Open Letter to the Fells Community from GB NEMBA
1Adam12
Regarding the Middlesex Fells Trails Evaluation
We are pleased that the DCR is re-evaluating trail use at the
Middlesex Fells Reservation, and we commend them for initiating a
process that invites all members of the Fells trails community to
participate in these discussions. This represents an opportunity for
everyone to provide input on how the park can best serve the park’s
users and fulfill the agency’s mandate to conserve our natural
resources and provide recreational opportunities.
Unfortunately, for the past twenty years, many of the trail use
policies at the Fells have been heavily influenced by a single user
group, the Friends of the Fells (FoF). Over the last two decades,
this group has pursued one of the most vehemently anti-mountain bike
agendas in the country, and they are increasingly attempting to
marginalize other user groups in the park as well.
While the FoF purports to act in the best interest of the park their
actions speak otherwise. On nearly every occasion over the past 20
years that NEMBA has proposed solutions to trail problems, the FoF
have acted to derail or delay work resulting in accumulated decaying
trail conditions for all users.
Because the Friends have been publicly misrepresenting NEMBA’s
position, the purpose of this letter is to make our goals clear and to
provide accurate information to the Fells’ trails community. Quite
simply, NEMBA wishes the DCR to develop an equitable trail use policy
that allows cyclists to have more access to existing singletrack
trails, that creates more marked loops on existing trails, and helps
displace much of the negative use that is taking place in the Fells
with positive recreation.
The FoF’s Extremist Views are Detrimental to the Fells
The Friends try to paint mountain bicyclists as ecology destroyers and
falsely believe that cycling will ruin the park. Recently they wrote
that the “push by the New England Mountain Bike Association to build
ever growing webs of bike trails in the Fells poses serious problems
of habitat fragmentation, erosion, threats to wildlife and water
quality, and increases in visitor conflicts, including risks to public
safety.” This is extremist nonsense and patently false.
NEMBA is not pushing to build a new network of trails. Rather, we
seek to legitimize current usage on the existing trails. There will
be no increased habitat fragmentation or threats to wildlife or water
quality. In fact, we wish to steward and re-engineer the existing
trails to help mitigate erosion. The FoF’s desire to do nothing is
resulting in more erosion and water siltation.
One of NEMBA’s main projects is to close down the spider-web of trails
in Dark Hollow Pond that are used by pedestrians looking for anonymous
sex. We wish to legitimize mountain biking through this area in order
to bring in a positive, legitimate use that will replace this negative
use. Given what is going on in the Fells, it is ironic that the
Friends think mountain biking is a threat to public safety. Tell that
to the families that are too scared to walk in this area because of
what they might encounter. Yet, the FoF would rather do nothing than
let mountain biking play a positive role to prevent this illegal
activity.
Unlike FoF volunteers, NEMBA trail crews are trained and highly
skilled trail maintainers. We are widely known for our expertise: we
teach courses in trail design and maintenance, and we are contracted
by the state to provide training to DCR staff. We do trail work and
consulting in scores of DCR properties throughout the Commonwealth,
and perform about 70+ trail projects each summer throughout New
England. We have been awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s
Environmental Merit Award for our work in the Fells.
In contrast, the FoF do little — if any — trail maintenance on their
own — they generally find some unskilled group to do rudimentary
volunteerism. Unlike NEMBA, they don’t get DCR approval and rarely
submit a work plan to the agency. Yet any time NEMBA proposes a
maintenance project, they attempt to stonewall it. The FoF would
rather have nothing done than let cyclists give back to the park.
Luckily, in some cases, their stonewalling attempts have failed, and
NEMBA has been able to perform some quality work that benefits all
user groups.
The FoF’s actions lead many to believe that “with friends like these,
the Fells doesn’t need enemies.” They would rather scuttle
partnerships, prevent volunteer projects and maintain a status quo
that is letting the trail system at the Fells slowly decay for lack of
care.
NEMBA partners with many different user groups around New England and
we sincerely believe that to solve trail problems and protect open
space we need to work together. The FoF is one of the very few groups
which has no interest in partnering with us. Their leadership has
proved itself to be rabidly hostile to mountain bicycling, and at one
point they have even hosted an anonymous anti-mountain bike website to
spread their hostility.
The Fells is for all muscle-powered trail users and we need to work
together to protect and promote good trail stewardship. The Fells is
not the private playground of an elite few – it is a park of the
people, to be shared responsibly. Every legitimate user group deserves
equitable trail access, and there should be no one group or
organization that gets to call the shots. The Fells and it’s many user
communities deserve a better vision, and hopefully the current DCR
plan will do just that.
Adam Glick, President
Greater Boston NEMBA
DogOwnerWhoVotes
appreciate how much the Greater Boston NEMBA members have done to
upkeep the Fells trails, and look forward to partnering with you in
the future.