Some say it feels like a coup is underway. Others say it’s simply democracy in action. Mountain bikers are flooding meetings of the Bay Area Chapter of the Sierra Club, recruiting people to join the organization, and are working to unseat the current leadership.
The off-road cyclists aim to legalize mountain biking on many of the narrow trails now reserved for hikers and equestrians in regional parks and on watershed lands because these narrower trails offer a more challenging riding experience.
Current Sierra Club leadership seeks to protect the natural environment while allowing mountain bikers where it is deemed appropriate. The East Bay Regional Park District has 1,330 miles of trails throughout its park system—hiking only, equestrian only, mountain-bikes only, and multi-use (all users on wider trails). Bikes are allowed on most of the 800 miles of multi-use trails but are prohibited on most narrow trails.
Both Sierra Club and park district policies state that whenever modification of these trail-use designations is being considered, a formal process is required in which environmental impacts to vegetation and wildlife, as well as social impacts to trail users, are evaluated.
Insistence on adhering to these policies has been met with accusations that club members are anti-mountain bike. But the Sierra Club has consistently made it clear in dialogue and policy that the club is not opposed to mountain biking.
“We just want to be sure that trails are built and managed in places where important habitat is not destroyed,” Alameda resident and Sierra Club member Patricia Lamborn told the Alameda Post. “Hikers, who make up the vast majority of trail users, should be aware of and included in the conversation. Hiking should be a relaxing experience in nature.”
Mountain bike advocates, however, are actively seeking more access to trails than is currently allowed. Enlisting the vocal support of high school mountain bike teams to help make the case for additional narrow (also known as single-track) bike trails, opponents of current trail policies have succeeded in getting bike proponents elected to Sierra Club leadership positions. They also have garnered strong support from senior managers at the park district for allowing bikes on existing single-track trails.
While the park district was hosting 29 members at “Trail User Working Group” meetings between August 2020 and February 2022 to address trail user conflicts—principally between hikers and mountain bikers—park district senior managers and mountain bike advocates were collaborating behind the scenes to plan construction of a new one-way downhill mountain bike trail in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, according to emails revealed by environmental groups. The new trail idea was not brought to the working group’s attention, even though its members had asked for trail issues like this to be presented for discussion.
Steady progress is now being made to advance new candidates to replace the existing Sierra Club leadership and to further pressure regional land managers to prioritize the needs of mountain bikers.
“Working the system in legal ways is paying off, though it takes time and effort,” said former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt in a leaked email to mountain-bike supporters. “With the help of mtb’ers [mountain bikers] like you, who joined and voted in the elections last fall, we got a slight majority in the leadership of the SC Bay Area chapter which is the final decision maker over local policy.”
Butt stated in the leaked email that the activists’ ultimate goal is “neutralizing their opposition,” longtime Bay Area Chapter leaders who he says, “have effectively stopped increased access of mtb’s to single-track trails in the East Bay for decades.”
Their best opportunity to do that, he stated in the email, “is by gaining a majority on the ExCom [Executive Committee] of western Contra Costa County. To accomplish this, we need to get our slate of four pro-mtb’ers elected to that committee. If you are NOT a current member then you must join.”
Attached to the email was information on how to get the cost of membership paid for, if money was an issue.
A four-person slate of mountain bike proponents is now on the Sierra Club’s ballot for the West Contra Costa County Group. They are identified as petition candidates because they were not nominated by the Bay Area Chapter’s leadership.
Butt expressed worry that if conservationists “discover our efforts, they may well be able to counter them.” He implored, “Please don’t share any of this with friends who are not pro-mtb.”
That strategy, however, is not lost on current local and national club leaders. A longtime incumbent running for reelection in another part of the Bay Area Chapter called out what she described as “an existential crisis.” In her ballot statement, Southern Alameda County Group incumbent candidate Pat Piras warned, “There is currently some activism to try to have the Sierra Club become a subsidiary of other advocacy interests. …We always fully welcome ‘new blood.’ But the club does not need a whole-scale transfusion.”
Lamborn said, “The original intent of the club was to protect the environment, habitat, and wildlife. We must balance our recreational uses and protection of habitat and wildlife. Shared trail uses—such as hiking and mountain biking on narrow trails—isn’t safe or enjoyable for either user or the environment.”
Mountain bike advocates, however, remain committed to changing these policies and the leadership who sets and protects them.
One of the most disturbing outcomes of the mountain bike lobbying effort, according to some hikers, is the recent enactment of a regional park district policy to convert selected illegal rogue bike trails to legal single-track bike-only trails.
“It’s bad enough that the park district doesn’t enforce its own laws,” said William Yragui, who leads hikes for the Sierra Club and is a leader of the Mission Peak Conservancy. “Making illegal trails legal rewards bad behavior.”
Compounding the safety issue for hikers and equestrians, this past year the park district board of directors voted to allow class-1 electric bikes on all trails where bikes are permitted. Electric bikes allow cyclists to ride faster and longer with the potential to carve out trails between the parks, possibly compromising undisturbed wildlife habitat, according to Yragui.
Whether or not the organized takeover by a single-issue group is democracy in action, if mountain bike advocates get their way park-goers using narrow trails may find themselves looking over their shoulders for bicycles, some of them heavy electric bikes.
Early voting for the Bay Area Chapter elections has begun and ballots must be received by December 11.
Contributing writer Irene Dieter’s articles are collected at alamedapost.com/Irene-Dieter, and she posts stories and photos about Alameda to her site, I on Alameda.
