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.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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