Overview of the Issue:  Olympia's plan to develop an existing local park, Kaiser Woods, as a "dedicated mountain bike park/training facility" is environmentally unwise, costly to taxpayers, socially inequitable, negatively impactful on the park's two adjacent neighborhoods and inconsistent with the highest priorities for parks set by Olympia citizens in 2015-16. 

Kaiser Woods is 68.67 acres of forested park, which already has several mountain biking and hiking trails, open spaces/natural areas, two wetlands, two streams, and many native species of wildlife. It serves as part of an important wildlife corridor for deer, elk, bear, mink, etc.

The City's plan would convert this currently multi-use park into a recreational and training facility for mountain bikers who already have 166 miles of trails within 10 miles driving distance and many more trails on 800 acres of timberland next to the park. Neighbors in the two subdivisions adjacent to the part would face worsened flooding, increased traffic safety issues, reduced security, restricted use of the park themselves, lowered home values, etc.

Mountain biking is an expensive, "extreme" sport that poses high risk for injury or death and damages a park environment. The City's plan to dedicate a park to the sport would require too much sacrifice by the public to accommodate the desires of a few sport enthusiasts and their mountain biking industry supporters.    

The planning process has excluded several key stakeholders: i.e., neighbors, hikers, trail-runners, birders, nature-lovers, and other Olympia citizens seeking peaceful time in nature. 

The plan insults the environmental legacy of Andy McMillan, the wetlands biologist who worked hard with neighbors and others to save it from development the last six years of his life, while battling an aggressive cancer. 

Petition to OPARD, Olympia Mayor, City Council and City Manager:   

We the undersigned oppose the Olympia Parks and Recreation Department (OPARD) plan to develop Kaiser Woods as a “dedicated mountain bike park/recreational facility.” 

Instead, we support development of an environmentally wiser, minimal-improvement, “multi-use” park with significant open space/natural areas, and minimal negative impacts on the Park’s two adjacent neighborhoods: Westbrook Park and Ken Lake subdivisions.

We also oppose a mountain bike park for any other City-owned property in Olympia.  Local parks, school grounds, etc. should be designed and managed by local officials for the local residents, not by a state-wide special interest group (Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance) seeking a regional recreational facility for one high-risk “extreme” sport.

Finally, we ask that the City officials and OPARD acknowledge the two neighborhoods closest to Kaiser Woods as key stakeholders in any development that takes place there and act transparently by involving all stakeholders equally and openly in the park’s planning process.

[CLICK BELOW TO SIGN PETITION and please provide comments about why you are signing]

 

BACKGROUND and REASONS FOR THIS PETITION:

The City’s planning has excluded some key stakeholders.  The plan was released to the public as a “done deal” in March 2019, after at least two years of closed door planning with mountain biking groups but with no significant input from the park’s closest neighbors (including Westbrook Park and Ken Lake subdivisions et al.) and other potential park users.

The decision ignores the highest priorities set by Olympia citizens for their parks in a formal priority-setting process by OPARD, conducted by Elway Research in 2015-16.  Those priorities were “hiking trails, open/natural spaces, some biking trails and protection of wetlands.”  There was no call for a dedicated mountain bike park, an extensive development consisting of numerous mountain bike trails, jumps and other training features that would consume most of the park, displace other park users to its unattractive fringes and damage its natural environment.  Kaiser Woods already has several hiking and mountain biking trails, as well as wetlands, streams and natural/open spaces.

Kaiser Woods consists of approx. 70 acres of open space/natural forested area with wetlands and streams and serves as an important part of a wildlife travel corridor for elk, deer, bear, mink, small mammals, etc.  The corridor runs from Delphi Valley, through 800 acres of timberlands, Kaiser Woods, two large, long-existing park-like residential areas, on to the Black Lake Wetland, which is salmon-bearing.  Expert birders have characterized the site as “unique bird habitat” in Olympia and already have identified 51 bird species on the site over a four week period—and expect many more.[i]  Wildlife biologists who have visited the park say it may be territory for seven native amphibian species.[ii]

Mountain biking is environmentally destructive. Initial trail-building is especially damaging to the natural features of the site.  Once trails are completed, aggressive, fast riding (especially during rainy season) on mountain bikes’ fat, knobby tires shreds trails, damages tree roots, disturbs or kills wildlife and disrupts their habitat.  Heavy use of trails by mountain bikers -- especially trails on soft, wet, shallow soils and broken rock as in Kaiser Woods-- widens and erodes the trails, compacts the soil (weakening tree health) and increases run-off, flooding (which already affects the two neighborhoods below the park) and sedimentation in its wetlands and Ken Lake.  Douglas fir and other trees in Kaiser Woods’ second growth forest are more susceptible to laminated root rot, a transmissible deadly fungus that is a growing concern in the Pacific Northwest.[iii]  Beginning bikers do the most damage to trails.[iv]  Some bikers engage in illegal trail-building and destructive shortcuts. 

