I warn you this is very long but worth reading, and it has quite a bunch of BS in it as well.
Written by a resident of Upper Scenic road in Felton and sent out to a number of local and county offices.
May 19,2011
Subject: Mountain Bikers and Other Trespassers on Private Forest Lakes Property and Use of lllegal Trails on State Land We are writing to ask for your collective assistance to effectively deal with an out of control situation: The use of privately owned and maintained roads and UCSC campus fire roads to access and build illegal trails on environmentally sensitive state park, watershed and private property We are property owners and residents on Glengarry Road, Toll House Gulch Road, Upper Scenic Drive and
Scenic Drive who have witnessed an unprecedented increase in vehicular traffic on our private roadways and an increasing number of aggressive and verbally abusive people.
What is the problem?
Hordes of trucks and vans carrying up to 14 mountain bikes in a single vehicle (see photo attachment) that repeatedly shuttle riders on private roads to the UCSC/Forest Lakes Marshall Road gate at the top of Upper Scenic Drive. Many of these vehicles are associated with downhill racing teams and sport such company names as Harley Davidson, Fox, Spider, etc. The bike riders use Marshal! Road to access illegally cut trails through UCSC and Henry Cowell State Park which terminate on Highway 9. Riders are picked up at the turnouts on Highway 9 and shuttled back up the hill with the process repeating until everyone has had a turn driving. Up to 50 drop offs can occur in one day. The shuttles start as early as 7:0O AM and continue into the night. Ihe drop offs occur every doy of the week. At times, there are three or four vehicles stacked up waiting
to drop off up to 15 riders, or they simply meet at the top of the hill on private property to congregate at the chain gate or in private driveways (see photo attachment). On average, each vehicle carries 4-5 individuals and makes 5 shuttle stops. It is not uncommon to have more than 100 vehicle trips with 500 individuals shuttle through the area in any given week, or more than five times
the typical usage for the number of homes located along the route. Favorable weather conditions increase these numbers. Some drivers hove now turned shuttling into o business enterprise, chorging SS Wr person to
pile into the vehicles to take them to the top of Upper Scenic Drive
Over the past several years, this location has also been used as a staging area for building and grooming the illegal trails. Properiy owners have observed mountain bikers carrying chainsaws, shovels, pick axes, rakes,
tree pruners and bales of straw up Marshall Road. Though many riders are local to Santa Cruz County, there are also out of county and even out of state riders. Many of these riders acknowledge and even tout their illegal activities on lnternet discussion threads and You Tube postings (see attachment). lnfo on how to access the illegal trails is also provided at local bike shops.
Trash is routinely left behind by the Marshall Road chain gate, including cigarette butts, food wrappers, empty beer bottles, cans and energy drinks, discarded clothing, drug paraphernalia, urine and feces, and even pornographic material. Vandalism and other property damage routinely occurs including broken car windows, removing and defacing signage, cutting down smalltrees, and damage to mailboxes. ln the last year, two single vehicle accidents have occurred, including someone backing in to a telephone pole and leaving broken
window glass and damage to one of the bollards at the chain gate.
Resident sofety should be o top priority. The roads are narrow, not meant for this type of continuous traffic, and there are many small children in the area. The large trucks and vans typically travel at unsafe speeds to quickly shuttle the riders, and there has already been several "near misses" between trucks and our children riding their bikes or playing in front of their houses on cul-de-sacs such as View Drive. The significant liability risks associated with this activity cannot and should not be ignored any longer. When we try to communicate to the shuttle riders that they are trespassing on private property, we are met with arrogance and scorn os if we ore invading their spoce. Some of the worst offenders openly discard lit cigarette butts on the ground or rip down no trespassing signs in our presence. Aggressive behavior and use of offensive language is increasing. When park rangers stepped up enforcement in 2009 and put signs at the Marshall Road terminus, the signs were ripped down and left on the ground within 20 minutes of being posted.
