Trail Talk
As a mountain biker I am amazed at the sheer volume of trails that have been built over the last five years. In pretty much every part of Australia new trail networks have popped up, and existing networks continue to be reinvigorated with the addition of new trails, tweaked alignments and new features.
All of this development has been great for mountain biking and for the businesses that support the industry. Governments are also seeing the economic, health and social benefits that flow from quality outdoor experiences and are stumping up the funds to develop trails and supporting infrastructure.
The sting in the tail of all of this development is the need to maintain these trail networks to a standard that ensures rider experiences are maintained and the environment is not damaged.
As mountain biking has evolved so has the type and nature of trails. The rider demographic has also changed. Talking to the people who have been riding for 20 years, the whole way trails are built and managed has changed.
Starting as a fringe sport that was not always supported by landowners, old school mountain bikers knew that they had to build and maintain their trails if they were going to have anything to ride. This saw the creation of trail care groups and sanctioned trails and trail maintenance arrangements.
Fast forward to today, and we now have all of this new trail to ride but keeping up with the maintenance required to keep the trails in great shape is proving difficult in some areas. Life is busy and this is starting to reflect in the number of people who are able to volunteer for trail maintenance activities.
Is the volunteer maintenance model dead? Are we asking too much of volunteers to maintain large trail networks to a standard that is expected by the riding community?
On a number of projects that I am currently working on, land managers have been very clear that identifying robust trail governance arrangements are just as important as the project cost or return on investment when deciding whether a project will proceed. While many land managers are supportive of new trails being built, they don’t want more assets to manage without a clear framework in place for managing and maintaining the trails.
Looking at maintenance models, without moving to a fully professional trail maintenance model, perhaps there is a hybrid model that will work for trail maintenance where contractors are engaged to do the heavy lifting while volunteers are engaged to do the fun parts of trail maintenance.
I believe that there is a need for an ongoing level of volunteer or community involvement in trail management. Keeping some ‘sweat equity’ in the trails by volunteer or community groups helps to maintain a connection between riders and land managers while also helping to manage rider behaviour and other issues with ongoing trail management.
The missing part is funding, the majority of our trail networks here in Australia are free to ride, this is great from a rider’s perspective however there is no direct revenue stream created to fund ongoing trail management. Some locations have successfully implemented trail sponsorship arrangements to support ongoing maintenance, however this is generally not possible when the trails are located in national parks and other areas managed by government agencies.
While I don’t think there is a single solution to solving the trail governance and maintenance puzzle, the mountain bike community needs to start thinking more commercially and investigate ways to build revenue streams into our trails. This won’t happen overnight, it will take time and energy to establish ways to sustainably fund trail maintenance.
In the meantime I would encourage everyone who rides to seek out their local trail care group and lend a hand or provide a donation, every little bit helps.