A lawsuit filed by the the California Native Plant Society, the Marin Audubon Society, and the Marin Conservation League has successfully blocked a trail sharing pilot program in Marin, California’s Mount Tamalpais Watershed. The program would have allowed mountain bikes and class 1 e-bikes on 6.6 miles of singletrack on Marin Water District lands. Mount Tamalpais, aka Mt. Tam, is widely heralded as the birthplace of the sport of mountain biking.
A long-awaited pilot program brought to a screeching halt
The pilot program was initially hailed by mountain bikers as a momentous win, and was the result of advocacy efforts stretching back to the mid-1990s. “The Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC) is appreciative of all the work, outreach and collaboration done by Marin Water over the past several years. This is a huge win. We were prepared to get one or two trails and we got 10,” said Krista Hoff, MCBC’s Off-Road Director. “We are taking this opportunity seriously. We are conservationists too — we care about the ecology of Mt. Tam as well as other users’ experiences and we intend to be excellent trail stewards.”
The lawsuit, filed on October 1, 2024, alleged that “Marin Water failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in its adoption of these programs,” according to a press release. At the time, Marin Water stated that it believed “the planned pilot and trail programs were adopted in compliance with CEQA requirements and are thoughtful progressions in our adaptive management approach to recreational uses on the Mt. Tam Watershed.”
Lawsuit settled, and bikes still aren’t allowed on singletrack on Mt. Tam
The lawsuit was finally settled eight months later, in early May 2025. “As part of the agreement, the District could rescind both pilot programs, which were adopted in September 2024, in exchange for a dismissal of the lawsuit,” wrote Marin Water in an official statement published on May 5, 2025.
In short, the litigants were successful in preventing mountain bikes from gaining legal access to singletrack trails on Mt. Tam.
Following the settlement, the Marin Water Board of Directors announced on May 7 that it will launch a new e-bike pilot program on July 1, 2025, which will allow e-bikes where mountain bikes are currently permitted for a period of up to two years. Unfortunately, mountain bikers are currently limited to riding fire roads on Mt. Tam, and do not have any singletrack access in the birthplace of mountain biking.
“This is a major blow to Marin’s mountain biking community and a frustrating step back after years of public process, partnership-building, and trail stewardship,” wrote Access4Bikes, MCBC, and the California Mountain Biking Coalition in a combined post on Instagram.
“Marin Water will continue to explore options for bike access on select single-track trails on the watershed, and this will be done as part of a broader planning effort that will include community input throughout the process,” the May 5th press release continues. “Any future action in this area will be guided by additional California Environmental Quality Act review. Initial discussion about next steps for exploring trail access will be covered during a Roads and Trails planning update at a Watershed Committee Meeting in June.”
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