It is interesting to note that there is a wide age range from teens to older adults who willingly trespass on our roads to access the illegal trails. Parents routinely drop off their children, sometimes congregating in private driveways without regard to blocking owner access. The parent's prevailing notion is that they are helping their children stay out of trouble and off drugs. Unfortunately, drug and alcohol use occurs in this area as well. We find it ironic and sad that the message parents are giving their children is that it is OK to trespass on
privately owned and maintained property and OK to degrade our precious watershed lands and private property, so long as they are not committing more serious offenses. Another problem is illegal parking in front of the chain gate, along the roadway adjacent to the gate, or at the emergency staging area north of the gate accessed by private drive. At times there are five vehicles parked at
this location" Access to the fire road is routinely blocked for hours at a time (see photos attached), and should be kept clear at all times. Telling home owners to obtain and report license plates is not the answer. A number of us have spoken to some of you individually with very limited responsiveness over the last several
years. We are now asking that you collectively address this worsening situation. We are generally told by the sheriffs office or UCSC police to put up signage, "rope off the property'' or take down and report license plate numbers, which usually results in direct confrontation. Mountain Bikers and Other Trespassers on Private Forest Lakes Propefi and Use of lllegal Trails on State Land, page 3
Suggesting that homeowners individually confront an increasingly aggressive and offensive group of people is not the most resporisible way of addressing this problem. These "discussions" quickly become confrontational, with young and older adults alike angrily shouting us down and simply refusing to
acknowledge that they are trespassing on private property, and even defacing our property in our presence. Drivers of the shuttle trucks frequently cover their license plates, or physically block access to viewing their license plates. Many homeowners will not engage in confrontation for fear of retaliation and this has already occurred with broken auto windows. Clearly, Forest Lakes and applicable government agency personnel must play a much greater role in prevention, deterrence and enforcement. Negative environmental impacts to San Lorenzo watershed There is an intricate series of illegal traits on State parkland and adjacent private property accessed from UCSC propery which terminate along Highway 9 south of Glengary Road. Due to significant erosion, some of the
trails have now been abandoned, but new trails are being built as of this writing. On one weekend in March, a group of mountain bikers parked their truck at the staging are adjacent to the Marshall Road chain gate and were observed carrying shovels, rakes and tree pruners up Marshall Road to groom the illegal trails. The truck remained parked at the area for over 4 hours (see photo attached). This scene is repeated often at this location. We are all dependent on local water and UCSC and adjacent Henry Cowell State Park lands provide critical recharge areas. Biryclists have created a web of single-track paths and large clear cut open areas with jumps, berms and makeshift bridges which denude vegetation, compact soils, and channel water out of our watershed (see photo attached). A number of tracks down steep slopes have flow even in minor rain events.
Several have so much erosion they contain waterfalls. Continued destruction of the hillsides above Highway 9 and channelizing of water onto the road bed leads to more landslides and destabilization of the road bed. This costs the community at large at a time when state and local agencies can ill afford increased expenses for roadway maintenance. Forest Lakes and applicable agencies must recognize that Marshall Road/Upper Scenic Drive is being used as a staging area to gain quick and easy access to create, maintain and continuously use the illegaltrail system and should take appropriate steps to end the practice. Glenearry Road is county maintqined for only the first .3 miles The first .3 miles of Glengarry is county maintained road. At the .3 mile mark, a small white wooden post,
partially buried, simply indicates the acronym ECMR for End County Maintained Road. Plainly, better signage is needed to state that the county maintained road ends and where the private road begins. Fixes like this are simple, inexpensive, and help educate members of the public who may be assuming that they are still on a public roadway.
What are we asking for?
That your organizations collectively grasp the severity of this problem, be accountable for your jurisdictions and address these issues in a coordinated fashion.
Please consider and act on our recommendations:
Mountain Bikers and Other Trespassers on Private Forest Lakes Property and Use of lllegal Trails on State Land, page 4
Forest Lakes Mutual Water.Compa,nv
o Board of Directors should contact all appropriate agencies tb formally request assistance in reducing illegal activity, be the designated coordination point with government agencies and for distribution of information to residents, and coordinate "all-hands" meeting with affected agencies to Erect private property/no trespassing/tow zone signage at the Marshall Road chain gate and along roadways (Forest Lakes committed to buying signage severalyears ago with s400 left in balance for pothole repairs paid personally by property owners above and beyond annual road maintenance feet and this never occurred. Property owners contributed $13,000 of the $19,000 total) to Relocate and replace the Marshall Road chain gate with a more sturdy structure closer to Upper Scenic Drive
o Provide ongoing visible presence at the Marshall Road terminus to educate/deter trespassers
o Post this document to your website to educate Forest Lakes residents
o Consider Forest Lakes decals for resident vehicles
o Tow illegally parked vehicles
Written by a resident of Upper Scenic road in Felton and sent out to a number of local and county offices.
