[Portland-based off-road cycling advocacy group, the Northwest Trail Alliance, has a long legacy in Forest Park. In fact, they came onto the scene over 20 years ago (as PUMP, the Portland United Mountain Pedalers) in order to make sure cycling wasn't completely prohibited from the park.

That history gives you some idea of how long and how hard local advocates have worked to improve access for bikes in Forest Park. Several members of the NWTA were on the Forest Park Single Track Cycling Advisory Committee whose recommendations influenced the big decision yesterday by Commissioner Fish and Parks Director Santner. Below is an op-ed from the Board of the NWTA.]

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Nick Fish
(Photo © J. Maus)

The City Commissioner in charge of Parks, Nick Fish, announced a set of "actions" earlier today about off-road cycling in Forest Park. I spoke to him on the phone from his office in City Hall about that announcement...

You told Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) today that Forest Park isn't ready for new bike trails. Why not?

"I don't think the park is ready to have an expansion in bike trails right now for two reasons. Number one is that we don't have all the data that we need to make thoughtful decisions; data about who uses our parks, the health of our park, and so on. This was a significant problem I discovered through this process. The second part is that anything I propose for the future is going to be subject to a Type II or Type III land use review, so if we don't have the science ironed out than nothing gets through land use review. Nothing would be more cynical for me than to announce a breakthrough today that I know will be stalled in litigation tomorrow."

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League President Andy Clarke.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Reactions are starting to come in from this morning's big announcement by City Commissioner Nick Fish that there are no plans to improve singletrack bicycling opportunities in Forest Park. The President of the League of American Bicyclists, Andy Clarke, has expressed his disappointment in the decision. Here's a statement from Clarke: (more...)

Riding in Forest Park.
(Photo © J. Maus)

As we hinted at yesterday, City Commissioner Nick Fish and Portland Parks and Recreation Director Zari Santner have released their much-anticipated set of actions they'll take to address off-road cycling in Forest Park.

The decision includes no new or improved access to existing singletrack trails and no commitment to build new ones.

In their announcement today, Commissioner Fish and Director Santner wrote, "Further restoration and maintenance work is needed in the park before recreational use can be expanded." With that being said, they have committed to move forward with the following within the next year: (more...)

Director of Portland Parks Zari Santner.

City Commissioner Nick Fish. (Photos © J. Maus)

Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish and the Director of Portland Parks Zari Santner are due to release their recommendations on bicycling in Forest Park sometime in the next week or so. The announcement will come 19 months after the issue of how to improve bicycling in the 5,000 acre park was first put on Fish's radar. The journey to this point has been messy and difficult for people on all sides of the issue. In the interest of bringing you up to speed on the issue, here's my recap and thoughts about how we got to where we are today... (more...)

Bicycling in Forest Park.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Portland Parks & Recreation has released results of their 2010 Forest Park Recreation Survey (PDF download). With the fate of bicycling improvements in the 5,000 acre urban park hanging in the balance, I thought I'd take a look at how two-wheeled recreation fared.
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This landslide resulted in a project
that will close Leif Erikson
Road for four weeks.
(Photo: Portland Parks & Rec)

Portland Parks & Recreation has released details of a closure to Leif Erikson Road in Forest Park that begins this coming Monday (9/13) and is estimated to last four weeks.

Heavy rains back in June caused a landslide that resulted a part of the popular road to fall down the hillside. Parks had already planned to replace a culvert in that area so now the plan is to bring in the heavy equipment and get the job done. Unfortunately, in order to bring in their heavy equipment and trucks, the entire trail will be closed temporarily from Milepost 7 to Milepost 11 (at NW Germantown Road) to all users.

This is unfortunate timing given that it's cyclocross season. Parks is aware of the popularity of Leif Erikson and they made a point in a statement to say, "The City’s contractor may also work seven days a week to finish the repairs as quickly as possible."
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Commissioner Nick Fish.
(Photo © J. Maus)

City of Portland Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R), has just announced five new management initiatives that will "address ecological and recreational concerns about Forest Park."

Fish is reacting to mounting public pressure to do something about the deteriorating health of the park. This pressure came to a head last month with a research report published by City Club of Portland titled, "Call to Action." That report admonished the Parks Bureau for neglecting the park and not completing a number of studies and surveys called for in the 1995 Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan. (more...)

Detail of slide location and detour map.
-Download PDF/Photos below-

Portland Parks & Recreation says a landslide in Forest Park has closed Leif Erikson Drive, resulting in a closure of the gravel road that is popular for biking, hiking and running.

According to PP&R spokesperson Beth Sorensen, the road is now closed between milepost 7 and milepost 7.25 and is not expected to be reopened until repairs are completed in October.
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Cover of City Club's Forest Park:
A Call to Action.
-Download PDF here-

Deciding how to move forward with improved and expanded biking opportunities in Forest Park got a lot more complicated last week.

On Thursday, the City Club of Portland released a 65-page report on Forest Park that, among other things, states unequivocally that there should be no additional bike trails or access of any kind until various studies are completed. But just a few days before that, the results of a Portland Parks survey on biking in Forest Park found that a majority of respondents favored more bike access (on new and existing trails) and funding for more trails was rated the #1 priority among a list of "management actions" while completing studies ranked at the very bottom of the list.

How Parks Commissioner Nick Fish and Parks Director Zari Santner interpret the scope of these studies and how they balance the City Club report with the survey findings, will be key to the future of biking in Forest Park. (more...)