, and other users also repeatedly
recounted incidents of rudeness, threats, and
altercations when they have complained to an offending
bicyclist about dangerous conduct. Park staff also
reported having received such complaints. ... NPS's
[National Park Service's] finding that user conflict
and visitor danger would be reduced by limiting bicycle
trail access in GGNRA was supported by ample evidence.
... Notwithstanding the responsible user, bicycles are
often perceived by other users as a disruptive
influence on park trails. Although most of the few
reported bicycle accidents in the park involve only
single individuals, letters and reports from hikers and
equestrians tell of many close calls and
confrontational and unsettling experiences". "No single-
track trails [in the Marin Headlands] were found
suitable for bicycle use" (Bicycle Trails Council v.
Bruce Babbitt).
Since bicycles require wider trails, parks now often
use bulldozers to create and maintain those trails,
vastly increasing their impacts. In Claremont Canyon
Regional Preserve in Oakland, California, a new trail
was created by means of a "small" (6 foot blade)
bulldozer. But it rolled off the trail and had to be
rescued by a much bigger bulldozer. The existence of
bicyclists on trails also forces park rangers to police
the trails using motor vehicles (cars or motorcycles),
since it is the only way they can hope to catch them!
This also increases negative impacts on wildlife.
Children learn mostly nonverbally (by watching adults
and other children). Mountain biking is bad role
modeling for them, since it teaches them that human
domination and destruction of wildlife habitat is
normal and acceptable.
Mountain bikers like to claim that excluding them from
trails constitutes "discrimination". They say that
other user groups (hikers and equestrians) receive
better treatment from land managers. There is no basis
for such a claim, since all users are subject to
exactly the same rules. For example, on a trail closed
to bikes, everyone is allowed on the trail -- only the
bikes are ________ _____ excluded! In spite of what
they claim, mountain bikers have never
______
been excluded from any trail! Even if my way of "enjoying"
the wilderness is to race my bulldozer there, I am not
allowed to do that. And this is not because land managers
like hikers more than bulldozer racers. I am not being
excluded from the wilderness; I can go there whenever I
want, as long as I don't try to bring my
_____________________________-
_____
bulldozer with me. It is only the bulldozer that is
excluded, which _________________ _____ is due to its
effects on wildlife and people.
____________________________________________
If mountain bikers were actually being discriminated
against, they could sue park managers for access to
every trail that others are allowed on. On the
contrary, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit (Bicycle Trails Council v. Bruce Babbitt)
concluded that the National Park Service has the right
to ban bikes from trails. "All units of the National
Parks [are] to be treated consistently, with resource
protection the primary goal". "All bicycle use of off-
road areas [is] prohibited unless local park
superintendents [designate] particular trails to be
open" (bicyclists were contesting this rule). "Routes
may only be designated for bicycle use based on a
written determination that such use is consistent with
the protection of the park area's natural, scenic and
aesthetic values, safety considerations and management
objectives and will not disturb wildlife or park
_________________________
resources". "The Park Service is empowered with the
authority to determine what uses of park resources are
proper and what proportion of the park's resources are
available for each use". "The use of bicycles is allowed in
park areas under the same basic
_______________________________________________________-
__________
conditions as are motor vehicles, i.e. on park roads,
in parking
______________________________________________________-
__________
areas, and on routes designated for their use. ... certain
______________________________________________
limitations on their use are necessary and appropriate in
the interest of public safety, resource protection, and the
avoidance of visitor conflict" [emphasis added].
Clearly, bikes are not being banned from trails because
land managers like hikers and equestrians more! As
people, mountain bikers are indistinguishable from
other park users. It is the bikes
_____
that we object to, and not even the bikes, but their
presence in
______-
_____
natural areas. Banning bikes is simply a humane way of
protecting
_____________
our natural areas, while allowing all users equal access
to enjoy them. Thus, whether bikers or hikers or
equestrians are more harmful to wildlife (they all are, of
course) is irrelevant. ___ __________ Restricting bicycle
access is a way of reducing human impacts on wildlife and
wildlife habitat.
