[NMCycling] Oso & Tree Spring Vandalism - REWARD

Mon Jun 26 08:18:32 MDT 2017

Brent,

Thanks for the heads up. To my knowledge we do not have anyone removing rocks on Oso nor would I recommend or ask anyone to do that. We have a volunteer group that maintains that trail and I’d be happy to contact them about it. In all the years they’ve maintained it, I don’t recall them moving rocks so I’m not sure why they’d start now. Anyway, I’d be happy to ask.

To be very clear, we (USFS) do not reroute or modify trails to make things easier. If a trail is rerouted, it has to do with a resource issue (such as erosion) or something else and as much as we can, we try to retain the original character of the trail. I noticed someone referring to our reroutes on south Faulty and yes that was under the purview of the district. Why did we do that? Well, because those sections went into designated wilderness. Now that those trail segments are rerouted, it’s legal for bikes to ride that section of Faulty. Guess no good deed goes unpunished, we could have left them and closed the trail to bikes……instead, we rerouted the trail so it was legal.

If indeed someone is purposefully removing rocks/doing work on trails without permission and you have clear evidence of who is doing it, let me know and I’ll pursue it as I can.

Thanks,

[Forest Service Shield]

Kerry Wood
Trails & Wilderness Manager

Forest Service
Cibola National Forest & Grasslands, Sandia Ranger District

p: 505-281-3304 x5107
f: 505-281-1176
kwood at fs.fed.us<mailto:kwood at fs.fed.us>

11776 NM 337
Tijeras, NM 87059
www.fs.fed.us<http://www.fs.fed.us/>
[USDA Logo]<http://usda.gov/>[Forest Service Twitter]<https://twitter.com/forestservice>[USDA Facebook]<https://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Forest-Service/1431984283714112>

Caring for the land and serving people

From: Brent Bonwell [mailto:brent at bonwell.org]
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2017 8:07 AM
To: Wood, Kerry T -FS <kwood at fs.fed.us>
Subject: Fwd: Re: [NMCycling] Oso & Tree Spring Vandalism - REWARD

Hi Kerry,

Just in case you aren't aware of this.  It's from the New Mexico "biker racers" list serve.  There's also a thread started on MTBR<http://forums.mtbr.com/new-mexico/oso-tree-spring-vandalism-reward-1048988.html>.

Brent

Brent Bonwell
SFNF volunteer crew leader and sawyer

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:

Re: [NMCycling] Oso & Tree Spring Vandalism - REWARD

Date:

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 01:13:05 +0000

From:

Marc Basiliere via Bike-racers <bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com><mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com>

Reply-To:

Marc Basiliere <marc at bikefix.net><mailto:marc at bikefix.net>

To:

bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com<mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com> <bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com><mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com>

Carolyn,

The Bill Spring work is impressive- I don't make it down that way much with the loss of Canoncito access, but it looks good and hopefully we get access via Mud Spring before long.

It could be hikers- but the changes really feel like Strava lines to me- little climbing challenges have been removed and several rock gardens simplified.  I forwarded this to the Cibola Trail Rangers e-mail list as well and no one seems to think it's hikers.

Oh, and someone from the mtbr.com New Mexico forum has added $100 to the pot.

------ Original Message ------
From: "Carolyn Donnelly" <seadee43 at yahoo.com<mailto:seadee43 at yahoo.com>>
To: "bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com"<mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com> <bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com<mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com>>; "Marc Basiliere" <marc at bikefix.net<mailto:marc at bikefix.net>>; "FooMTB-Group" <foomtb at yahoogroups.com<mailto:foomtb at yahoogroups.com>>
Cc: "Eli Torgeson" <etorgeson at salud.unm.edu<mailto:etorgeson at salud.unm.edu>>; "Peter Doane" <peedeedoane at hotmail.com<mailto:peedeedoane at hotmail.com>>
Sent: 6/25/2017 3:57:17 PM
Subject: Re: [NMCycling] Oso & Tree Spring Vandalism - REWARD

I haven't seen the Bill Spring / Oso Corridor work, but Faulty in the Cienega and Canoncito area is a complete reroute.  My guess is USFS got some money and was able to do the work via a contractor or maybe a YCC crew.

What Marc describes sounds different. As a more frequent hiker than cyclist these days, I've seen a lot of ad hoc trail work, and often these people don't seem to understand how water works and are creating preferential flow paths that will speed up, not slow down, erosion. Anyway,  Marc, unless you're talking about really big boulders it seems like it could also be a hiker.

So if anyone out there is doing or knows someone who is doing ad hoc trail maintenance, please encourage them to stop, and suggest that they join one of the groups like Volunteers for the Outdoors who does the work correctly and has a plan for areas needing work.

Carolyn

On Sun, Jun 25, 2017 at 3:36 PM, andrew.black via Bike-racers
<bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com<mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com>> wrote:
I would suspect USFS. South Faulty has also been cleaned extensively and officially rerouted in a few places.  Yes, I found myself moving much faster in some sections. Not for Strava; for fun.

Maybe USFS has started to more actively maintain Sandia trails so that they appeal to a wider user group. If so, its having its intended effect:  we saw 10 equestrians on the Faulty/ Armijo loop last weekend and 15 hikers on the Bill Springs lead-in to the Oso/Faulty intersection.

Maybe North Faulty is still wild.

Andrew

-------- Original message --------
From: Marc Basiliere via Bike-racers <bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com<mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com>>
Date: 6/25/17 2:39 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com<mailto:bike-racers at mailman.swcp.com>, FooMTB-Group <foomtb at yahoogroups.com<mailto:foomtb at yahoogroups.com>>
Subject: [NMCycling] Oso & Tree Spring Vandalism - REWARD

All,

Could everyone please keep an eye out for whoever it is that's removed dozens -if not hundreds- of rocks from Oso Corridor and Tree Spring trails since the beginning of this season?   I'm confident that it's not USFS work as they've just been leaving holes in the trail.  And there are far too many, far too conveniently-placed to be bears looking for grubs.  There's been a fresh round of sanitizing within the past two weeks, so it's an ongoing issue.

I'm not sure if it's an effort to bring the trails down to their skill level or to improve their Strava standings, but either way the time and effort that went to degrading the trail while depriving the rest of us of long-standing challenges would have probably have been better spent on training.  The trails in the Sandias are challenging and technical and ought to be appreciated as such.  They're also heavily-traveled by hikers and equestrians and we, as the cycling community, do not need to see speeds and conflict increase for speed's sake (let alone an unearned win in an imaginary race).

Rock removal and corner-cutting is annoying in the Foothills and lame in Otero- but really disappointing and unacceptable (to say nothing of illegal) in the Sandias.  And it needs to stop.  Seriously- I'm willing to give $500 to whoever turns the culprit(s) in to the Sandia Ranger District if it results in a fine.  Or maybe, if you know who's at fault, you just pull them aside and tell them to cut it out.  Thanks,

Marc
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