Opinion: STOP Riding Like This! Ease the Impact of Mountain Biking on the Environment

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are Chris Daniels’s alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Singletracks.com.

Enough whining already! Stop berating politicians and land managers for avoiding a fair public process, an absence of bipartisanship, unilateral decisions, dismissing scientific data leading to blind edicts preventing, prohibiting, and pilfering our trails under pretenses that mountain biking harms the environment more than other forms of trail use until…

…we put ourselves under the microscope.

The issue isn’t whether or not mountain biking degrades a trail or impacts the environment in some harmful way, but to what extent it does and how much control YOU have over it. While the impacts of off-road biking have been shown to be equal to (and according to some research, less than) hiking, it is dually important to develop and encourage a certain self-awareness to identify, break, and prevent poor but avoidable riding behaviors to mitigate environmental damage.

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) has identified 6 avoidable forms of harmful environmental impacts caused by all types of trail use:

• Disruption of wildlife
• Degradation of water quality
• Soil compaction
• Erosion
• Muddiness
• Loss of vegetation

The following party fouls are real-trail examples of how poor technique, ignorance, and plain laziness can degrade trail quality and extend damage to the surrounding environment, along with some solutions. These cases also happen to be what anti-off-road extremists will include in their armamentarium to shut us down.

Stop Riding Dirty

Your bike and clothing can carry and transplant unwanted, invasive, non-native plant seeds, which may compete and displace naturally-occurring vegetation. Between rides, wash you, your clothes, and your bike, you filthy animal!

Stop Roosting Corners

…unless they’re made for it. Coming in hot through a corner without bank or berm will force you into a brake-mashing skid, causing trail widening and harm to bordering vegetation. I used to think if enough people came skidding through a fast corner, a berm would naturally form–but unless a berm is properly built, a naturally-occurring one prevents proper drainage and is only displaced soil, which is difficult to supplant. Get with your local trail building and maintenance crew and advocate for the construction of an appropriately-built berm or other means of lessening the impact while providing enjoyment.

Stop Riding Around

• Fallen trees: tree fall or other large by-products of wind, rain, and freeze obstruct passage, encouraging off-trail circumvention which destroys vegetation that is difficult and costly to recover. When safe, hoist your bike up and over the fallen log. If going over the tree requires olympic-level feats of skill, do what you have to to get around, but contact the appropriate authorities for removal ASAP.

• Puddles: from time to time, you’ll come across a low-lying, compacted, cupped, and poorly-drained patch collecting water. Do you ride around or through the puddle? Although you’ll probably spray yucky brown stuff on your new socks that would’ve otherwise looked fresh had it not been for that one puddle, the answer is to ride through it. Riding through may deepen the rut and further existing damage, but riding on the fringe of the puddle not only widens the hole, but widens the entire trail, which is no bueno. In this case, there seems to be no way to not cause more damage, but you lessen the impact by choosing the lesser of two evils. Make aware those who maintain the trail of chronic puddles. A simple gravel/soil mix can often remedy the problem.

• Technical sections: …or features beyond your skill level and/or comfort. Whether you’re new to mountain biking, racing, or beat from a long day in the saddle, don’t compromise the trail’s integrity by opting for the path of least resistance. This type of trample is among the worst crimes of bike vs. nature as it widens the trail, destroys vegetation, and augments the erosive surface. If you’re not up to the challenge, dismount and walk your bike through the section or, better yet, session it. Take some time and practice on that one section you’ve always skirted until you dominate it.

• Water bars: skirting around a water bar creates a path of run-off that defeats the very purpose of the bar’s existence. Water bars can be an annoyance when climbing, but also present an opportunity to develop more technical skill.

Stop Riding in Mud

It’s one thing to find yourself in mud, but it’s another to consciously make the decision to ride in known muddy conditions. Trampling muddy trails renders them less usable and very costly to fix after they dry. Trails suffer from widening, vegetation loss, and erosion as riders deviate from the intended path to less muddy ground. A muddy trail is less cohesive, fragile, and sick (not in the “sick drop, bro” way, but the coughing/sneezing kind). Don’t ride in the mud!

Stop Riding Fall Lines

A fall line, as it relates to mountain biking or skiing, is a natural downward course, the steepest possible line on a given descent, the least sustainable type of trail in existence, and not fun to ride anyway. By their vary nature, fall lines suffer from ever-present erosive damage that is greatly compounded from soil displacement and trail widening when trampled by users. The International Mountain Bicycling Association advises that a trail’s steepness should not exceed half the grade of the hillside nor an overall 10% grade. Studies have also shown erosion rates are significantly increased on trails with grades greater than 16 percent.

Stop Cutting Switchbacks

Besides being unbelievably lazy, shortcutting a switchback (or any other trail segment) is harmful to Momma Nature. Shortcutting trail not only damages vegetation from trample, but creates a fall line inviting erosion to further harm vegetation and damage the lower trail section from whence you cut.

Stop Littering

Ok I know, this is obvious. I doubt any of our readers are intentionally trashing our trails and when we do drop some debris, it’s probably by accident. So for this one, let’s go beyond the “not doing” and actually “do” something about it. Pick it up, even if it’s not yours. You may have to give up a KOM/QOM or come to a complete halt during a mid-mountain bomb, but we should develop the habit of picking up (some) stuff along the way. In Boy Scouts they taught us to “Leave No Trace,” but may I suggest we strive to leave our trails better than we found them.

Just this year an entire bike event was cancelled going forward due to trail trashing. As of June 2015, bikepackers will no longer enjoy the Oregon Outback due to the garbage, feces, and unburied toilet paper left along the route including crap (literally) in barns and land made especially available to riders by private land owners at the time. The small town of Silver Lake, OR even decided to ban camping altogether in the city park due to a similar shit show during the same event. Fellow riders, littering your trail will kill your trail in more ways than you know!

In Summary…

Harness the skill or get off the hill (or just get off the bike for a second). Don’t ride muddy trails, but be prepared to get a little dirty. And if you do, clean it up before the next ride. Stay in touch and work with your local trail crew to enhance and take care of your trails. And for hell’s sake, stop pooping on Mother Nature (or at least bury that…).

Your Turn: Do you know of any additional ways we can ease the impact of mountain biking on the environment? Share them in the comments section below!

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