Burke needs your help

[LOBOTIDULATOR]

i know theres been thread on various mountains that need help, and now Burke is one of them. Bc parks have been, in my opinion beating around the bush about the trails, and now its seems there taking action. the abyss, a wellknown and wellbuilt trail on Burke, has been given the 2 weeks notice before everything gets ripped down. fellow riders and I are meeting with some of the bc parks people in a effort to postpone or even work out the situation. after abyss is gone, all other stunts on burke will be taken down.

what i'm asking of you is what i can bring up in the meeting. i have about 10 qeustions right now but that is not near enough. so any qeustions or comments i can say are GREATLY apreciated.
please help burke stay the great mountain it is. thanks
taylor

[KamaKazi]

so when and where is this meeting? if I can get some info on this I'll see what I can do for coming out.

[tazzmenn]

more info, when and where please. who at BC parks issued the two weeks notice?

[switch]

You have a frog pond on Burke too?

Ask the NSMBA for advice. They successfully negotiated and built a trail in parks land last year (Empress re-route on Seymour). BC Parks was really helpful.

[Action Hero]

Burke is really one of those mountains that should stick to it's roots and stay natural. It was a mistake to take away from the already great terrain in the first place.

[couch]

I will have to agree with Action Hero on this one. Burke has great natural terrain. Saying that, it would be wrong of them to go in and remove the bridges and chop logs just for the sake of doing it.

Post any new information here when you get it. I would like to go to any meetings.

Rich

[BURKE PHANTOMS]

I am depressed because I think they can't differentiate between the fun and challenging stuff and the big drops. There is some really fun stuff on BBT and the Abyss that is not dangerous but lots of fun That they are going to hack up all that great cedar. I have spoken with parks and I really don't think we are going to get far. NSMBA and the shore have way more manpower and political sway.

[The Unibiker]

Jesus Christ! I can't stand this shit! Stokes pit is going to be developed, the Shed gets leveled, the South Surrey bike park is being paved over by it's governing society of bikers (SORCE) so six year old kids won't have trouble riding in it, Sumas gets some chainsaw lovin', Ledgeview is being developed, Fromme is being threatened, UBC and SFU are condemed to lameness, and now Burke is going down! My biking world is under attack on all fronts! I guess we will be re-naming the woodlot the fire-woodlot soon...and let's not forget about eagle mountain while we got the saws running.

Five years ago I declared that mountain biking on public land will be illegal in ten years. I doubt we'll last that long around here at this rate.

[switch]

Originally posted by BURKE PHANTOMS
NSMBA and the shore have way more manpower and political sway.

...and a good relationship with BC Parks.

[piledriver]

For anything on BC Parks land, you have a real problem. But here are a few comments:

1. Try asking for a morritorium (ie a freeze) on all further construction on the trail first, to allow morew time to discuss and search for alternatives, instead of removal of all structures.

2. NSMBA was successful in obtaining permission and even asistance from BC Parks to construct a "multi-use" trail at the bottom of Seymour, and which then allowed us to keep open a technical MTB trail (Empress). However, this was mainly due to the elimination of another connecting trail that was eliminated by a housing development, which resulted in excessive MTB traffic on a primary hiking trail (and riding route up), Old Buck, and which created safety issues.

3. The above was also only possible due to the excellent relationship that had been developed between NSMBA and BC Parks and District of North Vancouver from years of hard work.

4. BC Parks has indicated to us that there is considerable pressure in and around many BC Parks from increased MTB and other users, and that there probably just are not the resources available to allow some of the "experimental or first time" projects that we were lucky enough to be involved in. ie.. Parks has standards that must be met, they have drastically cut-back or reduced budgets (thanks to youyr friendly federal Liberal Govt) and they simply don't have the time or inclination to be bothered to deal with these type of issues.

5. Get the backing of other local landowners (city, district, private etc) through direct communications by intelligent people presenting balanced approaches. Lots of work.

6. Remind people, calmly and in the right way, that MTB is here to stay as a mainstream recreational sport and you want to work with them to satisfy all recreational outdoor users needs. If they just rip down well built stunts, some people will simply and quickly go back out and build new trails and more stunts, but probably just disposable junk. This leads to even greater risk of injury, more continued illegal trail buuiding and constant confontation. There is no way they can police all the forests, so finding some mutually acceptable solution will eventually be the result anyway. Your aim is to work with the landowners, not in confrontation with them.

Gotta go. Hope this helps a little.
Ciao...PD

[Bryce]

Originally posted by The Unibiker
Five years ago I declared that mountain biking on public land will be illegal in ten years. I doubt we'll last that long around here at this rate.

i know, its scary. I guess we're just too big to go unnoticed these days by people like Ernie "Anti" Crist.

[Lady Gravity]

as an update...apparently SFU is possibly under the axe again as well. not too sure of the details, but burnaby parks board is again looking into having all mtb trails shut down. my b/f is prez of the now defunct burnaby mtb club and is supposed to be giving parks board a tour of the existing trails.

for god's sake dont anyone build anything new up there

oh and about burke...i'm also a fan of the "natural" lines, however, hopefully the bikers and gov't can work together and create some kind of working relationship.

why are mtbikers always percieved as the "bad guys"

[ATN]

Alright... the meeting will occur Thursday, location either at the Seymour office or up Burke. I'm emailing Scott about that right now. Time will be 3pm in NV, if it was Burke probably the same.

PD:

1. I don't think they are ripping all the structures out (only 4 or 5 trails really have them)... but they are taking out Abyss which is the biggest and most known.

2. BC Parks is being quite supportive of actual riding up there. I have been talking to Scott a lot about that.

3. Natural lines are gonna stay.

4. BC Parks is consulting with the Katzie First Nation, the BM Naturalists, and the Cabinowners on whether they support legalizing Triple Crown & Ryans.

5. Sharon has already hooked me up with Parks (as you can see) and is providing assistance so the NSMBA's success will hopefully be shared.

6. As for a moratorium, they are calling that themselves, and ripping the stunts down.

[ATN]

FYI, as a temporary measure, I started up BOMBA. The BB can be seen at http://atn.pfak.org/bb. At the NSMBA strategy meeting, the expansion of NSMBA to include new directors and members to help new areas will be discussed.

if you'd like more info at this time, PM me for my phone number or MSN addy.

Alex T.

[ATN]

Alright, meeting is going to be 3pm at the BC Parks Seymour office. Please PM me if you are going to show... we don't need people there for sheer numbers, but anyone who feels strongly about this should come. TFSS students who get off after D block can take the bus with LOBOT and myself.

This is not a pointless cause. We can keep biking up Burke with your support.

Alex T.