{"id":72513,"date":"2017-06-10T05:03:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T11:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/illegal-mountain-bike-trail-in-hermosa-destroyed-by-rangers\/"},"modified":"2017-06-10T11:03:14","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T11:03:14","slug":"illegal-mountain-bike-trail-in-hermosa-destroyed-by-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/illegal-mountain-bike-trail-in-hermosa-destroyed-by-rangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal mountain bike trail in Hermosa destroyed by rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:fe5729c2-9dd3-43ea-9c9a-7abd43ce6a37 --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R4R3H6qlRXs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Local volunteers helped rangers from the Columbine District of the San Juan National Forest destroy an illegal mountain bike trail southeast of the Hermosa Creek Campground.<\/p>\n<p>The rogue path was in the Hermosa Creek Watershed, a special-management area protected by law. The trail was about a mile long and was partly constructed on an old roadbed that led to a stock tank.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCreating illegal trails is blatant disregard for taking care of the land,\u201d said Matt Janowiak, district ranger of the Columbine District.<\/p>\n<p>Rogue trails are not a new issue in the region. In 2014, the city of Durango approved a plan to shut down illegal trails while promising to work with local groups to create new trails. Numerous cities nationally battle with the debate as well, as similar conflicts have occurred in Boulder; Sedona, Arizona; and Reno, Nevada.<\/p>\n<p>The issue with unmapped trails is that the Forest Service or other land managers can\u2019t ensure that the trails do not erode or prevent sediments from entering waterways, which could potentially harm wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>The Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection legislation, signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2014, forbids mechanized vehicles from riding on non-designated trails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to let folks know that special management areas will be handled differently,\u201d Janowiak said.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers from San Juan Citizen\u2019s Alliance, San Juan Mountain Association and Trails 2000 helped rangers with the demolition by spreading shrub, rocks and small trees along the path.<\/p>\n<p>The destruction of the trail comes during the <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/164473-public-comment-period-begins-for-hermosa-creek-management-plan\">public comment period<\/a> for the Hermosa Creek Watershed Management Environmental Assessment, which lays out the district\u2019s proposed uses of the area.<\/p>\n<p>The Forest Service received complaints this spring that mountain bikers were actively constructing a mountain bike trail, and people asked if it was sanctioned.<\/p>\n<p>The trail was destroyed because the Forest Service was concerned primarily about erosion, as well as sediments reaching Hermosa Creek. \u201cWhen you create trails, it has to be done properly and sustainably,\u201d Janowiak said.<\/p>\n<p>Cliff Pinto, owner of Pedal the Peaks, had heard of the trail and says it has gotten a lot of traction in the last year, which he attributed to being shared through Strava, a social networking site used by mountain bikers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was probably ridden by a small group of people for a long period of time,\u201d Pinto said. \u201cThen it was ridden this last fall, someone Strava\u2019d it, and that created a snowball effect, which got more people onto the trail, which may have led to adaptations, and it started showing a lot more use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Forest Service won\u2019t conduct an investigation into who created the trail, claiming that determining who created the trail would be difficult. However, if mountain bikers continue to create illegal trails, rangers issue citations, Janowiak said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a reason that a lot of these are built illegally is because there\u2019s a lot of energy around creating trails, and the bureaucracy to get a trail put in legally makes it untenable,\u201d local mountain biker Harris Bucklin said.<\/p>\n<p>The Forest Service decided to obliterate the trail, fearing that if it didn\u2019t take any action, it would set a precedent and more trails would pop up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get word to the mountain bike community to talk with us first,\u201d Janowiak said. \u201cPlease come talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:asemadeni@durangoherald.com\">asemadeni@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>built near Hermosa Campground<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,884,977,549,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-72513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-hermosa","tag-mountain-biking","tag-united-states-forest-service","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72513"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=72513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}