June 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 55

Russ Carmack/Comcast Washington State

gal encampments and other items
indicating improper use of the park,
it was clear the sector needed to find
legitimate recreational use.
At the same time, " there was a level-of-service gap here in Tacoma, "
says Joe Brady, natural resources
manager for Metro Parks Tacoma.
" There are a lot of folks who just love
to mountain bike and had no place to
do it close to town. " Tacoma riders
would have to travel an hour or more
to get to the closest mountain bike
trail system, which discouraged ridership and provided a ready population of riders eager for a trail system
closer to home.
After passing an $85 million capital improvement bond in 2005, Metro
Parks Tacoma underwent a community involvement process to develop
a master plan. The Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance recognized this as
an opportunity to bring mountain
biking to Tacoma and offered to help.
Once the master plan was approved
in 2011, Metro Parks Tacoma created
a contract for Evergreen to provide
construction and ongoing maintenance of the mountain bike park.
Project Manager Mike Westra soon
came out to survey the site and laid
out a phased plan.
" Evergreen did all the construction
through volunteer labor, and they continue now that the park is complete
to maintain it to the specifications we
outlined using volunteers, " Brady says.
" We've got a couple of volunteers who
have put in more than 1,500 hours in
the last year. You see this with volunteers - they just come out of the woodwork when they have the ownership to
do it and the ability to make meaningful change. " Evergreen volunteers also
help make sure mountain bikers don't
create new, unauthorized trails, Brady
says. " It's a self-policing model. "
One goal of the project was to discourage illegal activity in the park,

Volunteers organized by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance provide regular trail
maintenance tasks at Tacoma, Washington's Swan Creek Park.

which has definitely been a success,
according to Brady. " Mountain biking fits into that nicely, by getting bad
users out of the park and good users
in. We're not only cleaning out an old
bad use, but we're infusing new users
into a public space that's way more
productive. Mountain biking at Swan
Creek was a really great opportunity
for us to accomplish a lot of objectives in one project. "
Dozens of similar shining examples of collaborative partnerships
exist nationwide, proof to frustrated public land managers and mountain bikers alike that it's more than
possible to work out a solution for
everyone.
Park managers looking to establish a positive connection with the
local mountain biking community
are advised to contact their local
IMBA chapter (www.imba.com) for
nearby mountain biking advocates
eager to work with park and recreation agencies. The association also
offers resources such as " Trail Solutions: IMBA's Guide to Building
Sweet Singletrack " and " Managing
Mountain Biking: IMBA's Guide

to Providing Sweet Riding " (www.
imba.com/resources), which can
help get you started.
" [Public land] managers out there
need to realize that there are these
incredibly dedicated volunteers who
have taught themselves to be super
effective at building and maintaining
trails in partnership with land managers, " Eller says. " They do it all for
free. The last survey of groups in
2012 documented 700,000 donated
hours of volunteer service. From the
manager's point of view, if you're being tasked with improving community assets and improving public health,
cycling appeals across demographics,
old and young, different ethnic and
racial groups...You've got dedicated
volunteers with a lot of know-how
and you've got an opportunity for
land managers to improve their communities and fulfill their mission. A
lot of times, it's just a matter of putting those two things together and
getting a conversation started, and
good things start to happen. "
Danielle Taylor is the Senior Editor of Parks
& Recreation Magazine (dtaylor@nrpa.org).

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June 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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