Trail users at odds with some bikers who are destroying
habitat.
By Ashley Ratdiff
RPV — With more than 1,200 acres of open space, Rancho Palos Verdes’ newly acquired Portuguese Bend Nature Preserve provides ample room for hikers, equestrians and bicyclists to recreate. However, a longstanding conflict between pedestrians and bikers has led residents to question whether they can peacefully coexist.
“Our mission statement is that we’re preserving land and restoring habitats for the education and enjoyment of all ... We want a trails plan that’s manageable. "We want to make sure people can still go where they want to go," said Barbara Dye, executive director of the Palos Peninsula Land Conservancy.
Established in June 2006, the 16-member Public Use Master Plan Committee is charged with determining which uses should be permitted: pedestrian only, bicycle only, pedestrian/equestrian, pedestrian/bicycle or multipurpose for all three uses.
But the increased destruction —most of which is occurring in the canyon area below Del Cerro Park in the Portuguese Bend preserve —leaves fingers pointed at the various bikers —namely the “free riders?’ who don’t stick to the designated trails and create new trails through the important habitat Dye said.
The Land Conservancy wants to close all the biker-made trails that Dye said have built up and crisscrossed in one location. “We want to have one nice trail and bigger blocks of habitat” she said.
John Nieto, vice president of the Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society said there has been a “ten-fold increase” in trails created by bikers.
“They degrade the environment to such an extent that it’s less than pleasant to be there.” said PUMP Committee member Eva Cicoria.
There is evidence of cliff sides that are dug out in grooves by cyclists going over the cliffs, and the degradation, Cicoria said, is tied to the increased publicity of the area that followed the 2005 purchase of the Portuguese Bend preserve.
“Rock formations of ancient strata have been destroyed; wooden structures have been built into the canyon bottoms and into the rock strata above;’ said Nieto during the Oct. 3 PUMP Committee meeting. “In many places, the native habitat has been compromised so severely that it will take years to repair?
PUMP Committee member Troy Braswell, himself a Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association member, said a small portion of the cycling community wanting more challenges contributed the largest share of new trails, in addition to water erosion and the two-year drought that “created a matrix of trails that would normally be closed off by spring overgrowth.
Bicyclists say that they do stick to the already established trails. “Nature hasn’t just survived back there — it’s flourished back there, and there’s been this whole multitude of uses. It impressed me that there were a few people out there that were bent on limiting use far what historically has been a recreational area,” said Palos Verdes Estates resident Lewis Latimer.
User conflicts: perception versus reality
Many concerned hikers suggest that certain careless bikers pose a danger to other trail users, but Dye said the accident dent record during the past 10 years on local preserves is between three and five reported incidents.
Although Cicoria has never been involved in any accidents while biking, there have been close encounters with bikers speeding by and swerving in front of pedestrians on trails.
There is a range of personalities there: Some people slow, even apologize, for coming upon you and startling you, but others have been less polite It is intimidating whether it’s intended to be so or not,” she said.
RPV resident Tim Vaughan, a founding family member of the Portuguese Bend preserve, said most mountain bikers are considerate of other trail users. In fact, Vaughan rides “responsibly, courteously and consciously” with bells on his bike so that others can hear him coming.
“The problem arises when one group decides they don’t want another group to be there, or one group thinks their use is more privileged or more acceptable than another. "Make sure that mountain bikers are given equal access to the trails [like] the other groups", he said.
Latimer said the good name of respectful bikers has been tarnished. “I have yet to come up with anyone who’s crashed into anybody, and certainly no injuries, so there’s this perception that there’s a real nuisance component that comes with the bicyclists tat they’re tearing the place up, but in fact, they’re not” he said.
It's not just bikers who are discourteous to preserve users, Latimer said. On a recent ride with his 10-year-old son, a hiker told them “with substantial authority” that they were unauthorized to ride the trails on their bikes. “It’s odd that there’s an elite few here who are controlling the debate as to how it gets used The area has been open space for years and years,” said Latimer, a Land Conservatory contributor.
There’s a big distinction between what’s perceived and what’s real with respect to the habitat destruction, according to Latimer. “If you exclude the primary fire road that runs back there, the single-track trails that crisscross the area are less than 3 percent of the total area. I mean, it’s not like they're being run rampant,” he said.
Groups like CORBA Pains Verdes help the Land Conservancy clean and repair trails. For example, mare than 70 residents, including CORBA and Sierra Club members, on Sept 29 voluntarily removed all manmade jumps from the preserve because they agree that the jumps shouldn’t be there, said Dye, a PUMP Committee facilitator,
“Do they control every bicyclist? No. But are they trying to be responsible and work with us? Yes,” she said.
Redonda Beach resident Steve Deming, an equestrian who uses the trails twice a week, said bicycles and horses tend to complement each other in the maintenance and establishment of “good trails.”
“Bicycle wheels can roll down through a trail system and shape it but if left on their own, [wheels] would create erosion because the water tends to trickle down along the bicycle-tread wear, whereas a horse comes by... [and] creates little packed down cups of space so tat the water catches in the cups and doesn’t erode. I think it's much better for them to utilize the trails together", he said.
Torrance resident Adam Deierling, who has used the trails far 20 years, said bikers, bikers and equestrians all have been known to go off the trails.
“The wrong people in any situation are going to create a big issue and are going to create a problem, but as long as everyone up there is considerate of each other there really shouldn’t be, nor is there, a problem," he said.
However, Braswell said a bike on a well-designed trail has less impact than a horse, and slightly more than a hiker.
Is there a solution?
In the process of working on the Forrestal Nature Preserve management plan, the city of RPV created an ordinance declaring that bicycles only are allowed an designated trails, Dye said.
“Right now, there are no designated trails because the PUMP Committee hasn’t finished its work,” she said. “Once we can get an approved plan, then we’ll start closing off trails, improving other trails, putting signs up.”
Braswell said the changes to the Forrestal preserve have proven effective. “Two years ago the council gave the cycling community an opportunity to reopen closed tails at the Forrestal reserve. After repairing trails with deficiencies, a conservancy-monitoring program confirmed that cyclists had no greater impact on trails than other users and received no user conflict comments, he said.
Nieto said the best near-term plan is to dose the Portuguese Bend and Forrestal nature preserves to all bikers so that the unauthorized trails or tracks and “overuse scars” can be repaired and planted over.
“We felt strongly that the only way to stop that degradation was to close the upper canyon down to bikes temporarily because if you wait until you put up signs for trails, that could be quite a long time Every day, every week that passes there are more tracks cut deeper and deeper into what has been pristine habitat” Cicada added.
Dye said people lately have asked the Land Conservancy to implement an all-out ban of bikes on trails, but the organization doesn’t have the authority to do so. “If it turns out that the habitat destruction by the bicyclists increases, then well in the future ban bicycles, but it seems premature to ban them from everything [The PUMP Committee] made huge progress in the most difficult part, but we’ve completed most of the preserves already,” she said.
Latimer agreed that some management of the trails and uses is appropriate, but he said he’s worried about the interests of the decision-makers. “I get very nervous when you sit there and say we agree to the management of the resource and you put that management in the hands of people who really don’t want you there in the first place and there in the first place and they limit you to a defined and limited area," he said. “One of the things that’s beautiful about the area is that you can go up and ride and hike and go wherever your bike and feet can take you".
According to Dye, the PUMP committee should have its recommendation ready for the City Council by February or March.
The next PUMP Committee meeting takes place on Tuesday Oct 30 at Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall 30940 Hawthorne Blvd. at 7 p.m. Contact Ara Mihranian via e-mail at aram@rpv.com to share your opinion with the PUMP committee.