Arlington County is performing a Natural Surface Trails study this year. It kicked off in December with an RFP and a literature review and will lead to public engagement over the summer with a final set of recommendations to follow. The study will investigate a range of options for trail management, resource protection and maintenance issues; including new trail segments and segments to close. It will include a major inventory and assessment of existing trails, and a lengthy public engagement process starting this summer. This will include community input on bike-related options including pump tracks, bike parks, and mountain-biking trails.
The study comes out of the Public Spaces Master Plan process for which one goal is to "Explore opportunities to provide space for pump tracks and cyclocross on a temporary or permanent basis, while balancing potential impacts on natural resources and trees". Mountain biking is on more tenuous ground
prior to exploring potential locations for mountain biking, the community would need to have a more robust and broad conversation to understand the needs of the users and impacts on the natural environment.
This is being done now in part because of the pandemic.
The PSMP’s Action Plan assigned these actions medium- and long-term priority. However, due to an increase in trail usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns from natural resources advocates about increased recreational use and its impacts to natural areas, and ongoing community requests to provide mountain biking opportunities, these recommendations have become a higher priority.
Right now this is just a study that may come with recommendations that may lead to some action in the future (far off future?) but this is how projects often get started - with an acorn not a tree.
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