Mountain biking is considered an “extreme” sport that poses a high risk for injury or death.[v]  It’s listed among 41 extreme sports in the world.  The International Mountain Biking Association warns that the sport is inherently dangerous.  A National Institute of Health report states that mountain biking poses a significant risk of life-threatening injury across all skill levels of participation.  The most frequent injuries are head trauma and brain injuries.[vi]  A 2009 study at a park reported 12% of injuries were broken bones, concussions, internal bleeding, organ damage, and spinal injuries, including quadriplegia.  The risk of injury for downhill skiers is 1 in 1,000; for snowboarders, is 1 in 100; for mountain bikers, is 1 in 10.[vii]  Beginning bikers, including children, are at the highest risk for harm, due to their lack of skill.[viii]  Unintentional injuries (from all sources) are now the leading cause of death among children, worldwide.[ix]

The City risks lawsuits.  Public land entities have some “recreational immunity” from lawsuits, if they post a park “Enter-at-your-own-risk.”  But lawsuits happen anyway and cost taxpayers money--win or lose.  One example:  The children of a mountain biker, who fell and died after hitting an inadequately repaired pothole on a gravel road, successfully sued the state of New York for $2.2 million.  Some city bike parks are closing due to liability concerns.[x]  Volunteers and City staff may not have immunity from personal lawsuits, which poses additional financial liability for the City.[xi]

The plan is socially inequitable.  The City of Olympia does not provide workout places, recreational or training facilities for any other extreme sport.  It provides no public fitness centers, no climbing walls for rock-climbers, no pool for whitewater kayakers to practice righting themselves, etc.  Why is OPARD planning to dedicate  most of a large City park to mountain biking to serve as an exclusive facility where bikers can work out, practice and improve their skills in order to be better bikers when they go to other, larger mountain bike parks in Tacoma, Issaquah or on trails close to Olympia (some right next to Kaiser Woods)? 

What about the trail runners, hikers, birders, walkers and other current park users who will have restricted use of the park and have to yield right-of-way to bikers?

Neighbors in Westbrook Park and Ken Lake subdivisions saved the site from development as housing projects for six years.  But if Kaiser Woods is dedicated to mountain biking, these neighbors (along with all other Olympia citizens) will have to drive elsewhere to enjoy a multi-use park. 

The plan costs the public too much.  Many bikers say they know and assume the risks of their sport.  But we all assume some of the costs.   The park purchase cost 1.3 million, half of which is still being paid by Olympia citizens with Prop 1 taxes. 

Neighbors living adjacent to Kaiser Woods will incur costs of increased traffic/safety risks on their dead-end, curvy street; reduced quality of life and of neighborhood cohesion; damage from flooding from Kaiser Woods; and lowered home values.  All taxpayers pay the cost of emergency response services for injured bikers in an off-road area. 

Why is the City planning to turn over the creation and management of Kaiser Woods to a state-wide mountain biking organization:  Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance?  EMBA is the largest mountain biking advocacy group in the state, with an organizational mission to "acquire trails," including five new bike parks by 2020.  As the main stakeholder in developing Kaiser Woods as a mountain bike park, they will be paid to design, build and manage bike trails in the park.  Their initial concept plans cost $2,200+ but didn’t take into account the existing trails, wetlands or streams on the site.  EMBA is registered as a 501c3 tax-exempt charity, to which donations are tax-deductible.  Last year, they reported year-end assets of approx. $700,000 and revenue from solicitations approximating $1.5 million.  From 2014-16, EMBA didn’t meet the requirement of recycling 75% of its assets back into its organization and in 2019 didn't offer any scholarships for their members to attend bike camps.[xii]  Society pays the cost of lost tax revenues from such "charities."

For more information on social costs, see October 2019 issue of Works in Progress, "The costs of modern mountain biking: More public resources or pay to play?"  www.olywip.org

Three other Olympia parks were identified by OPARD as feasible sites for mountain biking:  Watershed Park, Fraser Trails and LBA Woods.  If history is any guide, mountain biking industry advocates may not be satisfied with only one mountain bike park in Olympia.  Swan Creek Mountain Bike Park has about 40 dedicated acres of a 300 acre multi-use park, but biking advocates already are asking for expansion. Bikers have 166 miles of dedicated bike trails in Capitol Forest, 10 miles from Olympia, and access to trails on 800 acres of private timber land right next to Kaiser Woods.  Some bikers say they are “tired of driving 10 miles” to get to trails they created and want in-town workout and practice areas.[xiii]  (What will happen if they tire of driving or riding across town to get to Kaiser Woods on the west side of Olympia and want bike trails closer to their work or homes on the east side?)  Mountain climbers, windsurfers, big wave surfers, etc. all have to drive to get to where they can enjoy their sport.

