Category: Advocacy

Economics of Washington County Mountain Biking

So what is the Economic value of mountain biking in Washington County?

This is an important question and one that is usually difficult to answer. Fortunately, in 2016 the BLM collected recreational use data with electronic trail counters. We now have good numbers at least on BLM trails.

There are a number of formulas for estimating how much mountain bikers spend. Washington County estimated $175 day per visitor. The BLM estimated spending by local riders averages around $35 per person per day. Spending on things things like bike shop purchases, bike maintenance, food, and gas. It’s broken down by use type.

COMMERCIAL USE: (Guided mountain biking)

Total Number of Mountain Bike Guiding Permits: 25

Total Number of Clients (annually): 1,368

Average Number of Clients per permit: 54.75

COMPETITIVE EVENTS: (Mountain Bike Races)

Total Number Competitors = 2,560

Gross Income reported: $937,500

Other activities to consider are things like The Red Bull Rampage, Snake Hollow Bike Park, gravel grinding etc. that are not on BLM-managed lands, and so not included in these estimates.

REGULAR OLD RIDING WITH YOUR BUDDY

Total visitors counted on BLM Mountain Bike Trails in 2016 = 149,142. This number is definitely low because it only counts users on established singletrack trails. Nor does it include use on non-BLM trails like Boy Scout, Lake Shore, Kentucky Lucky, etc.

So, if you were to add all those numbers together…..you get 183,070 individual mountain bike visits every year. WOW.

The grand total for the local economy is between 16 and 21 MILLION DOLLARS every year. Whew…

Advocacy DMBTA News Garfield County Iron County Kane County Washington County

What is DMBTA?

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS DMBTA?

Glad you asked. In simple terms our mission is to “Build, Maintain, and Ride”, but of course it’s more complicated. We are a 501(C)(3) nonprofit with a president, a treasurer, and a Board of Directors that represent three sub-chapters in southwestern Utah. The sub-chapters are Washington County, Cedar City, and Kanab. We have many dedicated members and businesses that support us by donating and volunteering. Let me say “Thank You” to all of them right now, but if you’re reading this, YOU are the key to Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association success. DMBTA is a vehicle to help all mountain bikers create and maintain the kinds of trails they want to ride. We partner with local and national governments, other non-profits, landowners, individuals businesses, and literally anyone that’s willing to advance mountain biking, trail construction or maintenance.

Building the modern flowing bike trails that most people now want is very expensive. It costs between $5000 to $10,000 dollars per mile to design and construct XC trails, and downhill flow trails are much more expensive. In the past it’s not been our goal to raise enough money to fund new trails. Most of our membership dues and donations simply paid for things like insurance, trail tools, events, and supplies. We’ve had success building new trails all over southwestern Utah by forming partnerships. However, trail funding for federal agencies is disappearing. Partnerships will always be important, but we now need more money to match grants from The State of Utah.

We want to do more, but we need your help. Mountain biking is growing in our area, and we can’t keep up without more help. We have many vacancies that could be filled by motivated people.

Ways you can help:

You can join DMBTA, or donate on our website at dmbta.org
You can donate on facebook, or at paypal.me/dmbta
Buy one of our t-shirts or hats from local bike shops.
You can also help trail funding when you shop on AMAZON by going to smile.amazon.com first, and ask them to make a donation to the Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association.
If you own a business we need more cooperate support.

If you have questions you can contact me at Kevin@dmbta.org.

Your Board:

Kevin Christopherson – President

Toni Bain – Treasurer

Marc Mortensen – Washington County Representative

Aden Sahagun – Cedar City Representative

Jan Gilespie – Kanab Representative

Key Volunteers:

Ben Warburton, Jay Bartlet, Carl Sigg – Trail Maintenance Coordinators

Lukas Brinkerhoff – Newsletter and Web Page Editor

Teena Christopherson – Merchandise Sales

Advocacy

Message from the Prez

It’s been an amazing couple of years for Mountain Biking in Southwestern Utah. There are so many people that helped make it happen it’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ll start with all of you. Everyone out there that joined, contributed, or volunteered deserves a great big pat on the back. THANK YOU. DMBTA exists to support dedicated people like you that want to get involved and make our great trails even better. I must also thank our DMBTA Board. It is amazing how many hours and how much hard work these dedicated people donate to make this happen. I should also thank Saint George City and Washington County for making Snake Hollow Bike Park a reality, the BLM, NFS, Red Bull, the local bike shops, and the owners and employees of Desert Canyons.

Most of the work that the DMBTA Board does is behind the scenes and it’s kind of boring. Things like, insurance maintaining our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, organization, bookkeeping, and coordinating with local governments and landowners, are not fun but essential to get things done. I’ve listed some of the fun stuff below.

New Trails completed over the past two years
- Wire Mesa, Kentucky Lucky, and Desert Canyons in Washington County
- Lava Flow, Lichen It, Iron Giant, and Green Hollow in Cedar City
- Raven & Roadrunner trails, and the Town trail in Kanab

Edge of Nightfall Red Bull movie and fund raiser

New T-shirt and hat design

Assisted Saint George City with Snake Hollow Bike Park

Initiated “Pass with Class” trail etiquette program

Participated in Active Transport committee to promotion urban bike paths

West Mountain downhill trail planning

Hosted Bike Magazine and member appreciation cookout

Donated money for Virgin City BMX track lighting

Provided trail etiquette training for NICA teams

Hundreds of hours maintaining trails from Navajo Lake to the Rainbow Rim.

