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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Committee member Les Blaize at a recent
open house.
(Photo © J. Maus)

After nine months of meetings, the 15-member Forest Park Single Track Cycling Advisory Committee will present their recommendations to Parks Commissioner Nick Fish and Parks Director Zari Santner tonight.

According to a statement put out by Portland Parks & Recreation, the report, "will represent the diversity of perspectives of the committee members, and they will each have the opportunity to share their opinions about the recommendations and the report directly with Commissioner Fish and Director Santner." (more...)

Cover of Forest Park: A Call to Action.

A recent report on the health of Forest Park published by the City Club of Portland has a noted off-road biking advocate crying foul. Frank Selker, the man who launched an effort to improve biking opportunities in the park back in December 2008 and who sits on the City of Portland's Forest Park Single Track Cycling Committee says the report contains false, potentially libelous statements and he wants City Club to make several edits before it is officially adopted tomorrow.

The 65-page report, Forest Park: A Call to Action is an in-depth look at all the issues surrounding the park, outlining the urgent need to devote more resources to its care and management. The report touches on mountain biking in several sections and recommends that no new bike access is granted until several studies can be done on the park. (For more analysis of the report, see our story published on May 24th.) (more...)

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...)

Enjoying the 1/3 mile of single track in Forest Park.
(Photo © J. Maus)

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Parks staffer Dan Moeller on
the illegal trail back in February.
(Photo © J. Maus)

A work party scheduled for tomorrow will work to decommission a rogue bike trail that was discovered in Forest Park back in February.

The event has been jointly organized by Portland Parks & Recreation and the Northwest Trail Alliance. Volunteers will restore the natural habitat around the trail in hopes of minimizing future damage due to erosion or the introduction of invasive species. On the trail itself, crews will cover up the surface with brush, take down jumps and stream crossings, and remove a cribbing wall that had been constructed. (more...)

The .75 mile Tolinda Trail, shown here
in orange, would be opened to bike access.
(Download full map PDF here)

Portland Parks and Recreation has just published their Forest Park Singletrack Cycling online comment form. The form includes the list of 12 proposed actions to improve and expand bike access in the park and a list of management actions that focus around methods of enforcement. Along with the form, a map labeled with the proposed actions is also now available online (PDF).

The management actions are included because, "the committee felt strongly that any increase in activity would need to be also supported by an increase in resources, enforcement, and commitment to the park."

This comment form will be available for only two weeks, so make sure you weigh in soon. You must register on the City's website (which is very easy and fast) before you can view and fill out the form.
(more...)