Mountain Bikers Plead With Elected Officials for Trail Use

Mountain bike enthusiasts—fighting to reclaim more than 20 miles of trails through Loch Raven Reservoir—are hoping a walk through the woods with elected officials will help their cause.

In the past year, mountain biking has become a point of contention at Loch Raven as Baltimore City Department of Public Works officials believe bikers negatively impact the reservoir.

A Baltimore County ordinance states that mountain bikers cannot ride in areas designated as stream buffers and steep slopes of 20 degrees or more. Baltimore City Department of Public Works closed off all but 12 miles (of the 37 miles) of trails that had been used by hundreds of off-road bikers for decades.

On Friday, Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts representatives plan to take state Sen. James Brochin and City Council President Jack Young on a tour of Loch Raven Reservoir, near the trailhead at the intersection of Seminary Avenue and Dulaney Valley Road.

The off-road enthusiasts hope to illustrate the difference between single-track trails and other wider trails that have been created by the Department of Public Works,  according to Dave Blum, a Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts task force member. Blum argues that the single-track trails are far less problematic than the wider roads made by the public works department for maintenance vehicle use.

Meanwhile, DPW contends its primary responsibility is clean drinking water, not recreation.

“Our primary responsibility is to protect the watershed source that supplies drinking water for the Baltimore region,” said DPW spokeswoman Celeste Amato in an interview with Patch. “We have 1.8 million customers and that is our primary charge. Within that charge is following all the rules and regulations that govern the production of quality drinking water.

“We are required to follow the Baltimore County environmental code—we can make it more stringent, which means we can heavily restrict activities but we can’t make the law weaker. There have always been restrictions on recreational uses. … It’s a watershed. It’s not a park,” she continued.

While DPW believes the tread from bicycles hastens sedimentary issues and forestation complications, mountain bikers counter that the so-called “woods roads”, or fireroads, created by DPW have done even more damage.

.   Blum disagrees. "They only wish to remove mountain bikes from these sensitive areas and not hikers, runners, and other foot traffic,” he said.

“This wouldn't remove the [environmental] impact issues … nor does it make any sense given that numerous peer-reviewed articles find that mountain biking has near equivalent impact to hiking and other foot-traffic,” Blum said.

Mountain bikers took the issue to the Baltimore City Council in late July, presenting arguments in support of trail use.  The city has an interest in the issue because its residents use water from Loch Raven Reservior.

Blum, a Baltimore County resident, presented studies during the council meeting which showed that the water quality of the reservoir has “remained consistently high” through the years, even when mountain bikers had access to all the trails.

On the walk through the area with elected officials, Blum hopes to better illustrate the difference by comparing single-track trails with the DPW's “woods roads.”

The differences are stark, according to Blum.

Single-track trails are inches wide while “woods roads” measure several feet across to accommodate for motor vehicles. Single-track trails are typically cross-contoured, which ebb and flow with the land.  In contrast, Blum said, some of the fireroads at Loch Raven are a “straight shot.”

“Much of the single-track at Loch Raven has existed for 20 years or more and much of it has remained in excellent condition, despite a complete lack of maintenance (there are some trouble spots, but those would be easy to repair),” Blum wrote in an email.

“A rough estimate of impact between the two is that six miles of single-track is equal to around one mile of Woods Road. But, this ignores the major differences in routing and design,” Blum stated.

CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated from its original version to better describe the goal mountain bikers hope to accomplish from Friday's meeting.