The city's verdict is in for bikes in Forest Park: There will be no new trails for bikes amid the 5,000 acres.
- BT Livermore
That's a surprise, given that for over a year, a group of citizens including NW Trails Alliance members have been working on a committee whose original task was to recommend how to open up 20-30 new miles of Forest Park trails to bikes. Today instead of announcing how and when new trails would be opened to bikes, the Parks Department and Commissioner Fish's office announced that they would merely work to improve existing trails.
Currently, only 30 miles of Forest Park's 70 miles of paths are open to bikes and only a measly 1/3 of a mile is the narrow "singletrack" paths mountain bikers prefer.
The plan to build more bike facilities in Forest Park caught a lot of attention last winter when frustrated mountain bikers carved an illegal trail through the woods, causing an estimated $80,000 in damage. The recommendation today says more maintenance work and study is need before new trails can be opened. Once the city can "secure funding to develop, implement and complete a wildlife study" of the park, says the announcement, it could potentially permit new trails based on the results of the study.
Throwing a bone to the bikers, the recommendations also promise to "prioritize" singletrack cycling in the new Gateway Green park and construct two new temporary skills parks somewhere in the city.
One of the issues is lack of resources for Forest Park in general: the 5,000 acre park receives just one percent of the city's parks funding and employs only one full-time, year-round ranger.
Full list of recommendations below the cut.