NEWS RELEASES

July 7, 2009.

THE MOUNTAIN BIKE PUSH FOR ACCESS TO L.A. CITY PARK TRAILS

This was a David and Goliath battle, as the BAC/IMBA bike people were heavily funded, and experts at political and public manipulations. Equestrians and hikers tend to be independent, solitary people who resist banding together as a group. This characteristic has weakened our advocacy efforts.
No one person could have done this alone. For other trail advocates who many be facing a similar trail problem with mountain bikes, it is critical to reach out and form coalitions with non-equestrian groups. I have spent years sitting on Boards and Committees as the only equestrian. The time, effort and tedium of sitting through meetings, when I could have been doing other things, paid very large dividends when push came to shove.
Since it was urban parks at issue, there was a wide panoply of park stakeholders, far beyond the usual conflict between equestrians, hikers and mountain bikers. A significant number of people have had the experience of being run off the trail by speeding downhill bikes.
In order not to be written off as a NIMBY, it is important for the credibility of your position that one is not locked into a negative stance. Here in L.A., we supported strongly the road bicycle’s Transportation element of their Master Plan. It is a legitimately appropriate use of the streets. However, not every bike use belongs on every trail. We opposed the inappropriate and unsafe usage of our Park dirt trails mixing fast moving mountain bikes with other users.
Over time, attending meetings on other issues, I’ve made bonds and friendships with homeowners associations, neighborhood councils, chairs of park groups and organizations not usually friendly to horse people such as the Sierra Club, running clubs, dog walkers, conservationists, baby stroller pushers and the Audubon Society, all who have showed up in solidarity because they shared a common bond to preserve historical hiking and equestrian trails. These are new allies from unexpected places and with team work, everybody brought something to the table.
Several years ago, the arrival of widespread internet and email access has allowed trail users to communicate quickly and easily with like minded individuals both Statewide and Nationally. No longer does one have to write a letter, address an envelope, put a stamp on it and then wait for a reply. It has aided our efforts immensely to be able to send documents and communications to multiple folks simultaneously. It has brought us together in ways that were unthinkable even 5 years ago.
The success of this Los Angeles trails process was achieved through a huge and committed group effort. Bound by the commitment to trail preservation and trail safety, many people contributed personal time, culled information from many sources, wrote letters and worked behind the political scenes to provide valuable information and brainstorm courses of action.Get involved in your local Community issues. Help other groups with their non-equestrian issues. Rubbing shoulders with others in meetings provided credibility to me that couldn’t have been achieved by picking up the phone and cold calling groups, and asking for help.
THE HISTORY OF THIS CONFLICTIn 1996, Los Angeles City Council adopted a Bicycle Master Plan that included the consideration of a pilot program for mountain biking. (Beware the concept of the “Pilot Program” . It is a Trojan Horse in that no pilot program, once in place, to my knowledge is ever rescinded.)
In 1999, in response to the pressure to allow bikes in Elysian Park, L.A. Rec. and Parks formed a Mountain Bike Working Group made up of various Park stakeholders, including mountain bikers, to discuss this proposal. CORBA (Concerned Off Road Bicyclists Assoc.), assisted by the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA), charged that the 1996 plan was being ignored and requested access to Elysian Park for a pilot mountain biking program. This required suspension of Municipal Code sec 63.44 B 16., the Park Ordinance that forbids mountain biking on City Park dirt trails. This appropriately affords the broadest protections for uses in urban parklands.
The discussions were contentious, and at one point, seeing that they were unable to achieve their agenda, the mountain bikers boycotted the meetings altogether.
The Working Group continued to meet, and ultimately turned out an important document titled The Majority Report. This report is probably the most extensive documentation of mountain bike conflicts throughout the United States. The report presented overwhelming public support on safety concerns and resulted in a unanimous City Council vote that the Ordinance be maintained without change.
In 2000, with $5 Million of park funds, the City of Los Angeles purchased Mandeville Canyon to be used for a “pilot program” mountain bike park. The pilot required the completion of environmental studies to evaluate the use within a year. CORBA promised to conduct an “Adventure Trails Program,” to introduce youth to mountain biking. They promised to bring 1,000 inner city kids to the Park. In reality, they brought one group of kids, and never tried again to bring youth to the Park, nor was there any review of the pilot program.
Today, nine years later, the environmental files on Mandeville Canyon are empty. There is no “Youth Adventure Trails Program.” One would think that the issue, now stained by non-performance and still-open “pilot program,” would be dead.
In 2008, the City’s Department of Recreation and Parks (DRP) hired local bi-lingual consultant Mia Lerher & Associates for their Park Needs Assessment. It was an extensive and expensive survey of Park users, in which requests for mountain biking didn’t even appear on the list.
Results: Hiking and Bicycle trails placed Number 1 in the survey (63%) followed by Nature trails (43%) and Equestrian Trails (17%). An administrative DRP representative affirmed, “Biking trails” meant paved paths like the LA River bike-path, not mountain biking. In The American Sports Data, Inc.’s (ASD) 2008 Superstudy of Sports Participation, Mountain biking was noted in the “Outdoor Extreme Sports” section. ASD trend change for mountain biking noted a 34% decline since 1998.
The Los Angeles Bike Advisory Committee (BAC), under the umbrella of the L.A. Department of Transportation, decided to update their Bike Master Plan. They brought in a consulting group named “ALTA”, based in Portland, at the cost of $450,000, to revise the Plan. The Bike Master Plan was to have addressed itself to the legitimate issues of commuters/street/road biking i.e. striping bike lanes, providing safety measures, bike racks, street lighting etc.
The mountain bikers attached themselves to this plan, initially claiming they were “commuters” too. The only difference was that they wanted to commute on dirt trails. Later on, BAC classified the mountain bikers under “recreational” biking, as the L.A. paved Bike-Paths along the river were classified as recreational.

