SOSboulder.org

Environmental organizations unanimously oppose mountain biking!

Check Organizations Take Stands links at the left and read their strong and authoritative statements.

Get out and speak up for hikers and trails using the Meeting Schedules link.

Read a summary of why so many people oppose biking in the West TSA.

See the archives for these green box messages.

Save Open Space Boulder is a group of Boulder citizens who strongly support our Open Space program and who now have concerns that its original purposes will be compromised by excessive new activities, particularly mountain biking.

Read the SOSboulder position statement.

We've chosen the name Save Open Space Boulder, and its acronym SOS, because we believe that there is an emergency for our Open Space.

There is a proposal on the table right now that would allow mountain biking on some of the most heavily used hiking trails in Boulder, linking Chatauqua to Eldorado Springs.

We believe mountain biking on popular hiking trails

poses a very serious safety risk to the many hikers, runners, children, allowed dogs, and others who use the trails today;
threatens to change the gentle hiking trails into high adrenalin mountain biking terrain that will no longer be suitable or enjoyable for many current users; and
will likely attract a high volume of car traffic - changing the very nature of many quiet neighborhoods.

We are equally concerned about an alternative proposal to create new trails solely for mountain biking through this same area (rather than share exisitng trails). These new trails would scar the landscape, destroy environmentally sensitive areas, and substantially increase maintenance and enforcement costs.

These proposals are currently being considered by the staff of the Open Space and Mountain Parks Department since the Community Collaborative Group (CCG) failed to achieve a consensus on mountain biking. The CCG is now finishing its final recommendations for other issues, such as new trail designations and trail closures, and requirements for dogs and horses on Open Space.

We are now moving into a period when decision-making will be transferred to the Open Space Board of Trustees based on the recommendations of the CCG and, in the case of biking, the Open Space staff.

This is your chance to protect our City's greatest and most fragile asset -- Open Space. Use the links we have provided to contact the CCG for its remaining issues, and the Open Space Board of Trustees and City Council on the biking issue.

For more information, please review this website, including the Links on the left, or send us an e-mail at info@sosboulder.org.

Also check out the part of the official Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks website that tracks the WestTSA activities.

Thanks for your help.

January 27, 2011