The City is moving forward with a plan based on invalid research and insufficient public support.  The feasibility study of the four parks as possible sites was incorrectly scored, wrongly placing Kaiser Woods at the top of the priority list.  After announcing its plan, OPARD conducted an on-line survey asking a small sample of citizens what kind of mountain bike park they wanted, not whether they wanted one at all.  About 10% of Olympia citizens received notification of the survey and only 1% of citizens responded. [xiv] By contrast, bikers had a two month advance notice of the survey.[xv]  Based on this biased, minimal public input, OPARD touted “overwhelming positive support”[xvi] for the mountain bike park, which would significantly limit use by other user groups, including many of the park’s closest neighbors who have long enjoyed and protected the park. 

To date, OPARD has declined to acknowledge the two neighborhoods adjacent to Kaiser Woods as key stakeholders in the development of Kaiser Woods.  This stance is ethically indefensible, inconsistent with OPARD’s own traditional planning principles and possibly illegal.  Holding private meetings with biking organizations to make decisions about Kaiser Woods arguably violates the state’s open meeting law regarding transparency in government decision-making.[xvii]

Olympia is a relatively small town (with 51,000 residents), not large enough to justify dedicating an entire park, or any part of it, to one extreme sport.  Why should a Seattle-based, state-wide organization (EMBA) be allowed, without meaningful local input, the right to design, build and maintain an exclusive training/ recreational facility in any of Olympia’s parks?

Last but not least, OPARD’s plan insults the environmental and social justice legacy of Andy McMillan, a wetlands biologist, human rights activist, and Westbrook Park neighbor who spearheaded citizen efforts from 2006-12 to stop three proposed large housing development projects for the Kaiser Woods site while he also was battling an aggressive bone marrow cancer.  As a hiker, mountain climber and birder, Andy's vision for the park before he died in 2014 was that the special, beautiful place he had worked so hard to save from development would become a natural, open space park for his neighbors and other citizens of Olympia to enjoy—not a near-exclusive recreational facility for any environmentally damaging sport.

In sum, the decision to develop Kaiser Woods as a dedicated mountain bike park is environmentally unwise, too costly to the public and socially irresponsible.  We ask the City to do better by its citizens, and by its park lands and other public property, and drop any plans for developing any publicly funded mountain bike park in Olympia.

Respectfully submitted,

Friends of Kaiser Woods

Sources:

[i] See ebird.org and search for Kaiser Woods in Thurston for a list of species spotted by expert Olympia birders.
[ii] Site visit with Joanne Schuett-Haines and Bonnie Blessing-Earle, local amphibian experts, 9-26-19
[iii] Personal communication with USDA forestry expert, Josh Himsl, Sept. 2019
[iv]  The Miistakis Institute, “Mountain Biking:  A Review of the Ecological Effects,” February 2010 Prepared by Michael Quinn and Greg Chernoff    

“Mountain Biking:  A Review of Its Ecological Impacts” https://www.lib.washington.edu/msd/norestriction/b67566091.pdf

Chris Daniels, Opinion: “STOP Riding Like This! Ease the Impact of Mountain Biking on the Environment,” June 29, 2015 USFS Red Rock District, User Created Trail Impacts – Literature Review, 2014

 [v] “41 Extreme Sports Listed From Intense To INSANE!”  http://activecities.com/blog/extreme-sports-listed-from-intense-to-insane/
[vi]  National Interscholastic Cycling Association  “NICA Safety Study,” https://www.nationalmtb.org/nica-safety-study/
[vii] Ashwell Z1, McKay MP, Brubacher JR, Gareau A., “The epidemiology of mountain bike park injuries at the Whistler Bike Park, British Columbia (BC), Canada,” Wilderness Environ Med. 2012 Jun;23(2):140-5. doi: 10.1016/j.wem.2012.02.002..
[viii] Natalie Pallone, “Delta Girl Dies at Summer Camp,” Jul 20, 2010 https://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/98876339.html  

See also Aleman KB1, Meyers MC.  Mountain biking injuries in children and adolescents.  Sports Med. 2010 Jan 1;40(1):77-90. doi: 10.2165/11319640-000000000-00000.
[ix] World Health Organization report, “World Report on Child Injury Prevention,” October 2008, https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/child/injury/world_report/report/en/
[x]   Stuart Ulferts, “A Mountain Bike Liability Primer,” International Mountain Bicycling Association

 “Portland’s First Mountain-Bike Park Could Be Crippled by a Court Decision,” Willamette Week, Feb 8, 2017

 [xii]  Financial reports by Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, submitted to Wa. State Office of Secretary of State, 2017; Personal communications with EMBA staff, July 2019
[xiii] Personal communication with OPARD Asst. Dir, Jonathon Turlove
[xiv] Personal communication with City of Olympia staff for Engage Olympia, Sept. 2019
[xv]  Website post, Friends of Capitol Forest (local biking advocacy group in Olympia), Jan 8, 2019
[xvi] Personal communications with OPARD Director Paul Simmons and Jonathon Turlove, Assistant Director, 2019
[xvii] See RCW 42.30.010, Washington state-law re: open meetings by public officials, departments, offices, etc.

Photo credit:  Trees and sun reflecting in Kaiser Woods upper wetland, by Dave Stevenson, Westbrook Park resident and park steward