The Case of Brown's Woods
_________________________
Brown's Woods, one of the last stands of native forest
in central Iowa (southwest of DesMoines), illustrates
these issues. It was saved from logging and development
in 1972 by the S. E. Polk (High School) Ecology Club
and their sponsor, biology teacher, Kirk Brill, for
which they won a national award. Motorized vehicles
were banned, "because of the threat they posed to the
environment and to persons walking there" (Wayne Bills,
Polk County Conservation Board (PCCB) Executive
Director, 1972). The students worked hard to earn money
to build two miles of bike trails through the preserve.
However mountain bikers illegally built 4 1/2
additional miles of trail ("bikers have gouged more
than six miles of trail, up to 30 feet wide and a
foot or more deep in spots" (Loren Lown, PCCB Natural
Resources Specialist, 1996)). Wildlife were
disappearing, elderly hikers were driven out, and
vegetation was destroyed. "Already the bikers have
caused permanent irreparable damage to this pristine
area" (Ben Van Gundy, PCCB Director). It was called
"ecological vandalism". Last year, once again, Brill
and his students were forced to campaign to save the
preserve, this time from mountain bikers, and won,
getting a unanimous vote of the PCCB for a "total and
permanent ban on the use of mountain bikes" in
Brown's Woods.
Millions of mountain bikes are being sold every year
around the world. Let's not wait till "bikers have
caused permanent irreparable damage" to our other
natural areas! We can't eliminate all environmental
damage, but we can eliminate frivolous, ___ ___
unnecessary damage. True civilization is characterized
by restraint.
"It is expected that outdoor recreational activity will
continue to increase, while the amount of wild land
where wildlife may seek refuge from disturbance will
decrease" (Knight and Gutzwiller, p.327);
"Recreationists are, ironically, destroying the very
thing they love: the blooming buzzing confusion of
nature.... The recreation industry deserves to be
listed on the
________________________________________________-
____
same page with interests that are cutting the last of the
old-
___________________________________________________________-
___
growth forests, washing fertile topsoils into the sea,
and pouring
________________________________________________________-
__________
billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere" (p.340;
________________________________________________________
emphasis added); "Tom Birch ... argues that wilderness
managers, charged with incarcerating wilderness, are more
concerned with the advancement of their careers through
achieving quantifiable goals (number of park visitors, total
revenues) and developing park and forest amenities (roads,
'scenic' turnouts, restrooms, paved trails, maps,
campgrounds) than with perpetuating the land community of
which they are a part" (p.344).
Ideally, we should be working to reduce all human
access to
___
wildlife habitat. But at the very least, we should eliminate
mechanical access (with the exception of small compromises
for __________ _____ wheelchairs).
References:
Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Bruce Babbitt, No.C-93-
0009,slip op. (N. Dist. Cal., Sept. 1, 1994) (see also Third
Circuit Case 94- 16920, http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-
Ct/Circuit/9th/opinions/t/9416920o.htm).
Ehrlich, Paul and Anne, Extinction: The Causes and
Consequences of
________________________________-
__________
the Disappearance of Species. c.1981.
____________________________
Knight, Richard L. and Kevin J. Gutzwiller, eds.
Wildlife and
__________-
__
Recreationists. Covelo, California: Island Press, c.1995.
______________
Phillips, Kathryn, Tracking the Vanishing Frogs: An
Ecological
________________________________________-
___
Mystery. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
____________________________________________
Stebbins, Robert, personal communication.
Vandeman, Michael J., Ph.D.
http://www.imaja.com/change/environment/mvarticles/
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits
to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the
previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road
construction.)
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
Off-Road Bicycling Should be Prohibited Michael J. Vandeman,
Ph.D. May 31, 1997
Mountain biking is a relatively new sport. According to
a mountain biking (MTB) web page (http://www.mtb-
bike.com), "The commercial Mountain Bike evolution
didn't start until 1974 and its first production bikes
didn't appear in stores until about 10 years later".
(Lower gearing, fat, knobby tires, sturdier
construction, but particularly the sealed bearing --
which could be ridden in dirt without getting destroyed
-- are what made "mountain" (off- road) bicycling
possible.) Partly for this reason, and partly because
the MTB is, from one point of view, just a special case
of an ORV (off-road vehicle), environmentalists and
scientists have been slow to study and recognize the
special threat that the mountain bike represents to
wildlife. Although there are many studies of ORVs, I am
not aware of any solid scientific studies specifically
on MTBs and their effects on wildlife.
