Dear Matt,
I would have like to have spoken to you personally but somehow my emails for meeting requests go unanswered. I get it, you are a busy man but during this workshop your influence loomed large.
As a participant in the recent Westleigh Park Co-design Mountain Bike Trails Workshop I would like to share my experience. 15 people were involved with approximately half representing the mountain biking community and the other half representing the environmental side including groups such as the Westleigh Progress Association, Friends of Berowra Valley, STEP, ANPS (Australian Native Plant Society) and others.
Each side have their own ideology and it is this ideology that feeds their position.
Mountain Bikers
- Love the bush
- Love riding
- Find it therapeutic
- It is a great exercise
- Introduces their kids to the bush
- Elements of the track that are important include, shade, trees and shrubs, topography, locality.
- Need tracks that have a direction and a track head to avoid collisions.
Environment Participants
- Want to protect EEC(Endangered Ecological Communities) and CEEC(Critically Endangered Ecological Communities)
- Want to protect the whole ecosystem, trees, shrubs and groundcovers and all of the animals that rely in these as habitat
- What to see the bushland handed down to future generations intact
- Want to be able to walk through the area at a slow and gentle pace. (While walking the tracks it became clear that once the area is designated as a track, this will not be possible. You will be in the way.)
I have no problem with the mountain biker’s ideology, in fact I applaud each and every element. I am almost certain that the mountain bikers would have no problem with the elements of our ideology.
So why are we being pitted against each other?
During the workshop it became clear through the many presentations of the professional track designer that he can create tracks that meet the needs of mountain bikers anywhere. Give him a blank canvas and he can create a masterpiece.
It is an easy fix to the demand of more mountain bike tracks to destroy more of our bushland. But Matt, you said that you cared for our environment and you want to protect our wildlife and their habitat. Stop wasting public money on pointless consultations and find a genuine sustainable solution that we can all be proud of.
Yours sincerely
Karen Benhar
President Friends of Berowra Valley