Roxborough Review Newspaper Article

We are proud to let everyone know that Elizabeth Oliver with "The Review" wrote an excellent article on us (PMBA) and our partnership with the FOW and our work to help preserve the trails in the Wissahickon Park, our baby. The article appeared on the front page of their Feb 4th issue, but it is also on their website at THIS LINK. Big thanks go out to Rob Krotee, PMBA VP, who called the paper and asked them to attend the Bike Shop Outreach event that we hosted at Valley Green with the FOW. It was an excellent event and we really believe our momentum is still growing as word gets out to all the positive contributions this club is making to everyone's benefit. The text is below. Enjoy!

Biker-Friends partnership has big plans    By Elizabeth Oliver 

For more than a decade many area residents believed that mountain bikers were to blame for the deteriorated state of the trails that wend through the Wissahickon Valley section of Fair-mount Park. It turns out that, not only are biking enthusiasts not at fault, but the Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association, a dedicated army of more than 250 volunteers, are actually making it their mission to protect and preserve the park's trails for future generations of bicyclists, dogs walkers, equestrians, nature-lovers, and runners.Members of the PMBA joined members of the Friends of the Wissahickon on Feb 1 at the Valley Green Inn, to review their achievements from 2008 and to discuss plans for projects in 2009. The PMBA and the FOW have been partnered in their efforts to preserve the park's trail system since 2006.

This partnership is an extension of the FOW's Sustainable Trails Initiative, a preservation plan encompassing the Wissahickon Valley's 50 miles of trails. Mountain biking enthusiasts were not always in the good favor of the FOW, but that changed after a series of environmental studies proved that severe erosion due to water runoff was the key culprit for the poor condition of some park trails, not bicycles. Trails that have suffered the most damage look like trenches walled in on either side by earth, and are steeply graded, caused by storm water runoff. Repairing these damaged trails takes a great deal of time, money, and manpower, according to information from the PMBA and the FOW.

The time, money and manpower are supplied by volunteers from the FOW and PMBA who come together several Saturdays a month to move earth, haul rocks, plant new vegetation, and do whatever it takes to repair these damaged trails. In 2008 the PMBA and FOW invested more than 3,700 volunteer hours to trail preservation. At least 35 volunteers show up for each work day regardless of the weather, according to Rob Krotee, vice president of the PMBA and chair of the organization's outreach committee.

For 2009, both organizations have big plans, and an infusion of cash, thanks to a grant of nearly $10,000 awarded to the PMBA by REI, the outdoor sporting goods company. The grant will be used for the purchase and rental of equipment, Krotee said. In addition to trail preservation the FOW's plans for 2009 include improving signage to clearly mark trails and identify which uses are permitted, as well as continuing to implement designs that improve sightlines around corners and control patrons' rates of speed in high traffic areas.

The PMBA aims to extend its trail preservation projects to include land outside the Wissahickon Valley, according to PMBA board member Paul Harris. Other plans include expansion of the bike clinics and group mountain biking trips sponsored by the PMBA, and advocating for a bike park in Philadelphia, Harris said.

Richard Edwards, a trail specialist with the International Mountain Bicycling Association, and one of the key advisors during the planning phase of the Sustainable Trails Initiative, praised the STI as a "worldwide model" for maintaining natural space in an urban setting. "No one else has been able to pull it off," Edwards said. "This will be an example for people around the world."

There are more than 50 miles of trails in the Wissahickon Valley, some dating back to the days of the Leni Lenape people who lived there long before the founding fathers set foot in the new world.

Since the 1800s the parkland and trail system along the Wissahickon have been under city protection in order to preserve the area's drinking water and the many plants and animals that live in the park, according to David Dannenberg, a member of FOW's board of directors.

The FOW formed in 1924 to keep motorized traffic out of the park, and until recently, the last major trail work was performed in the 1930s, Dannenberg said during his presentation. A 75 percent drop in park funding since the 1970s hasn't helped the deteriorating trail system along the Wissahickon, Dannenberg said.

By the 1980s the trails were in very bad shape. At the same time interest in mountain biking was on the rise, giving residents the false impression that the damage to the park trails was due to the bikes tearing them up.

In the 1990s the FOW and Fairmount Park officials determined that there was a link between poor trail quality, loss of habitat and declining water quality. Several environmental studies, including one performed in 2003 by Edwards of IMBA, showed that storm water runoff caused far more damage than recreational uses.