Anyone who has ridden the Bear Claw Poppy in the past few weeks will have noticed a certain addition to the trail. For those who haven’t hit the trail recently, the above picture shows the new fences that have been added to control the masses as the barrel down the trail.
It was over a year ago that the DMBTA was first contacted by the BLM to keep us in the loop on the United States Fish and Wildlife Services’ concerns of habitat degradation within the Bear Claw Poppy Reserve. The ridiculous amount of braiding and illegal trails that had amassed had resulted in a net loss of habitat for the poppy. What this meant for the BLM and us mountain bikers was that we either closed the trail or found a way to control the braiding and widening of the trail.
The first two options present by the biologists were a complete closure of the trail or complete fencing to create a corridor that would limit where trail users could go. Clearly the second was the best of the two, but we weren’t thrilled about being corralled through one of the most used trails in the area.
As the project progressed, the BLM made the argument that selective fencing could fix the trail braiding and effectively stem the habitat degradation. The USFWS bought off on the plan and this past month the fencing went in placed in strategic locations to ensure that trail users would know what was a legal trail and what could possibly cause the trail to be closed.
Reports are starting to filter in. We’ve heard some grumbling, some confusion and some positive feedback. Overall, we feel this is an acceptable solution to a problem that mountain bikers have caused. Keeping singletrack single isn’t just good ethics it helps ensure that our trails are fun to ride and that they can stay open. The St. George area is unique in the fact that the majority of our trails fall within reserves that have been set aside to protect different endangered species. This is great because it keeps the space open and free from development giving us a place to ride, but the other side of the coin is that we are guests on these trails.
Despite the grumblings, the overall consensus has been that the fences will not effect the quality of the ride. We feel it may, in some cases, improve the experience of new riders who may not know exactly where the trail is helping them navigate without getting lost on the countless braided trails.
Let’s keep our singletrack single and our trails open to use!