ALTA hired Osprey Group, consultants from Boulder, Colorado, who have limited experience with the needs of urban park uses, but extensive experience promoting mountain biking. Osprey had twice before collaborated with Jim Hasenauer on creating the “Park City Agreement” and the “Wilderness Society Agreement”, both of which allowed mountain bikes onto trails where they had been forbidden.
Osprey was paid to conduct 2 meetings (mediations) in which the public was not permitted to participate. (Mediation is not one of the work items in the signed contract with ALTA). We found out later that one of the two ALTA consultants had actually been a member of IMBA for the two years prior to working with ALTA.
A letter written by one of the BAC/ALTA people and placed on City Planning letterhead was sent out to invite equestrian and hiking clubs to send a representative to these private meetings. The catch was that all members of this panel had to be L.A. residents, cutting out many park users from other areas such as Glendale, Burbank and other parts of the Valley.
Three equestrians, three Sierra Club hikers, and three members of IMBA and CORBA were to represent their user groups in a discussion on trails. The equestrians were represented by Lynn Brown, National Trail Coordinator for Equestrian Trails Inc (ETI) one of the largest equestrian organizations in the State; Mary Benson representing the L.A. Horse Council, and Dale Gibson of Gibson Ranch, representing for George Chatigny of the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. The hikers were ultimately only two, Joe Young, Chair of the Griffith Park Sierra Club, and Executive Committee member of the Angeles Sierra Club and Bill Crane, Sierra Club member and hike leader from the Sylmar area. The mountain bikers were represented by Jim Hasenauer, founder of the International Mountain Biking Assoc. (IMBA), Mike Goodman of CORBA, and Aaron Kirsch of the BAC.
In the meantime, this backdoor move deliberately excluded L.A. Recreation and Parks as well as many in City Council, as the BAC knew they would receive a negative reception from these agencies. They decided to bypass these agencies through the Department of Transportation and City Planning. I believe it was hoped that by the time all this reached the light of day, it would be a done deal.
When confronted with these “closed” meetings, excluding the public, a spokesperson for BAC declared that public meetings on mountain biking were “too hostile” claiming that there had been threats of violence in the 2000 Working Group meetings. Later checking on extensive records from those meetings showed no such threat was made.
On April 15, 2009, the representatives met at City Hall along with 40 other concerned Park stakeholders. The reason was to "mediate" Mountain Bike use on City Park Trails . Most felt that there was nothing to “mediate” as the matter was settled in 2000. Nothing had changed in the Park, if anything it was more crowded with users than ever. The idea of introducing a fast moving wheeled vehicle onto City park trails was ludicrous. It was pointed out to the BAC and the mountain bikers that they had access to well over 1.500 miles of trails surrounding and within the City boundaries, while we were defending our last 100 miles of bike free trails within the City.
The people in the audience were not allowed to comment as it was declared a “closed” meeting. Nearly 40 attendees were present for the meeting, composed of Neighborhood Councils, Homeowner Assoc. the Press, concerned equestrians, a running club and Sierra Club members. Both the hiker/equestrian representatives and members of the stakeholder audience felt at the end of this first meeting that this whole Osprey meeting was a bit of Kabuki Theatre, as the outcome was predetermined, and their rough draft of their “recommendations” was probably already written.
It was the feeling of the panel that to allow mountain bikes on any portion of a City trail would of course have to be achieved by changing the City Ordinance that presently forbids this. Once the Ordinance was changed, it would open the door to discrimination lawsuits for access ultimately to all City park trails. Despite claims by the BAC that Griffith Park and other major regional parks were “Off the Table”, we recognized a slippery slope.
On May 13, 2009, there was a second mediation meeting where again public money was used to fly in the Boulder consultants. The anger of the panel (except for the mountain bikers) was considerable. The secrecy and manipulations were disgusting. Public participation was once again excluded, although dedicated Stakeholders attended nonetheless.
Shortly into the second meeting, Lynn Brown of ETI made a statement that the equestrian groups were totally opposed to changing the City Ordinance for any City park to allow bikes on dirt trails. This was followed by Joe Young of the Sierra Club reading a similar statement opposing any change in the Ordinance. This “mediation” failed utterly as both Sierra Club reps and the equestrian reps unequivocally opposed any changes to the current City ordinance on park dirt trails.
The hikers and equestrians stood in unprecedented solidarity. It was a historic moment for both the equestrians and Sierra Club to join together.