To most environmentalists, bicycles have always been
the epitome of good. We are so used to comparing bikes
to cars, that it never occurred to us that the bicycle
would be ever used for anything bad. Indeed, replacing
motor vehicles with bicycles deserves our adoration.
But anything can be used for good or evil, and using
bikes to expand human domination of wildlife habitat is
clearly harmful.
Human beings think they own every square inch of the
Earth, and that they therefore have the right to do
what they want with
it. This is, of course, absurd. It is also the reason that
we are losing species at an unforgivable rate: we have
crowded wildlife out of its habitat. Even in our
parks, where we have vowed to protect wildlife, it is
not protected from hikers, equestrians, park
"managers", firefighters, mountain bikers, airplanes,
helicopters, cars, roads, concessionaires, or
biologists. Thus, the primary reason that mountain
bikes are harmful to wildlife is that they, like other
technological aids (cars, skis, rafts, rock- climbing
equipment, etc.), make it much easier for people to
get into wildlife habitat.
(Sadly, most people have forgotten that the only thing
that
makes parks worth visiting is the wildlife that live
there: it is
_____
precisely the wildlife (and paucity of humans) that
make a park a
_______________________________________________________-
__________
park. Without wildlife (i.e., all nonhuman,
nondomesticated species
____
-- plants as well as animals), the parks would be boring
piles of bare rock.)
Biology
_______
First and most obvious, mountain bikes kill organisms
that live on and under the soil: "When it comes to pure
recreational destructiveness, ... off-road vehicles
(ORVs) far surpass powerboats. ... It is a rare
environment indeed where a vehicle can be taken off-
road without damage. ... Standard ORVs with their
knobby tires are almost ideal devices for smashing
plant life and destroying soil. Even driven with
extreme care, a dirt bike will degrade about an acre of
land in a twenty-mile drive. ... Not only do the ORVs
exterminate animals by exterminating plants, they
attack them directly as well. Individual animals on the
surface and in shallow burrows ... are crushed. ... One
great problem with ORVs
_________________-
__________
is that they supply easy access to wilderness areas for
_______________________________________________________
unsupervised people who have ... no conception of the
damage they
_______________________________________________________-
__________
are doing" (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, pp.169-171; emphasis
added).
_________
(Although mountain bikes were hardly known when this was
written, it is obvious that the same applies to them.)
Recently, one of the largest Alameda whipsnakes (a
California threatened species) ever found was killed by
a mountain biker in Black Diamond Mines Regional
Preserve near here. Others have been killed on other
East Bay regional parks. Kathryn Phillips in Tracking
the Vanishing Frogs described how ORVs crossing creeks
____________________________
crush toads and their eggs (both buried in the sand). Bikes
are generally ridden too fast to avoid killing small
animals. Obviously, the animals didn't evolve in the
presence of mountain bikes, and can't be expected to deal
very effectively with such quiet, fast-moving objects. Even
hikers can kill small animals, if they aren't careful. The
one time I went to look for an Alameda whipsnake, I almost
stepped on one, which was lying in grass growing in the
trail, and didn't move until I had almost stepped on
iu.
Soils are extremely complex communities of living
organisms. They sometimes are very fragile and once
destroyed take decades to be recreated (e.g. desert
cryptogamic soil). Soil destruction is hastened by
acceleration (braking, speeding up, climbing, and
turning, which apply horizontal forces to the soil), by
tire lugs, which break the surface, and by water, which
softens the soil and makes it easier to demolish.
In the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA),
"park officials noted serious erosion problems on
certain steep narrow trails and determined that
restricting bicycle use would slow such erosion. [They]
noted that on narrow trails bicyclists passing other
users would either leave the trail or force the other
users off the trail to the detriment of off-trail
vegetation and wildlife. ... Downhill bicycle travel on
steep slopes is usually accompanied by braking and
often by skidding which tends to push dislodged surface
gravels into ditches, water bars, and drains. Heavy
bicycle use on steep trails usually requires that these
ditches, water bars, and drains be cleared more
frequently than those used by hikers and equestrians
only. ... Park staff and visitors reported that
bicyclists on these ... trails often skidded to control
their speed, slid off of trails on sharp turns, or cut
across off-trail areas at certain 'switch-backs'"
(Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Bruce Babbitt).
