BTCEB Buzz October 2022

The November 8th election has several contested races for the EBRPD and EBMUD director seats.  We ask that you become an informed voter and participate in these elections. You may only vote on director races in the ward that you live in.  Information on the ward boundaries is given below.  These directors are key decision makers regarding bike access for the two largest land managers in the East Bay. 

Candidates were requested to participate in our survey.  Links to their responses are posted below along with the candidate’s campaign contact and/or website information.  As a 501(c)3 organization BTCEB cannot make endorsements in candidate elections but can provide educational information.

Contested Races:

EBRPD – Ward 3

Geography – Alameda County, Cities in Ward 3 include: Castro Valley, Fairview, Fremont, Hayward, San Lorenzo, Union City,  Regional Parks in Ward 3 include: Anthony Chabot Regional Park, Ardenwood Historic Farm, Cull Canyon Regional Recreation Area, Don Castro Regional Recreation Area, Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park, Dublin Hills Regional Park, Five Canyons Open Space Regional Preserve, Garin Regional Park, Hayward Regional Shoreline, Lake Chabot Regional Park, Las Trampas Wilderness Regional Preserve, Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area, Vargas Plateau Regional Park. 

Gina Lewis – No Response – email – website

Daphne Lin – survey response  – email – website

Dennis Waespi – survey response  – email

The Independent Tri-Valley 2022 article – discusses EBRPD Ward 3 candidates

EBMUD – Ward 3

Geography – Alameda County city of Piedmont and a substantial portion of Oakland. Contra Costa County, Cities of Orinda and El Sobrante, Town of Moraga, and portions of Pinole and Richmond. 

Mark Seedall – survey response – email

Marguerite Young – survey response  – email – website

EBMUD – Ward 7

Geography – Alameda County, Castro Valley, portions of San Leandro and Hayward, and communities of Cherryland and Fairview

EBMUD Ward Map

April Chan – No Response –  email –  website 

Matt Turner – survey response  – email – website

Corina Lopez – survey response  – email – website

Uncontested Races:

The following races were uncontested.  These candidates were also asked for a survey response.  Response information is posted below.

EBRPD – Ward 5

Geography – Cities in Ward 5 include: Dublin, Fremont, Livermore, Newark, Pleasanton, Sunol, Union City, Regional Parks in Ward 5 include: Brushy Peak Regional Preserve, Camp Arroyo, Coyote Hills Regional Park, Del Valle Regional Park, Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve, Dublin Hills Regional Park, Dumbarton Quarry Campground on the Bay, Mission Peak Regional Preserve, Ohlone Wilderness Regional Preserve, Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area, Sunol Wilderness Regional Preserve.

EBRPD Ward Map

Olivia Sanwong – No Response – email – website

EBRPD – Ward 6

Geography – Cities in Ward 6 include: Alamo, Alhambra Valley, Blackhawk, Byron, Camino Tassajara, Castle Hill, Clayton, Concord, Contra Costa Centre, Danville, Diablo, Discovery Bay, Norris Canyon, North Gate, Pleasant Hill, Reliez Valley, San Miguel, San Ramon, Shell Ridge, Walnut Creek, Regional Parks in Ward 6 include: Bishop Ranch Open Space Regional Preserve, Briones Regional Park, Byron Vernal Pools Regional Preserve, Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area, Clayton Ranch Regional Preserve, Delta Access Regional Recreation Area, Diablo Foothills Regional Park, Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve, Las Trampas Wilderness Regional Preserve, Little Hills Regional Recreation Area, Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, Round Valley Regional Preserve, Sycamore Valley Open Space Regional Preserve, Thurgood Marshall Regional Park – Home of the Port Chicago 50, Vasco Caves Regional Preserve, Vasco Hills Regional Preserve.

EBRPD Ward Map

John Mercurio – declined to respond to the survey – email – website

EBRPD – Ward 7 

Geography – Contra Costa County, Cities in Ward 7 include: Alhambra Valley, Antioch, Bay Point, Bethel Island, Brentwood, Clyde, Crockett, Hercules, Knightsen, Martinez, Mountain View, Oakley, Pacheco, Pittsburg, Port Costa, Reliez Valley, Rodeo, Vine Hill.

EBRPD Ward Map

Colin Coffey – survey response – email

 

EBMUD – Ward 2

Geography – Contra Costa County, Alamo, Lafayette and Walnut Creek, Town of Danville, communities of Blackhawk and Diablo, and portions of Pleasant Hill and San Ramon.

EBMUD Ward Map

John A. Coleman – No Response – email

EBMUD – Ward 4

Geography – Alameda County, Cities of Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville;a portion of Oakland.

