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In February of 2012 Jeff wrote an article about Private MTB clubs around the world: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-tr … the-world/
The organization that funds all of these trails is called the Global Conservation Mountain Bike Club, and lately they’ve been making headlines in New Zealand when the MTB trail building company that has been working on one of their private MTB parks announced that their main client, a reclusive billionaire, asked them to stop building trails: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news … -bike-park The trail building company consequently has to fold, putting 46 people out of jobs.
However, the existing trails will continue to be maintained by another company. And by all accounts, thanks to 200 riders who had the opportunity to ride there in January of this year for a one-time special event, this park is a "Disneyland for mountain bikers."
Now if only it was open to the public… http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news … -bike-park
What do you think about private MTB parks?
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First off, any "company" who’s livelihood is directly tied to the whims of a single individual has to be ready to find themselves without gainful employment at some point.
Secondly, I love the thought of private trails for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, I’m solidly entrenched in the demographic that would never get to ride on any 😀
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As I was back when I read Jeff’s article, I’m still on the fence about this.
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I suppose if you own the land and have the resources to build something like that there is nothing inherently wrong with it. None of us like to be cut off from land that was formerly open to the public but it happens all the time. I think our MTB friends in Florida have battle this a lot. Liability, security, and just wanting to have the trail to yourself could be among the reasons to make it exclusive. Would it be nice if they shared? Yes. Should they have to? No. People build private golf courses, swimming pools, hunting reserves, etc. for all kinds of reasons. I would imagine a lot of private MTB trails exists in the US without much publicity. If you built a couple of miles of trails with features on your farm you probably would want to have control over who rides it – maybe not to the point of building fences, but its kind of the same thing.
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This is such a fascinating story, thanks for passing along this update. After this news I think our friends in Portugal who were fighting the trail work there will be relieved.
I think private trails have their place in MTB just as they do in other activities mentioned (hunting, golf courses, etc.). It’s gotta be mega expensive to purchase land and build trails (not to mention insurance and maintenance) so I don’t think we’ll see a lot of private trails popping up everywhere.
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OK, let me throw another wrench in the system…
So the trails mentioned above were built on land that was bought by a private owner after the owner purchased the land–so it’s not like local mountain bikers LOST any trail access.
However, I just received feedback from a user at the end of last week that this trail: http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails … creek.html or at least, the land that the trail is on, was purchased by a private person and subsequently closed to public access. I haven’t been able to substantiate this information (so if anyone has a news article, that would be great), but it seems like a situation like THIS would be a whole different story!
I for one wouldn’t be happy.
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"mtbgreg1" wrote
the land that the trail is on, was purchased by a private person and subsequently closed to public access
Yeah, this happens more often than you might think. There was a trail just outside Charlotte, NC where the owners allowed anyone to ride there for a small donation. Many years later, the land was purchased and the new owner wasn’t interested in keeping it open to mountain bikers. I think few would argue that it’s their land so it’s their call. It’s likely the new owners aren’t even mountain bikers.
I think it’s very rare for previously public land (as in, owned by the government) to fall into private hands (at least here in the US).
Where you might have an argument is if a local trail club had a relationship with a private land owner and the club pours volunteer hours into building trails only to have access restricted at a later date. But even then, the land owner usually writes the contract such that they can rescind access any time (and the club know this going into it).
This is one reason IMBA doesn’t like to get involved with trails located on private land. No way to put grant money into it and the clubs don’t have any say in what happens to the land.
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"jeff" wrote
[quote="mtbgreg1":i47vvxcn]the land that the trail is on, was purchased by a private person and subsequently closed to public access
Yeah, this happens more often than you might think. There was a trail just outside Charlotte, NC where the owners allowed anyone to ride there for a small donation. Many years later, the land was purchased and the new owner wasn’t interested in keeping it open to mountain bikers. I think few would argue that it’s their land so it’s their call. It’s likely the new owners aren’t even mountain bikers.
I think it’s very rare for previously public land (as in, owned by the government) to fall into private hands (at least here in the US).
Where you might have an argument is if a local trail club had a relationship with a private land owner and the club pours volunteer hours into building trails only to have access restricted at a later date. But even then, the land owner usually writes the contract such that they can rescind access any time (and the club know this going into it).
This is one reason IMBA doesn’t like to get involved with trails located on private land. No way to put grant money into it and the clubs don’t have any say in what happens to the land.[/quote:i47vvxcn]
I could see working with a private land owner being potentially problematic, although some places it sounds like it works pretty well. Big ranches in Texas, for instance.
As for Griffin Creek, a Google search returned this: http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/w … -plan.aspx
It’s in the right general, so I’m assuming this is where the trail is, but I could be wrong. Based on this link, it looks like it is (or used to be) public land. That’s why I’m interested to see if anyone’s spotted a news article about this… -
My 2 cents: If public land is somehow bought (which is very unlikely) and trails are closed, that is no good. If private land is sold and trails are closed, I hate to say it, but that it is at the discretion of the new land owner. For the parks in question, I feel that if someone owns the land, go ahead and build what you want. If you want to keep it private, fine, if you want to open it to the public, even better. It is your land, do with it as you will.
Unfortunately in this age of litigation, not many private land owners will be willing to open up their land to something like mountain biking. I would be willing to join a private club (I do this to hunt) to have access to land. It can actually be a very nice situation. With my hunting club (which is all private land), the number of hunters are limited, plus there are member events, which are fun. And it opens up land (for a fee and release of liability, of course) that would not have been open otherwise.
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