May 19,2011
Subject: Mountain Bikers and Other Trespassers on Private Forest Lakes Property and Use of lllegal Trails on State Land We are writing to ask for your collective assistance to effectively deal with an out of control situation: The use of privately owned and maintained roads and UCSC campus fire roads to access and build illegal trails on environmentally sensitive state park, watershed and private property We are property owners and residents on Glengarry Road, Toll House Gulch Road, Upper Scenic Drive and
Scenic Drive who have witnessed an unprecedented increase in vehicular traffic on our private roadways and an increasing number of aggressive and verbally abusive people.
What is the problem?
Hordes of trucks and vans carrying up to 14 mountain bikes in a single vehicle (see photo attachment) that repeatedly shuttle riders on private roads to the UCSC/Forest Lakes Marshall Road gate at the top of Upper Scenic Drive. Many of these vehicles are associated with downhill racing teams and sport such company names as Harley Davidson, Fox, Spider, etc. The bike riders use Marshal! Road to access illegally cut trails through UCSC and Henry Cowell State Park which terminate on Highway 9. Riders are picked up at the turnouts on Highway 9 and shuttled back up the hill with the process repeating until everyone has had a turn driving. Up to 50 drop offs can occur in one day. The shuttles start as early as 7:0O AM and continue into the night. Ihe drop offs occur every doy of the week. At times, there are three or four vehicles stacked up waiting
to drop off up to 15 riders, or they simply meet at the top of the hill on private property to congregate at the chain gate or in private driveways (see photo attachment). On average, each vehicle carries 4-5 individuals and makes 5 shuttle stops. It is not uncommon to have more than 100 vehicle trips with 500 individuals shuttle through the area in any given week, or more than five times
the typical usage for the number of homes located along the route. Favorable weather conditions increase these numbers. Some drivers hove now turned shuttling into o business enterprise, chorging SS Wr person to
pile into the vehicles to take them to the top of Upper Scenic Drive
Over the past several years, this location has also been used as a staging area for building and grooming the illegal trails. Properiy owners have observed mountain bikers carrying chainsaws, shovels, pick axes, rakes,
tree pruners and bales of straw up Marshall Road. Though many riders are local to Santa Cruz County, there are also out of county and even out of state riders. Many of these riders acknowledge and even tout their illegal activities on lnternet discussion threads and You Tube postings (see attachment). lnfo on how to access the illegal trails is also provided at local bike shops.
Trash is routinely left behind by the Marshall Road chain gate, including cigarette butts, food wrappers, empty beer bottles, cans and energy drinks, discarded clothing, drug paraphernalia, urine and feces, and even pornographic material. Vandalism and other property damage routinely occurs including broken car windows, removing and defacing signage, cutting down smalltrees, and damage to mailboxes. ln the last year, two single vehicle accidents have occurred, including someone backing in to a telephone pole and leaving broken
window glass and damage to one of the bollards at the chain gate.
Resident sofety should be o top priority. The roads are narrow, not meant for this type of continuous traffic, and there are many small children in the area. The large trucks and vans typically travel at unsafe speeds to quickly shuttle the riders, and there has already been several "near misses" between trucks and our children riding their bikes or playing in front of their houses on cul-de-sacs such as View Drive. The significant liability risks associated with this activity cannot and should not be ignored any longer. When we try to communicate to the shuttle riders that they are trespassing on private property, we are met with arrogance and scorn os if we ore invading their spoce. Some of the worst offenders openly discard lit cigarette butts on the ground or rip down no trespassing signs in our presence. Aggressive behavior and use of offensive language is increasing. When park rangers stepped up enforcement in 2009 and put signs at the Marshall Road terminus, the signs were ripped down and left on the ground within 20 minutes of being posted.