Feburary 9, 2009.

On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a motion creating a new Los Angeles City Equine Advisory Committee. This motion was sponsored by Councilwoman Wendy Greuel and Councilman Tom LaBonge.
The Equine Advisory Committee will deal with equestrian issues, including trails, zoning, land use and water quality issues, among others.

Each Councilperson will appoint a delegate to serve on the Committee. Councilwoman Greuel stated at City Council that "Out of 15 Council Districts, 14 Districts have horses and horse related businesses. CET&LC's Lynn Brown was appointed by Councilman LaBonge to this Committee.

Currently, accoring to Health Department figures, there are over 50,000 horses in L. A. County, not including back yard horses and race horses. The Equine Advisory Committee is a recognition of the need for representation within the City and also the huge financial contribution that the equestrian industry contributes of an estimated $6,000,000 annually directly to the City.

July 13, 2008

The topics dealt with trails, liability, signage and other legal issues pertinent to Park administrators and land managers. As Liability was being discussed, Mr. Wyseman said that for someone to sue successfully for damages from an agency, three criteria must exist:

1) They must be owed a Duty
2) The Duty must be breached
3) They must have suffered damage resulting from this breach.

A simple rule of thumb regarding the Duty Owed (by land managers) to trail users is that if you are aware, or ought to be aware, of an unusual danger, you have an obligation to protect people from that danger. i.e. a management decision introducing a new fast moving trail user onto a traditional Hiking/Equestrian trail.

