The North Fork will rise again!

WTC is starting to mobilize a media push and public awareness campaign. You will hear more on this soon.

please keep us posted on how we can help

WTC met with DNR last friday. Due to our long time advocacy efforts, and the fact they reached out to us for a meeting, I was optimistic that they would want to come to some sort of working agreement with us, and we were fully prepared to decommission work that was out of their liability comfort zone, address any legitimate erosion concerns. There was no talk of compromise, just here is how it is going to be.

Press releases will be going live within a few hours.

The garbage, sediment claims are unfounded, and they know that.

Let us know if us Canadians can help. It may help the argument that we bring "tourist" dollars to the nearby communities. We buy gas, coffee and breakfast, beer, and often dinner and more beer at the pizzaria/brewery/chapel or other eateries. It also makes it more likely to visit the Bellingham bike shops.
I'm pretty sure local bike organizations have used the economic benefits argument with local authorities with some success.

WTC met with DNR last friday. Due to our long time advocacy efforts, and the fact they reached out to us for a meeting, I was optimistic that they would want to come to some sort of working agreement with us, and we were fully prepared to decommission work that was out of their liability comfort zone, address any legitimate erosion concerns. There was no talk of compromise, just here is how it is going to be.

Awesome. That's the best you can do. Apologize later…

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Help-Save-North-fork-trails-whatcom-county-2012.html

working on the letter thad, but the emails are not able to be copied, as they're an image.

Letter going out tomorrow. The email campaign to spread the word has started already. Let's save North Fork!

working on the letter thad, but the emails are not able to be copied, as they're an image.

Here are the email addresses that are pertinent for Canadians to send to:

[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]

I sent one personal and one on behalf of the FVMBA. These trails are in our backyard. PLEASE HELP!

working on the letter thad, but the emails are not able to be copied, as they're an image.

The addresses are copy-able from the NSMB version of the article, here.

my email to whatcom tourism :
I am writing to you to let you know that I travel every year to Washington State and Oregon State to ride my bike on the amazing trail networks that have been developed by dedicated trail builders. I myself am a trail builder in North Vancouver and understand the passion that goes into this art form. I also know of the economic benefits that a network of trails can provide for the local economies. The history of the north shore trails has a similar beginning to what is happening now with the North Fork Trail System on Slide Mountain. Years ago in the early 90's, the North Vancouver local municipal councils were staunchly against any form of mountain bike trail development on the local mountains. But council has come to embrace the mountain bike culture because they became aware of the many benefits that this form of outdoor recreation provides. Financially it was estimated that over $2 million dollars is contributed annually to the local economy due to the tourism associated with mountain biking on the local mountains. In the US in 2005 over $18 billion in taxes was collected by federal and state governments from Americans pursuing cycling activities. Working with local lobby groups such as the NSMBA, a great relationship has developed on the local municipal councils that contributes to effectively managing the local trails. Bellingham has the chance to embrace this opportunity. INstead of shutting down the North Fork trail system, I would encourage you to work closely with those who have developed this site so that the concerns of local government can be addressed and benefits can be realized by all involved.

Please refer to the following reference for many more persuasive arguments on the benefits of mountain bike tourism. This is a document produced Tourism British Columbia.

http://www.mbta.ca/assets/pdfs/mbtguide08_web.pdf

Thanks.

Letter written. Come on guys, power in numbers!

For sure lets try to save the best zone out there.

I am so confused. Am I supposed to keep a secret, or promote the positive effects of large numbers of riders in an area for "tourisms' sake? Just tell me what to do…

Sound like the idea was keep it secret so they don't loose it…now that it's at risk of getting closed down they are sounding the alarms and trying to legitimize the trails and have them legalized.

Why is This Happening?

" At that time the explanation for the closure was that an individual from a motorized user group was insisting that if motorized use wasn’t allowed on Slide Mountain, then all unauthorized trails must be closed down."

Really? Really? How f*[HTML_REMOVED]king petty. I guess if you can't have the same things as another group (even if you exert more impact and do less work to limit impact) you may as well try to drag them down and ruin it for everyone else. Good thinking.