Mud containing seeds and spores sticks to bike tires,
thereby often carrying species of plants into areas
where they had not existed (becoming "exotics"). This
is worsened by the fact that bicycles travel long
distances, and are often carried to distant locations
(sometimes even foreign countries) by motor vehicle. It
is well known that such exotic species can cause havoc
when introduced into new habitats.
Most of us were raised to believe that "non-
consumptive" recreation is harmless to wildlife. We are
taught to enjoy ourselves in nature, guilt-free, as
long as we don't directly harm wildlife. However,
recent research, and the huge scale of current
recreation activities, have discredited this idea.
"Traditionally, observing, feeding, and photographing
wildlife were considered to be 'nonconsumptive'
activities because removal of animals from their
natural habitats did not occur.... nonconsumptive
wildlife recreation was considered relatively benign in
terms of its effects on wildlife; today, however, there
is a growing recognition that wildlife-viewing
recreation can have serious negative impacts on
wildlife" (Knight & Gutzwiller, p.257).
In other words, the mere presence of people is
often harmful
________
to wildlife, and the more, the worse. "The notion that
recreation
has no environmental impacts is no longer tenable.
Recreationists
often degrade the land, water, and wildlife resources
that support
their activities by simplifying plant communities,
increasing animal mortality, displacing and disturbing
wildlife, and distributing refuse" (ibid, p.3) "Recreational
disturbance has traditionally been viewed as most
detrimental to wildlife during the breeding season.
Recently, it has become apparent that disturbance outside of
the animal's breeding season may have equally severe
effects" (p.73) "People have an impact on wildlife habitat
and all that depends on it, no matter what the activity"
(p.157); "Perhaps the major way that people have influenced
wildlife populations is through encroachment into
wildlife areas"
(p.158). "Outdoor recreation has been recognized as an
important factor that can reduce biosphere
sustainability.... Indeed, recreational activities,
including many that may seem innocuous, can alter
vertebrate behaviour, reproduction, distributions,
and habitats" (p.169).
Knight & Gutzwiller's book contains numerous specific
examples of how these negative effects are created. We
may not know what the organisms are thinking, but the
effect is that they die, are forced to expend extra
energy that may be in short supply, become more
susceptible to predation, or are forced to move to less
suitable habitat, losing access to preferred foods,
mates, nesting sites, etc. Since most of us live safely
in the midst of plenty, it is hard for us to understand
wildlife's predicament. We are flexible enough to
survive almost anywhere; they are not. Often they have
no other place to live. None of the existing "studies"
on mountain biking evaluate its effects on wildlife.
They are usually concerned only with visible effects on
the trail. In Tilden Regional Park, there are three
separate, heavily used mountain biking trails through
the middle of supposedly protected Alameda whipsnake
habitat areas!
"Displaced animals are forced out of familiar habitat
and must then survive and reproduce in areas where they
are not familiar with the locations of food, shelter,
and other vital resources.... Hammitt and Cole ...
ranked displacement as being more detrimental to
wildlife than harassment or recreation-induced habitat
changes.... Densities ... of 13 breeding bird species
were negatively associated with the intensity of
recreation activity by park visitors, primarily
pedestrians and cyclists" (ibid, pp.173-
4); "off-road vehicles can collapse burrows of desert
mammals and reptiles" (p.176).
Sociology
_________
Hikers, especially the elderly, have been abandoning
their favorite trails, due to bikers that scare them,
hit them, harass them, and destroy the serenity of the
parks. Parks are supposed to be a refuge from the crush
of humanity and the noise, danger, and artificiality of
urban areas. Why bring to our parks the very
_____________________________-
__
things that most people go there to escape?! There is
absolutely
____________________________________________
nothing wrong with bicycling, in its proper setting (on a
road). It is a wonderfully healthful activity. But wildlife
is already in
_______
danger due to loss of habitat (worldwide, one quarter of all
animals are threatend with extinction, according to the IUCN
(International Union for the Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources)). It can't afford to lose any more. And
people have very similar needs for being in nature. Our
elderly are like wildlife, in that they have nowhere else to
go for the experience of nature that they are accustomed to.
By definition, hiking trails are the minimum size
necessary for a person to hike (approx. 18 inches
wide), since they are supposed to have a minimal
impact on the environment. They aren't wide enough for
a bicyclist to safely pass a hiker or another
bicyclist. Mixing bikers and hikers is dangerous for
both. In fact,
mountain biking is also dangerous for lone riders, since
hiking trails don't follow a predictable pattern and have
very short sight distances (the distance that one can see
ahead on the trail). Emergency room doctors report that a
large percentage of mountain bikers incur serious accidents.