It is interesting to note that there is a wide age range from teens to older adults who willingly trespass on our roads to access the illegal trails. Parents routinely drop off their children, sometimes congregating in private driveways without regard to blocking owner access. The parent's prevailing notion is that they are helping their children stay out of trouble and off drugs. Unfortunately, drug and alcohol use occurs in this area as well. We find it ironic and sad that the message parents are giving their children is that it is OK to trespass on
privately owned and maintained property and OK to degrade our precious watershed lands and private property, so long as they are not committing more serious offenses. Another problem is illegal parking in front of the chain gate, along the roadway adjacent to the gate, or at the emergency staging area north of the gate accessed by private drive. At times there are five vehicles parked at
this location" Access to the fire road is routinely blocked for hours at a time (see photos attached), and should be kept clear at all times. Telling home owners to obtain and report license plates is not the answer. A number of us have spoken to some of you individually with very limited responsiveness over the last several
years. We are now asking that you collectively address this worsening situation. We are generally told by the sheriffs office or UCSC police to put up signage, "rope off the property'' or take down and report license plate numbers, which usually results in direct confrontation. Mountain Bikers and Other Trespassers on Private Forest Lakes Propefi and Use of lllegal Trails on State Land, page 3
Suggesting that homeowners individually confront an increasingly aggressive and offensive group of people is not the most resporisible way of addressing this problem. These "discussions" quickly become confrontational, with young and older adults alike angrily shouting us down and simply refusing to
acknowledge that they are trespassing on private property, and even defacing our property in our presence. Drivers of the shuttle trucks frequently cover their license plates, or physically block access to viewing their license plates. Many homeowners will not engage in confrontation for fear of retaliation and this has already occurred with broken auto windows. Clearly, Forest Lakes and applicable government agency personnel must play a much greater role in prevention, deterrence and enforcement. Negative environmental impacts to San Lorenzo watershed There is an intricate series of illegal traits on State parkland and adjacent private property accessed from UCSC propery which terminate along Highway 9 south of Glengary Road. Due to significant erosion, some of the
trails have now been abandoned, but new trails are being built as of this writing. On one weekend in March, a group of mountain bikers parked their truck at the staging are adjacent to the Marshall Road chain gate and were observed carrying shovels, rakes and tree pruners up Marshall Road to groom the illegal trails. The truck remained parked at the area for over 4 hours (see photo attached). This scene is repeated often at this location. We are all dependent on local water and UCSC and adjacent Henry Cowell State Park lands provide critical recharge areas. Biryclists have created a web of single-track paths and large clear cut open areas with jumps, berms and makeshift bridges which denude vegetation, compact soils, and channel water out of our watershed (see photo attached). A number of tracks down steep slopes have flow even in minor rain events.
Several have so much erosion they contain waterfalls. Continued destruction of the hillsides above Highway 9 and channelizing of water onto the road bed leads to more landslides and destabilization of the road bed. This costs the community at large at a time when state and local agencies can ill afford increased expenses for roadway maintenance. Forest Lakes and applicable agencies must recognize that Marshall Road/Upper Scenic Drive is being used as a staging area to gain quick and easy access to create, maintain and continuously use the illegaltrail system and should take appropriate steps to end the practice. Glenearry Road is county maintqined for only the first .3 miles The first .3 miles of Glengarry is county maintained road. At the .3 mile mark, a small white wooden post,
partially buried, simply indicates the acronym ECMR for End County Maintained Road. Plainly, better signage is needed to state that the county maintained road ends and where the private road begins. Fixes like this are simple, inexpensive, and help educate members of the public who may be assuming that they are still on a public roadway.
What are we asking for?
That your organizations collectively grasp the severity of this problem, be accountable for your jurisdictions and address these issues in a coordinated fashion.
Please consider and act on our recommendations:
Mountain Bikers and Other Trespassers on Private Forest Lakes Property and Use of lllegal Trails on State Land, page 4
Forest Lakes Mutual Water.Compa,nv
o Board of Directors should contact all appropriate agencies tb formally request assistance in reducing illegal activity, be the designated coordination point with government agencies and for distribution of information to residents, and coordinate "all-hands" meeting with affected agencies to Erect private property/no trespassing/tow zone signage at the Marshall Road chain gate and along roadways (Forest Lakes committed to buying signage severalyears ago with s400 left in balance for pothole repairs paid personally by property owners above and beyond annual road maintenance feet and this never occurred. Property owners contributed $13,000 of the $19,000 total) to Relocate and replace the Marshall Road chain gate with a more sturdy structure closer to Upper Scenic Drive
o Provide ongoing visible presence at the Marshall Road terminus to educate/deter trespassers
o Post this document to your website to educate Forest Lakes residents
o Consider Forest Lakes decals for resident vehicles
o Tow illegally parked vehicles
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