🚀 go-pugleaf

 


This is an introduction, in part by way of a statement from one of the
founders, to the Boulder Off-road Alliance (BOA).  BOA is an active group
of mountain bikers in Boulder County who work for trail use in many ways.
Goals of BOA include working with land-use agencies to advocate responsible
trail use, trail maintenance and upkeep, and working with other trail use
groups so that everyone can enjoy their recreation.  BOA is very happy to
welcome new members.

This coming Monday, 22 August, BOA members will be volunteering at the CU
Bicycle Registration.  The registration is at the Events Center, near the
large buffalo statue on the west side of the complex.  If you're interested
in BOA, talk to a member there, or please send mail to me (address above)
or mtbmike@VNET.IBM.COM for more info.  Thanks.  [statement follows]



Mountain biking in Boulder... I suppose the first thing that comes to
mind is closed trails and the knee-jerk reaction of land use agencies and
unilateral closures when user conflicts arise.  There may be a thread of
truth to this, but let me give you a quick synopsis of mountain bike history
in the Boulder area.

If you've ever visited Boulder, you know that this lovely city sits on the
cusp between plains and foothills.  Most of the population  live on the
plains, within easy striking distance of the foothills.  Boulder residents,
which include 20,000+ students attending the University of Colorado, can be in
the hills in minutes.  The current population estimate in the county is about
240,000.

The Flatirons, Boulder's distinctive foothills geology, sits above Boulder in
a Mountain Park system that was deeded to the city over  50 years ago.  The
trails system that lies within this park is less than a ten minute bike ride
for 80,000. It's this network of trails that was the subject of a unilateral
closure to mountain bikes in 1983.  At that time, mountain biking was in its
infancy and there was no trail advocacy group to stand up to the Boulder City
Council.  But in hindsight, it's questionable whether bikes should ever be
allowed on these trails.

Today, these  trails are filled with hikers, runners and horseback riders,
and all of them seem to have dogs.  The city can't keep up with the amount
of trail degradation that the sheer volume of users imposes on the resource.
Boulder also has a very large transient population of students that attend the
University of Colorado.  At the beginning of every semester, there is a spike
in reports of outlaw mountain bikers on these trails.

But things aren't so bad here.  Boulder Off-road Alliance was formed by a half
dozen concerned mountain bikers in 1991.  BOA today exists to serve as a
positive voice for mountain biking in the Boulder County region.  Our energies
focus on the four land-use agencies in Boulder County: Boulder County Parks
and Open Space, the City of Boulder, the US Forest Service, and Eldorado
Canyon State Park. We work with these agencies to address user conflict issues
and work on their trails.

We understood the concept of sweat equity very early on.  With our desire to
expand the trails systems in our region, we knew that several things had to
happen first.
 
We had to help bring the existing trails up to a standard that the agencies
could manage.  Currently, all the agencies in the area have a strong aversion
to expanding their trails inventory because they can't keep up with the trails
they presently oversee.
 
With a large population base that was very recreation oriented, we knew there
was a tremendous untapped resource that could be utilized; we had to find a
way to reach this resource.
 
Our first step was to get the agencies to allocate the resources to direct
and execute volunteer work days on the trail.  Since staff personnel had so
many responsibilities, it was extremely difficult to get them to schedule more
than one work day per year.  That doesn't make much of a dent.

1993 was a turning point for the trails and open space in Boulder County, as
our requests were answered with a program developed jointly by all the
agencies to train crew leaders.  The Boulder Regional Conservation Crewleaders
(BRCC) could now be trusted to execute trail construction and maintenance
without direct supervision.  One half of the first class were BOA members.
With the help of BRCC, 2000 volunteer hours were spent on the trails by BOA
members in 1993.

In another major development, voters approved an open space tax in November
1993 that was to be used for the acquisition and management of open space
lands.  Unfortunately, Amendment 1, a government spending limitation measure
that was placed in the Colorado Constitution in 1992, stopped Boulder County
from floating 40 million dollars in bonds to buy lands.  The League of
Colorado Taxpayers filed suit in district court over this issue.  The
County is confident they will prevail, but as the appeals move their way to
the Colorado Courts, the price of land continues to rise.

However, on a positive note, Boulder County staff was able to persuade the
Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land to purchase almost 10,000
acres northwest of Boulder in the foothills.  These lands, the Heil and Hall
ranches, represent riding opportunities that don't exist in Boulder County
today.  In my estimation, there are 50+ miles of incredible riding terrain
right now!

The public won't get access to these lands until 1997, to allow time for owner
transition and inventory of wildlife, plant, and archeology resources.   Then
a management plan will be developed and the limits of access will be defined.

These lands represent the most interesting challenge for BOA since its
inception.  This is where the sweat equity that we have invested over the
years will be spent.  There will be a struggle, as there always is, between
the need to preserve the environment and provide recreation opportunities to
the public. We already know that several areas are designated "critical elk
winter habitat" so we are looking at a seasonal closure at a minimum.  And
although bike patrols don't exist in the Front Range today, I believe that
this is where bike patrols may be implemented first.

BOA's biggest challenge in the next three years would be to become *the
resource* for trail maintenance and construction for all the land use agencies
in the County.

Another step in this process is the Walker Ranch Project.  The Walker Ranch
Loop Trail is the most popular mountain bike trail in Boulder County.  It's
perhaps not the most satisfying ride, but because of it's proximity to Boulder
it gets 15,000 user visits a year, and 70% of those visitors are mountain
bikers.

This trail crosses through three jurisdictions: Boulder County, Eldorado Canyon
State Park, and BLM land.  This mess has, along with the constant use from
mtbs, destroyed the trail in several areas.  BOA, in partnership with Eldorado
Canyon State Park, retained the services of Jim Angell, a professional  trail
builder, for redesign work.  What we got was a trail stake log that detailed a
reroute of this trail through very rugged, isolated terrain.  That was two
years ago, and finally in 1994 we felt we had the resources to execute this
design work.

Through the help of county staff, we utilized jail crews.  We obtained a grant
from the State park lottery fund.  After a thousand volunteer hours of work,
we finished June 4, National Trails Day.

Although this is the most formidable project we have ever undertaken, it is
not the level of project we wish to eventually be able to undertake.
Boulder County has several open space parks that need a network of trails,
including the Heil and Hall Ranches.

To have the resources to put in a network of trails in a single season is the
vision that I hold for BOA.  Yes, that's quite difficult to visualize today
with about 125 members, but hey, that's what visions are all about!  It's my
hope that someday the land use agencies in our area have to compete for our
resources.  When we have reached this level, the sweat equity we have invested
in will have given mountain biking in Boulder County the political clout to
affect real change.

-- 
Rick Grubin  grubin@spot.colorado.edu     "Don't be silly."  -- Don Cherry