"The record includes hundreds of letters from park
users recounting stories of collisions or near misses
with speeding or reckless bicyclists on all kinds of
trails but particularly on steep and narrow trails.
Hikers and bird watchers repeatedly told how they have
been forced off of trails by speeding bicycles and how
they have had their peace and solitude on the trails
interrupted by bicycles that -- because they are quiet
and fast -- seemed to appear out of nowhere and be
immediately upon the hikers and other users.
Equestrians told how their horses have been startled by
speeding or oncoming bicycles and have become restless,
on several occasions even throwing and injuring
experienced riders. Though most users admitted that the
great majority of bicyclists were polite and safety-
conscious, letters from hikers, equestrians, bird
watchers, joggers, and other users also repeatedly
recounted incidents of rudeness, threats, and
altercations when they have complained to an offending
bicyclist about dangerous conduct. Park staff also
reported having received such complaints. ... NPS's
[National Park Service's] finding that user conflict
and visitor danger would be reduced by limiting bicycle
trail access in GGNRA was supported by ample evidence.
... Notwithstanding the responsible user, bicycles are
often perceived by other users as a disruptive
influence on park trails. Although most of the few
reported bicycle accidents in the park involve only
single individuals, letters and reports from hikers and
equestrians tell of many close calls and
confrontational and unsettling experiences". "No single-
track trails [in the Marin Headlands] were found
suitable for bicycle use" (Bicycle Trails Council v.
Bruce Babbitt).
Since bicycles require wider trails, parks now often
use bulldozers to create and maintain those trails,
vastly increasing their impacts. In Claremont Canyon
Regional Preserve in Oakland, California, a new trail
was created by means of a "small" (6 foot blade)
bulldozer. But it rolled off the trail and had to be
rescued by a much bigger bulldozer. The existence of
bicyclists on trails also forces park rangers to police
the trails using motor vehicles (cars or motorcycles),
since it is the only way they can hope to catch them!
This also increases negative impacts on wildlife.
Children learn mostly nonverbally (by watching adults
and other children). Mountain biking is bad role
modeling for them, since it teaches them that human
domination and destruction of wildlife habitat is
normal and acceptable.
Mountain bikers like to claim that excluding them from
trails constitutes "discrimination". They say that
other user groups (hikers and equestrians) receive
better treatment from land managers. There is no basis
for such a claim, since all users are subject to
exactly the same rules. For example, on a trail closed
to bikes, everyone is allowed on the trail -- only the
bikes are ________ _____ excluded! In spite of what
they claim, mountain bikers have never
______
been excluded from any trail! Even if my way of "enjoying"
the wilderness is to race my bulldozer there, I am not
allowed to do that. And this is not because land managers
like hikers more than bulldozer racers. I am not being
excluded from the wilderness; I can go there whenever I
want, as long as I don't try to bring my
_____________________________-
_____
bulldozer with me. It is only the bulldozer that is
excluded, which _________________ _____ is due to its
effects on wildlife and people.
____________________________________________
If mountain bikers were actually being discriminated
against, they could sue park managers for access to
every trail that others are allowed on. On the
contrary, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit (Bicycle Trails Council v. Bruce Babbitt)
concluded that the National Park Service has the right
to ban bikes from trails. "All units of the National
Parks [are] to be treated consistently, with resource
protection the primary goal". "All bicycle use of off-
road areas [is] prohibited unless local park
superintendents [designate] particular trails to be
open" (bicyclists were contesting this rule). "Routes
may only be designated for bicycle use based on a
written determination that such use is consistent with
the protection of the park area's natural, scenic and
aesthetic values, safety considerations and management
objectives and will not disturb wildlife or park
_________________________
resources". "The Park Service is empowered with the
authority to determine what uses of park resources are
proper and what proportion of the park's resources are
available for each use". "The use of bicycles is allowed in
park areas under the same basic
_______________________________________________________-
__________
conditions as are motor vehicles, i.e. on park roads,
in parking
______________________________________________________-
__________
areas, and on routes designated for their use. ... certain
______________________________________________
limitations on their use are necessary and appropriate in
the interest of public safety, resource protection, and the
avoidance of visitor conflict" [emphasis added].
