And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 11:23:25 EDT Subject: Improving the Trail Mix, Friday, May 21, 1999 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Editor, Carolyn Jones' special to the Chronicle ("Improving the Trail Mix ") contains a number of factual errors and misrepresents the overall situation here in Marin. I don't like to say this, because I've worked as a freelancer, and I know how damaging an accusation of getting the facts wrong can be. I have nothing personal against Carolyn Jones, because I have never met her. But your readers have been seriously misled by this story. Here are the prevailing facts: Mountain bikers have carved a minimum of ten known illegal trails in federal, state, and county public lands in the past 2 years. Open Space District staff have stated that the cost of closing one of those trails is $200,000 or more - and thus is prohibitive. The public may think the District will naturally close and repair illegal trails. The District can not repair mountain bike damage of this or any other sort without more taxpayers' money. The normal practice of mountain biking turns these fragile soils and steep slopes into 3 foot deep trenches impassable for any use, human or beast. Mountain bikers chain saw down trees, ride over private property, and demand rights to do so even more. All other beneficial uses of the public resources are diminished or damaged by mountain biking, yet mountain bikers do not seem to care, and even advertize illegal trails to the globe on world wide web sites. Numerous sheriff's department and police reports have been taken in the past 15 months as mountain bikers have committed crimes that include: assault with a deadly weapon, assault and battery, assault, arson threat, and trespass. The Marin County Board of Supervisors have taken a default position in favor of mountain bikers, turning a blind eye to the destruction of the resources they are pledged to protect as the board of the Open Space District. Last year, Supervisors Steve Kinsey and John Kress and a member of the county staff took a trip to Holland, putatively to study bicycle transportation in Amsterdam, from mountain bike manufacturer Patrick Seidler. Mr. Seidler stated in a letter printed in the Marin I-J that he is an "influence peddler and proud of it." No member of the County Board of Supervisors has yet recused himself from a vote concerning mountain biking. One member of the Board of Supervisors, Steve Kinsey, ordered the District rangers to chainsaw down a gate across private property to try to force public access on private land. The landowners are suing the county. The situation in Marin is like the war for the Black Hills, when the miners invaded Lakota territory against the law, and the U.S. government refused to enforce the law for them. It is not a rosey truce. It is not a love feast. It is a war, and the county board of supervisors and the mountain bikers have ganged up on everyone else. Send your reporters out here to see for yourselves. Martha E. Ture 697 Cascade Drive Fairfax, CA 94930 415-453-8472 (Note to the editor: I sued the Marin County Open Space District/Board of Supervisors over their opening of a mountain bike trail in 1997, and the county settled with me this year. Part of the settlement requires restoration of some damaged lands, articulation of a vision for these hills, and programs to achieve that vision. We will see if we can see clearly.) Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&