Breach of Duty is defined as any violation or omission of a legal or moral duty. (Black’s Law Dictionary)

Damages are defined as loss, injury, or deterioration, caused by the negligence, design or accident of one person to another, in respect of the latter’s person or property. (Black’s Law Dictionary)

General Damages are the amount claimed for pain and suffering experienced as a result of the negligence of the defendant.

Special Damages are awarded for the out of pocket expenses suffered by the plaintiff as a result of the negligence of the defendant. Claims for such as present and future wage loss, medical expense, rehabilitation and property damage can add up to millions of dollars.

Punitive Damages are awarded to a plaintiff as a means of punishing the defendant for their wanton disregard for the safety of others.

Present at the Workshop were Senior Administrators from LA County Parks and Recreation, LA City Recreation and Parks, Senior Urban Planners from both the City of L.A. and City of Burbank, a Field Rep. From City Council, Orange County Parks, Sierra Club Board members, Senior LA City Park Ranger, a member of the Bicycle Writers Collective, Equestrian Trails Inc. and the City of Manhattan Beach Rec. and Parks manager.

This presentation was innovative, bringing detailed information to assist public entities in their efforts to minimize liabilities and protect the public against injuries on trails and parkland.

This was hailed as a success by the attendees, who expressed interest in further Risk Management workshops in the future.

Mr. Wyseman is an Associate in Risk Management in the Insurance Institute of America, He has developed and taught risk management programs to a broad range of public entities throughout North America.

Doug has provided guidance and information regarding recreation risks for Parks and Recreation Associations in over 30 states and 10 provinces and has worked with more than 200 municipalities regarding safety and liability concerns. His Risk and Recreation manual is used in approximately 3,000 municipalities worldwide. He has also provided expertise to insurers of public entities.

June 14, 2008

State Parks is preparing to begin a General Plan Revision effort for Red Rock Canyon State Park. This planning effort will revise an existing and older General Plan for Red Rock Canyon SP to include all of the expansion lands in the current park ownership including the Last Chance
Canyon Addition. Existing and future equestrian recreation along with other park visitor opportunities will be evaluated and in this planning
process. Goals and guidelines for appropriate equestrian use and other recreation activities will be a part the Plan's proposals. Furthermore,considerations will be given to the regional resources and recreationalsurroundings of the park.

The State will be assisted by a planning consultant in this effort.Once current processing of the consultant contract is completed, planning and public involvement activities will begin. If you would like to be on the mailing list, participate, and provide your input in the General Plan process, please provide your name and address to
generalplan@parks.ca.gov.

If you need information about current operations at the park you can
contact District Superintendent Ron Krueper at rkrueper@parks.ca.gov.
Hope this helps.
Steve Musillami
Statewide Trails Manager
California State Parks
smusi@parks.ca.gov
916-653-6501
1416 9th St., Room 108
Sacramento, CA 94296-0001

May 8, 2008

On May 8th, there was an event to mark the 1st Anniversary of the Griffith Park fire. It was to honor those departments and organizations who fought the fire, and who contributed to the burn recovery of Griffith Park. Present was Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilman LaBonge, L.A. Rec. and Parks General Manager Jon Mukri, the President of the Rec. and Parks Commissioners, Barry Sanders, the Los Angeles Fire Department, the L.A. Park Rangers, helicopter pilots, local organizations and dignitaries.Lynn Brown, National Trail Coordinator and Equestrian Trails Inc., Corral 38 was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for ETI's fundraising contribution with the Poker Ride, signed by the Mayor and Councilman LaBonge.

January 29, 2008

The Back Country Horsemen of America is happy to announce that Kandee Haertel has joined its staff as the Director of Development.   Her experience as past Executive Director of the Equestrian Lands Conservation Resource shows that Kandee understands what it means to be a horseback rider as well as her way up the trail.   In this position, Kandee will assist with strengthening the national's programs and developing new initiatives.
 

