Trail destruction

J-7

Squid
Ok i'm a newbie so first time sort of thing. Went up to my local trails today and realised that all the trails on the hill had been destroyed by the government. I know this isn't the place for illegal trails and all but this isn't a sob story either, so just hear me out.

but does it not totally piss you off when you've put all this hard work into building all these nice trails and they get dozed because one person up there doesn't like it becuase it ruins their scenery or some bulls*$t excuse like that. Anyway then I decide to go back the next day to check it out and they put up a sign saying that they dozed the trails because it is desrtroying the natural habitat around it and it is creating soil erosion. When you then look at the way they destroy it with a bobcat they might as well built all the trails themselves and then destroyed becuse they've done more damage than there apparently already was. To get to our trails they literally had to cut down trees and drive over bushes, now i don't call that exactly looking after the enviroment.now i know they were illegal and all but they do more damage than we've done and the just leave all the dirt there on the ground waiting for it to rain so it will cause erosion for them now any way even though our trails were well though out and planned. This is not an enviromentally friendly and i just think that the government should plan this sort of stuff out a bit more carefully

Just wondering what you guys think about this cause i think that if they are going to destroy trails they should do it in a more enviromentally friendly way.
 

thecat

NSWMTB, Central Tableland MBC
.now i know they were illegal and all but they do more damage than we've done and the just leave all the dirt there on the ground waiting for it to rain so it will cause erosion for them now any way even though our trails were well though out and planned. This is not an enviromentally friendly and i just think that the government should plan this sort of stuff out a bit more carefully

Just wondering what you guys think about this cause i think that if they are going to destroy trails they should do it in a more enviromentally friendly way.
There is more to the approval than just being environmentally sound. However this could be a good way for you to gain community support for an approved trail area.

Ring you local paper and ask if they would be will to do a story on how the jumps got bulldozed, and in particular the way they went about it while claiming it was to protect the environment. If you can try and off them pre and post dozing photos of the area.

Be prepared to be the rider contact with council and be ready to negotiate
 

Wooly

Likes Dirt
the exact same thing happened to me...

built a trail, wasn't legal, then the council was told about it, they came and knocked over trees, dug up the ground something shocking and left behind a bit of rubbish, which i have already cleaned up.

i still ride there, they have pushed over heaps of trees to simply block the track, which i have moved out of the way. i haven't built anything, but it is still a good place to ride for something simple.

it really pissed me off, cause i knew the guy who had ratted us out:mad::mad:!

end rant.
 

Barnsy

Likes Dirt
Guys if it wasn't legal you can't get annoyed when it gets torn down (though you CAN write a paper about the un-environmental way it was destroyed). I'd be pissed off if some idiot rode his motorbike in my yard and built jumps, and so would you guys. Plus what is people's reaction when the trial is illegal? "oh those annoying mountainbikers, they think the world belongs to them and they just destroy land". It makes us all look better if you only build legal trails, in which case its like "hey those mountainbikers are cool, they build nice trails and stick to what is legal, maybe next time they ask for some community land we won't be so hesitant to give them access"
 

VK2GOM

Likes Bikes
It's all stercus tauri (one to Google).

Policies like this, dreamt up by people educated beyond their limited level of intelligence up in air conditioned towers, shuffling bits of paper back and forth are responsible for not only the loss of your fun-to-ride trail, but deaths of many people in the Victorian fires.

For example, useless gumtrees have no place in suburbia, yet they continue to be planted. They are fire traps. The black Saturday fires proved this.

Yet you're not allowed to chop them down. And you can't move fallen branches or leaf litter, heaven forbid disturbing an insect scurrying in the undergrowth :confused:

But then the chap that did clear his property of useless firetrap gumtrees survived, and kept his house. But then copped a fine. Says it all really...

How about the chap that moved big rocks on his property to allow the rural fire brigade access. But was then fined for creating an 'un-natural rock formation.'

I could go on but I'm sure you get the idea.

It's about time the Australian councils and the crazy 'green' movement that seem to dream up these ideas had a reality check. I would have thought the black Saturday events might have provided that, but nope - we blunder onwards headlong into the next disaster.

In the meantime, I'd be building another trail :)

Cheers - Rob
 

STP 4 life

Likes Bikes
Same thing happened to me. After school cruised down to the jumps and they were gone. The council left dirt everywhere and left a macca's wrapper! Don't know if these were legal but they were in the most secluded spot you could think of and they wern't on private propeerty so can they do this if it wasn't on private property?
 

thecat

NSWMTB, Central Tableland MBC
It's all stercus tauri (one to Google).
Except that the proper grammar would have more likely been stercus taurinum as Latin tended to use adjectives rather than genitives with stercus.
\

And bull shit or not the trail was illegal so you can't really complain when it get pulled down so more appropriately we could say "stercus accidit"
 
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dcrofty

Eats Squid
Lesson learned about checking who owns where you build?

Tough way to learn it though.
 
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beaumont

Likes Bikes
happens to everyone buddy
happened to me and a couple mates a few years ago
spent weeks building trails in a location where we thought no one would doze them but someone told the council and they were all flattened straight away
 

Saffa

Likes Dirt
It Happened to the trails in Essendon.
The council dozed them and pushed a whole lot of dirt into the Maribanong river, causing ireperable dammage and endangering local river plants and fish.

Sucked in council! how about doing an enviromental study before dozing as you would before bulding?
 

Mongo

Likes Bikes
Shovels Unite!!

Brothers. I feel your pain.

RIP Freeride land in Essendon
RIP Countless dirt jumps on the Yarra Trail over the years
RIP CH10 track Mt Dandenong
And the dozens of tracks I never got to see

It's been my observation that destroying or 'closing down' illegal trails causes more devastation than the track ever could have.
Example: Mt Dandy - Old growth trees cut down to block trail heads
Example: Yarra Dirt Jumps - An entire area flattened. No vegetation now over-run by weeds. Hundreds of man-hours of work destroyed. Makes any trail builder want to throw his shovel through council window - or learn how to boost cars instead of building jumps.

Now I know the pros and cons of track building can be a long and complicated argument of public liability, environmental impact and general aesthetics. And many may say that if you want to build, go through the proper channels and do it 'legally'. Fundraise, rally local council, solicit a bike club etc. But FARK!! I want to ride a decent track in my lifetime and not have some Prius driving beaurocrat tell me that a feature looks too dangerous.
That been said, good on the guys who are trying to work 'legally'. You have more patience than me.

So my advice is: Don’t get too mad. Just go somewhere else. Somewhere less people are likely to see you, maybe out of town a bit if you can get there. You can build the dream and not have it F'd with. But remember to build responsibly. Remove your rubbisgh, consider erosion, try not to chop anything down and work with natural features. In my experience, wooden structures like north-shore draw a lot of heat for a number of reasons. So hide them really well or refrain.
Make your track an invite only deal and build quality. Who knows. You may even leave a legacy. Good luck!
 
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