Three Peaks has a lot of new signage thanks to the Local printing company “Three Peaks Graphics”, and new bridges thanks to the BLM

Advocacy

DOWNHILL FLOW TRAIL COMING TO SAINT GEORGE AREA.

DOWNHILL FLOW TRAIL COMING TO SAINT GEORGE AREA.
With a little help from DMBTA, the BLM St. George Field Office was recently awarded a trail construction grant through the Utah Recreational Trails Program. They will get $60,000 from the State grant and will match it with another $60,000 with money collected from commercial guide permits, and fees from competitive events. These events pay for our new trails. We (DMBTA) also agreed to contribute a significant amount of volunteer time.

The trail will be a machine built one-way downhill flow trail on West Mountain Peak, and will be 8-10 miles long. West Mountain Peak is just south of the Shivwits Reservation on the west side of Highway 91 (Utah Hill). The trail will begin about 1.5 miles below the communications towers at the summit.
I’ve had a few questions about why this site was selected, and the answer is simple. This is the only suitable place on BLM land in Washington County that has the elevation and downhill distance for a trail like this.
If you haven’t joined us yet, do it now. Be part of everything that is happening for mountain biking here. We need your help.

Advocacy Trail Conditions

Trail Ethics: Keeping singletrack single

Advocacy DMBTA News

We need you!

The Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association started out as a group of five dedicated individuals who were willing to put in a whole bunch of volunteer hours in an effort to help improve and create mountain biking experiences in Southern Utah. Since we started in 2009, we’ve grown from Washington County to include Iron, Kane and Garfield counties where there are active sections of the DMBTA working to bring you new and better trails.

This growth has been great. It’s meant that we have more singletrack in more locations. It’s meant that the DMBTA has grown to include more than just five people and based on the predictors we have, this growth is only going to continue at an exponential rate.

We are committed to our original goal of building, maintain and riding the amazing trails in Southern Utah. To continue this effort, we need your help. We need people who can take over some of the positions that are due to be released like a book keeper. We need folks who are willing to help maintain our website. We need people to help maintain the trails that we already have and we need people who are willing to help build trails. In short, we need you. Regardless of what your passion, what your skill set, we can find something for you to do.

So join us. Shoot an email to info@dmbta.org with your contact info and what you feel you could do to help out. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

Advocacy DMBTA News Events Trail Work

Gooseberry Trail Day May 22

Advocacy DMBTA News

Sign up in May!

Moab Brand Trails.
Moab, Utah. Photo Credit: Leslie Kehmeier, Mapping Manager, International Mountain Bicycling Association.

Advocacy Events Trail Conditions Trail Work

Barrel Roll Trail Day

It’s that time again. We will be doing some maintenance on the Barrel Roll Trail Sunday the 15th.

If you’ve been out to the Santa Clara River Reserve recently, then you know that it did not fair the TrueGrit epic well and is in dire need of a little love. We plan on spending a couple of hours raking out the loose rocks and eliminating the braiding that has occurred.

Wanna help?

Meet at the Cove Wash Trailhead (where Barrel Roll starts) at 9 AM.
If you have a rake, bring it.
Plan on being out there for about 2-3 hours.
Water and light refreshments will be provided.

If you have any questions, please contact lukas@dmbta.org.

Advocacy DMBTA News Events Trail Planning Trail Work

DMBTA Washington County Wrap Up 2015

Photo by John Scarafiotti

This has been a fantastic year for mountain biking in our area, and as the DMBTA Board it’s been very rewarding coordinating this great work. Remember, YOU are DMBTA. Give yourself a high five. This year started with a bang by the completion of two new trails in the Hurricane Cliffs Trail Network. Dead Ringer and More Cowbell are a huge success thanks to the help of many people including the BLM, ACE, Team Z, OTE, and a lot of volunteers. Dead Ringer is an intermediate flow trail with purpose built bike jumps, and More Cowbell is a much needed beginner trail with amazing vistas and easy climbs.

One my favorite memories from the past year involves finishing Dead Ringer. The trail was built from both ends, and as chance would have it, they came together at a very difficult rock outcropping. The ACE crew ran out of time and was not able to connect the trail segments leaving Dead ringer mostly finished except for the last few hundred feet. The local bikers were not going to let that stand and answered the call by organizing a crew connecting the segments. It was very hard work requiring a hammer drill and building a rock retaining wall. Nice work guys.

All of the new trails including Goosebumps and Cryptobionic were celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony with food from Sole Foods, and prizes from OTE. It was a great time. The local NICA kids the Flying Monkeys were also there representing the future of mountain biking.

While we were celebrating the newly completed trails, Bill Bergeron was busy laying out the next big project. We hope to get Wire Mesa done early this year, and it’s going to be a great trail. It will be a fast and flowing intermediate mesa trail. Sound Interesting? We also partnered with the City of St. George to design a new trail on Webb Hill. The trail will be an intermediate loop that will open up the ability to easily pedal to the top. Construction started a few months ago. Web Hill will be all volunteer built so come out and help make this trail a success.

In addition to the new construction, we hosted several maintenance days. Many of you showed up to help keep our amazing trails in tip top shape. As our trails get more recognition and use, they will also need more maintenance. 2016 will see many more trail maintenance days to keep everyone rolling with a smile.

We also organized a Trail Love trail maintenance work shop and had over forty people show up on a Friday night, and over 25 made it for the trail work Saturday. It just shows the love and commitment all of you have to mountain biking in our area. Lets keep this going and make 2016 an even better year.

Remember it’s all about trails. Join us!