Clearly, bikes are not being banned from trails because
land managers like hikers and equestrians more! As
people, mountain bikers are indistinguishable from
other park users. It is the bikes
_____
that we object to, and not even the bikes, but their
presence in
______-
_____
natural areas. Banning bikes is simply a humane way of
protecting
_____________
our natural areas, while allowing all users equal access
to enjoy them. Thus, whether bikers or hikers or
equestrians are more harmful to wildlife (they all are, of
course) is irrelevant. ___ __________ Restricting bicycle
access is a way of reducing human impacts on wildlife and
wildlife habitat.
The Case of Brown's Woods
_________________________
Brown's Woods, one of the last stands of native forest
in central Iowa (southwest of DesMoines), illustrates
these issues. It was saved from logging and development
in 1972 by the S. E. Polk (High School) Ecology Club
and their sponsor, biology teacher, Kirk Brill, for
which they won a national award. Motorized vehicles
were banned, "because of the threat they posed to the
environment and to persons walking there" (Wayne Bills,
Polk County Conservation Board (PCCB) Executive
Director, 1972). The students worked hard to earn money
to build two miles of bike trails through the preserve.
However mountain bikers illegally built 4 1/2
additional miles of trail ("bikers have gouged more
than six miles of trail, up to 30 feet wide and a
foot or more deep in spots" (Loren Lown, PCCB Natural
Resources Specialist, 1996)). Wildlife were
disappearing, elderly hikers were driven out, and
vegetation was destroyed. "Already the bikers have
caused permanent irreparable damage to this pristine
area" (Ben Van Gundy, PCCB Director). It was called
"ecological vandalism". Last year, once again, Brill
and his students were forced to campaign to save the
preserve, this time from mountain bikers, and won,
getting a unanimous vote of the PCCB for a "total and
permanent ban on the use of mountain bikes" in
Brown's Woods.
Millions of mountain bikes are being sold every year
around the world. Let's not wait till "bikers have
caused permanent irreparable damage" to our other
natural areas! We can't eliminate all environmental
damage, but we can eliminate frivolous, ___ ___
unnecessary damage. True civilization is characterized
by restraint.
"It is expected that outdoor recreational activity will
continue to increase, while the amount of wild land
where wildlife may seek refuge from disturbance will
decrease" (Knight and Gutzwiller, p.327);
"Recreationists are, ironically, destroying the very
thing they love: the blooming buzzing confusion of
nature.... The recreation industry deserves to be
listed on the
________________________________________________-
____
same page with interests that are cutting the last of the
old-
___________________________________________________________-
___
growth forests, washing fertile topsoils into the sea,
and pouring
________________________________________________________-
__________
billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere" (p.340;
________________________________________________________
emphasis added); "Tom Birch ... argues that wilderness
managers, charged with incarcerating wilderness, are more
concerned with the advancement of their careers through
achieving quantifiable goals (number of park visitors, total
revenues) and developing park and forest amenities (roads,
'scenic' turnouts, restrooms, paved trails, maps,
campgrounds) than with perpetuating the land community of
which they are a part" (p.344).
Ideally, we should be working to reduce all human
access to
___
wildlife habitat. But at the very least, we should eliminate
mechanical access (with the exception of small compromises
for __________ _____ wheelchairs).
References:
Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Bruce Babbitt, No.C-93-
0009,slip op. (N. Dist. Cal., Sept. 1, 1994) (see also Third
Circuit Case 94- 16920, http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-
Ct/Circuit/9th/opinions/t/9416920o.htm).
Ehrlich, Paul and Anne, Extinction: The Causes and
Consequences of
________________________________-
__________
the Disappearance of Species. c.1981.
____________________________
Knight, Richard L. and Kevin J. Gutzwiller, eds.
Wildlife and
__________-
__
Recreationists. Covelo, California: Island Press, c.1995.
______________
Phillips, Kathryn, Tracking the Vanishing Frogs: An
Ecological
________________________________________-
___
Mystery. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
____________________________________________
Stebbins, Robert, personal communication.
Vandeman, Michael J., Ph.D.
http://www.imaja.com/change/environment/mvarticles/
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits
to humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the
previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road
construction.)
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