September 3, 2007

Notice

It is with sadness that I must write this letter about the passing of Jim Real, a dedicated CSHA and CET&LC leaderThe equestrian community has lost a true leader in the fight for equality on trails.The equestrian community must say good by to a person who gave one hundred percent of his time to his passion: Horses and the activities that go with them.
The California Equestrian Trails and Lands Coalition has lost a founder of this organization; he with the vision of others saw the future in developing CET&LC and we will never forget the hard work and dedication Mr. Jim Real gave to this group.Jim, We know you are now riding the trails with Mr. George Cardinet, and all of the other equine leaders who have preceded you to the promised land.Thank you for your dedication. We will all have huge boots to fill as we continue on with your work. Gods Speed on that trail you are now on; to the endless  green pastures and majestic mountains you had come to love.

We will never forget.

John Keyes
Chair: CET&LC

July 26, 2007

Alert !!! - MARIN HEADLANDS’ RODEO VALLEY TRAIL PROPOSED FOR ROAD BICYCLES:  San Mateo County: PUBLIC HEARING HUDDART/WUNDERLICH PARK MASTER PLAN: Refer Backup for more details

July 12, 2007

Brian Boudreau’s win has given all equestrians and agriculture a fabulous gift.  Science triumphs over the arbitrary numbers of Coastal Commission.  There is no law that requires a 100-ft. setback from ESHA, Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area.  His steadfastness in dealing with the Coastal Commission and his consistency in remaining a man of principle have won a major victory for all equestrians and farmers. Refer more detailed Report

October 28, 2006

Lynn Brown the Southern Vice Chair for the California Equestrian Trails and Lands Coalition and National Trails Chair for ETI has been asked to write articles for Western Horsemen magazine.Western Horsemen is starting a new section concerning Trail Issues. This is a major breakthrough for all of the horse groups that find themselves fighting access issues in California. CET&LC will keep you all informed of the latest information from Lynn Brown.

June 21 , 2006

The California Equestrian Coalition is continually responding to member organization local clubs. The result is a list of topics that have been commented upon either in written letters or emails to respective agencies or interest groups. Take a look.

April 18, 2006

Multi-use Trails Safety Considerations

The California Equestrian Trails and Lands Coalition (CET&LC) has been requested by our member organizations to develop a set of trail criteria and trail safety considerations that will help alleviate the considerable conflict of use on multi-use single-track trails though out the State of California. Mountain bike users that have less regard for the more historic equestrian and hiking users have brought on this conflict. On new trails being built to multi-use standards the problem is less acute. It is on the conversion of existing single track trails to multi-use that the conflict is being played out and has reached a point of major differences in many areas of the State.

CET&LC has developed such a set of Multi-use Trails Considerations that if followed will help solve the conflict and hopefully lead to better relations with the mountain bike community of users. It centers on limiting speed where ever and when ever bikers make contact with either hikers or equestrians on a trail. It also outlines trail considerations for construction, use protocol that defines rights of way, slope, width and visibility.

This is going to be a primary thrust of the equestrian community for the upcoming California Trails and Greenways Conference at Agoura Hills, Ca. May 5,6 & 7, 2006.

January 1 , 2006

Notice of Intention of California Equestrian Trails & Lands Coalition:

The California equestrian community has for many years needed a collective voice representing the many thousands of California trails and public land users. Almost every other user group has such an organization and the horse/mule/borro owner has not been effectively organized to have a collective voice on common concerns. The formation of such an organization is now available with few encumbrances to individual equestrian organizations and their purposes and objectives. This organization is a network and email structure with each member organization appointing a representative that will be the focal point for that organization on any issue pro or con concerning trails and public land use practices. The organization commitment is through signature on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which is enclosed.

The CET&LC is the result of California State Horseman Association and the Backcountry Horsemen of California co-sponsoring the formation, collectively representing approximately 46,000 individuals.

Any Equestrian Organization interested in joining the CET&LC should contact:
John Keyes, Chairman -- 559-539-2816, email keymac@ocsnet.net

For more information and how to participate in being a part with a collective voice, contact the aboveindividual. Every organization is an equal, how ever small or large.