Information on efforts to increase Forest Park Singletrack riding opportunities

Update on Forest Park Single Track Advisory Committee (3/10)

 For those of you who have been following this issue, a lot has happened over the past couple months.  Rather than re-hash all those details here, I encourage you to go to BikePortland.org (do a search for mountain biking and you will pull up all relevant articles).  Jonathan has run several articles over the past few weeks, covering the progress of the committee, the discovery and subsequent outcry of an unauthorized trail in the North Management Unit and NWTA's response.  

Here's an update on what is going on currently.  The sands have shifted somewhat - during the last two meetings new information has come to light that may change the opportunities and the subsequent recommendations of the committee.  The first is that now the City says that any change in current trail use (i.e. opening up some existing trails to bike use) would require a Type III Land Use review.  Without going into the details, I'll say that a Type III is quite involved, and Parks had originally indicated the committee would not consider Type III actions in their recommendations. The second development is that the Portland Fire Bureau gave a presentation to the committee at the last meeting and indicated that they would continue to need access to all the existing fire lanes.  When I asked what type of access they needed (e.g. full size truck or ATV), they were not able to provide a clear answer.  This is frustrating since part of NWTA's plan (and for which their is support among the committee) is to narrow down the fire lanes to create more of a singletrack experience.  That said, I believe there are still significant opportunities.    

In any case, the committee did agree on some actions, including building some new connector trails in the area of Thurman/Leif/Fire Lane 1 (which at some level are included in the FPNRMP).  In addition, there is broad support for improving the firelanes, though as mentioned above, the specifics of that are still uncertain.  

The committee will discuss the issue of trail sharing at our next meeting.  At this time, the menu of options include trail sharing on Maple (a 3 mile section between Leif and Saltzman) and Ridge Trail from FL& to Hwy 30.  My sense is that there is not as much support for this within many on the committee.  However, I am holding out hope that we can come to some agreement. A point to note is that one of our key recommendations is to implement an alternate use, so that bikes would be allowed on certain days.  This probaby wouldn't exclude pedestrians on the days that it was open to bikes, but hikers would know they might encounter bikes..

Thirdly, there has been a subcommittee formed (Jill VanWinkle from IMBA and myself are on that subcommittee) to look at management recommendations that would dovetail with any trail specific recommendations.  This will likely include things like increasing signage, ramping up education and outreach efforts and possibly ramping up enforcement.  As an aside, NWTA hopes to initiate an IMBA sponsored patrol program for the park and we will be looking for volunteers, keep an eye on our website for more details).

The other thing people need to be aware of is that an open house has been scheduled for April 20th, 5:30 to 8pm (location TBD).  This will be an opportunity for all of us to review the work of the committee and provide input.  I can't stress stongly enough that we need to have a strong presence at this event.  More details will follow.

Lastly, NWTA will take art in the upcoming Forest Park Day of Stewardship, scheduled for March 20th.  Please consider coming out to show support for the Park, and that bikers are an energetic and willing user group.  See details on our calendar.