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"Downhill riders' Knapsack track plea" - Blue Mountain's Gazette
Downhill mountain bike riders say a potential route for a new track in Knapsack Reserve will not best serve the community or the environment.
They have asked the council to consider their proposal for an alternative alignment, even though it would make less use of existing trails than one identified during consultation.
Blue Mountains Off Road Cyclists (BMORC) representative Paul King said while the group’s proposal would involve establishing new corridors through bushland, it would produce a better outcome in the long term.
“Our experts [including the International Mountain Biking Association] have told us that the new alignment is the only way that you’re going to have sustainability,” said Mr King.
Exploration of options for a downhill facility began in March when the council closed informal tracks at Mount Riverview and along Old Bathurst Road after a community campaign against the damage being done to the eastern escarpment.
Riders have since been working with the council to develop a legal track, with Knapsack Reserve identified in July as the most suitable location.
Councillors recently commissioned a report examining the new alignment but asked that it be re-assessed using more up-to-date environmental mapping to ensure no endangered ecologies were threatened.
Mr King said the original alignment would require a great deal of work for what could be a negative outcome.
“If we . . . go in there under compromise, what’s going to invariably happen is . . . it’s going to become a highly erosive trail,” he said.
Aside from environmental factors, Mr King said BMORC’s proposed track would be more accessible less experienced riders and would accommodate cross country as well as downhill bikes.
In the event the council opts for the new alignment, Mr King said the group had offered to provide manpower to help regenerate the old walking tracks which he argued were in a degraded state.
The reports relating to the Knapsack Reserve downhill track will come before the council at the December 14 meeting.
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Nice work there Mr King, great article.
Thanks Mate, the public interest has been phenomonal people are stopping me in the street to offer support, they are happy with our position on sustainability and can't see any reason why the council and councillors won't support the new track.
I am guarded about getting my hopes up as emotion from groups can sometimes overtake the science attached to projects, I just hope that as support for the project begins to grow that the residents who believe the new alignment is a good thing make the effort to email council and councillors and tell them so.
The councillors have been extremely supportive of mountain biking and more than one have put their neck out to assist us in realising a positive out come at Knapsack, we need our group to now mobilise and write to our councillors with Thankyou letters letting them know that we are pleased with their help and feel that their support is very important to the community as this project has far reaching benefits including health benefits for users and a diffused revenue for the local economy from the visitors who will come to the mountains to enjoy the trails and stay to enjoy the many tourist attractions in the area.
I am looking forward to the opportunity to regenerate some of the old walking trails, they have been neglected for decades, I believe in partnership with the Blue Mountains Conservation Society and Glenbrook Historical Society we can make a real difference in the ongoing preservation and protection of not only the flora and fauna in the park but also areas of historical significance.