The town I grew up seems to have a "thing" about destroying trails and replacing them with paved paths. We aren't talking imba stereotypical trails, but actual paved paths. Part of their reasoning is making the forest accessible to everyone.
This particular example is of a forest, that has had trails in it for longer that I know of; we discovered them 10-15 years in a neglected state (trees down, missing or broken bridges etc etc). A few friends and myself made an effort to get ride of all the fallen trees and soon after those trails were being put to use by lots of people - mountain bikers, hikers etc.
Then about 10 years ago construction signs went up and they bulldozed a path through the forest, digging 2-3 feet down, downed countless trees and put in a paved path. At the ribbon cutting ceremony for opening of the trail, the local politician literally ate food and didn't even both to walk the path with everyone else.
ANYWAYS, fast forward another 10 years and they are at it again with this forest. The picture below is of initial work, before the bulldozer comes in. There was a nice trail here before, which is not gone.
The sad thing about this, is that this forest is a great place for families to go out and try mountain biking - there is nothing crazy in there, its all mellow simple trails. And its in the middle of a neighborhood, so those who live there don't need to even drive anywhere to get a few kilometers of biking in. Now there is one less trail.
Here is my Norco Rampage on the trail from way back when.
It sucks, but this must also happen elsewhere as well. Once the town gets involved, there seems to be little that can be done to stop that ship from sailing.
This particular example is of a forest, that has had trails in it for longer that I know of; we discovered them 10-15 years in a neglected state (trees down, missing or broken bridges etc etc). A few friends and myself made an effort to get ride of all the fallen trees and soon after those trails were being put to use by lots of people - mountain bikers, hikers etc.
Then about 10 years ago construction signs went up and they bulldozed a path through the forest, digging 2-3 feet down, downed countless trees and put in a paved path. At the ribbon cutting ceremony for opening of the trail, the local politician literally ate food and didn't even both to walk the path with everyone else.
ANYWAYS, fast forward another 10 years and they are at it again with this forest. The picture below is of initial work, before the bulldozer comes in. There was a nice trail here before, which is not gone.
The sad thing about this, is that this forest is a great place for families to go out and try mountain biking - there is nothing crazy in there, its all mellow simple trails. And its in the middle of a neighborhood, so those who live there don't need to even drive anywhere to get a few kilometers of biking in. Now there is one less trail.
Here is my Norco Rampage on the trail from way back when.
It sucks, but this must also happen elsewhere as well. Once the town gets involved, there seems to be little that can be done to stop that ship from sailing.