HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/19/2021 Item 7a, Czech
From:Genevieve Czech <agczech@gmail.com>
Sent:Sunday, October
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Agenda Item 7a, Cerro open Space Evening Hours
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
________________________________
Honorable Mayor Stuart and Council Members:
You will be voting to make the evening hours use for mountain bikers on the Cerro Natural reserve a permanent facility
or not. The two year pilot program has not been evaluated sufficiently with a formal report, and the arguments have
been raised already in 2019, and again when the program was extended, that a nature reserve is just that, a designated
reserve for nature primarily, and secondarily for the enjoyment and preservation by the citizens who are privileged to
have its access made available to them. While mountain bikers in the SLO area are given wide respect for their skill and
consideration on the trails, this sport is undeniably impactful on the terrain it uses. It has already been pointed out that
there are sufficient trails in other areas of SLO; the mountain bikers argue that they do not have the time to travel to
Montana de Oro after a day´s work, or if they are travelling from Santa Maria. The argument becomes, in this case, one
for the mountain bikers, not for the nature reserve or habitat of the permanent residents, namely the flora and fauna.
When the 2019 vote was taken, Ms. Pease voted ¨for the animals¨. Our former Mayor, Ms. Harmon, argued that night
mountain biking gave one an appreciation of nature. How can a biker who is speeding down a chunky trail in the dark of
night have occasion to appreciate nature, let alone deepen his/her sense of the environment? The contrary, one with a
true sensitivity to our environment would be appalled at the suggestion of mountain biking in a nature reserve at night.
What a specious claim that was and remains thus. It was clearly demonstrated that the unexpected invasion of the
world of night of foraging animals could lead to the abandonment of a nesting site or refuge. You have a new
membership and leadership in this Council who can re-examine the arguments against the proposal to make access a
permanent feature of SLO, and the opportunity to use the knowledge of other studies whose findings speak against such
a proposal, especially since SLO failed to properly conduct its own evaluation.
Mr. Allan Cooper has submitted a video in his correspondence to show how invasive and non-passive the mountain
biking is. The You Tube video made by visitors to SLO receives comments like ¨violence¨ as a supposed positive attribute
of the feat of riding the Rock Garden trail at high speed. It is quite impossible at night to control the bike from hurting
the flora on the verge of the trail, nor to prevent the wildlife from experiencing the invasive quality of the cyclists.
Is our greed to present SLO as a tourist paradise for mountain biking more important than our pledge to protect our
precious environment?
What was the purpose of a ¨pilot program¨ of 2 years if no detailed report has been submitted on the impact on the
trails re flora, fauna?
Mr. Cooper includes passages from Marin County whose pride in their environment and in their recreation facilities finds
the ¨¨gouging¨ in the impact and in the maintenance of the trails a clear outcome of the mountain bikers, and this
damage to the trails is from daylight use, infinitely harder to avoid from nighttime use.
Let us hope that nature wins against man´s self-interest in your vote tonight. For in damaging nature, we cease to be its
stewards, and in the final outcome, we deprive ourselves of a fragile and magnificent ecosystem of which we are only
one part.
Respectfully, Genevieve Czech, Stanford Drive, San Luis Obispo
1