EBMUD Ward Map

Andy Katz – No Response – email – website

Links to register to vote if you’re not already registered :

The Roddy Ranch Habitat Restoration and Public Access Plan has been presented to the Park Advisory Committee (PAC) and the Board Executive Committee. The plan includes habitat restoration reworking of the site drainage and existing ponds to provide enhanced habitat for several species. Recreation features include ~4.2 miles of multi-use trails recommended by staff to include bike access to all 4.2 miles. ‘Trail’ widths will be predominantly 8 feet wide with ~ 1.2 miles of 6 foot wide trail. This is an open grassland site with moderate slopes with new trail construction designed to provide ample sight lines and speed controlling features. The California Native Plant Society and Sierra Club have opposed full bike access and requested bikes be prohibited on part of the system. Roddy Ranch is not designed not expected to be a mountain bike ‘destination’, however it will be a key trail head for access to the larger Deer Valley park which will connect to Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. BTCEB submitted both written and live comment at the PAC meeting advocating for bike access to the entire trail system. Several PAC members spoke in support of bike access as well. Roddy Ranch and Deer Valley fall under the East County Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) which limits recreational features to 50 acres of ground disturbance across the total HCP area of up to 30,000 acres. Wider trails result in a lower total length of available trails. Recreation in the HCP is limited to ‘passive’ recreation and would not allow advanced bike features.

Board Approval is scheduled for the Tuesday November 1, 2022 board meeting. Information for public comment to the board meeting can be found several days before the meeting. You can reach out to the board at any time with comment and can find their email addresses at on the Park’s website. Please reach out to the board regarding bike access as it is important they hear from our community as constituents. While the mountain bike community has been participating in planning process through the workshops and public comment, board statements at the Executive Committee meeting did not acknowledge cyclists or mountain bikers as constituents while hikers, equestrians, and conservation interests were acknowledged. While Roddy Ranch is not a key destination park for mountain biking the unfolding of the public process is important to discussions on other parcels as they are developed. The current plan indicates staff recommendation for multi-use with bike access across the entire trail system however final decisions on bike and other access types will not be made at this approval point of the plan. It is still important to continue to provide input at each step.

After leading the Trails Council BOD as the President for most of the last three years, Jerott King has decided to step down. We’re very sad to see Jerott go, as he added a stoke level to the organization we hadn’t
seen in several years!  Jerott will continue to be involved in advocacy and riding but is focusing much
of his current time as the General Manager of Mikes Bikes, Walnut Creek. Thank you Jerott! We will
miss you a lot.

Stepping in as the new BTCEB President is Oakland resident Lauren Haughey.

Lauren brings 14+ years of MTB nonprofit and advocacy background. She is currently the VP of Finance & Administration at the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) a national youth MTB nonprofit, and volunteers and serves on other local community and trail advocacy boards.

Serving in the role of the Vice President and our newest addition to the board, Sarah Zaki.

Sarah recently completed her master’s degree in nonprofit man agement after working in corporate consulting for six years. Sarah currently works at the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) as the Grants Manager, and volunteers with local cycling groups including Little Bellas, Bay Area Bike Project and Mare Island Pedalfest.

In other Board News, last month our newest “Director at Large” is Oakland resident and Bishop O’Dowd High
School student, Niko Dittmar.  

Niko is the first high school student to serve on the BTCEB board. He
brings a background of mountain bike racing as a student athlete in the NICA NorCal League.

Niko is also a burgeoning race promoter. As the founder of the inaugural Joaquin Miller Park Enduro Race this past summer, Niko and his intrepid team of volunteers produced a stellar event that raised much needed funds for trail maintenance, advocacy, and upkeep at the park.

To learn more about our new and current board members take a look our About BTCEB page. Want to participate in our regular board meetings or at least be a fly on the wall please join us every first Wednesday of the month for the BTCEB monthly board meetings. Meeting details can be found on our events page on Meetup.

The southernmost bike legal trail in Crockett Hills Regional Park has re-opened following habitat protection closure for nesting Golden Eagles.  The nesting season looks like it was successful and you’re likely to see a pair of eagles soaring in the area.

The BTCEB trail crew has began rehab work on Goldfinch. A full pass of brushing has been made but cattle periodically knock vegetation back into the tread. Tread work has been begun as well. 

Watch Meetup for a trail work day this fall.  Until then check out this raw seasonal offering. More wheels on Goldfinch help as well.   In case you’re not familiar with Goldfinch you can find the bottom of it off the fire road climb left hand turn to Tree Frog. You can ride it either as an out and back or climb the adjacent Back Ranch Loop fire road and then descend Goldfinch.

Note: place and time have both changed!

For the November incarnation of our women’s ride series we were going to Soquel Demonstration Forest. However, there’s a big trailwork day happening (hurrah!), so we’re moving the ride to Saratoga Gap on the Peninsula skyline.

Sign up at https://www.meetup.com/bicycletrailscouncil/events/289155976/

Join ride leader Rebecca Lewington on Saturday, November 19th at 8:30 am in the parking lot at the junction of Skyline and Highway 9. (30 minutes earlier than previously announced. Sorry.) We’ll roll at 9:00 am, which will give us plenty of time to sign in and go talk about the ride.

Note that the parking lot is not enormous, so please carpool if possible. There is some street parking, but it’s a bit scattered.

We’ll split into two groups. The basic route will cover 10 miles with 1,600 feet of climbing. The bonus route will also venture South towards Castle Rock for a fairly stiff total of 16miles with 2,700 feet of climb.

Saratoga Gap is not as technical as Ridge at Demo, but it has its moments and isn’t suitable for complete beginners. There’s also lots of flowy fun.

The mission of Ride Like a Girl is to have fun, learn new trails and meet other women who love to mountain bike. We’ll take care of you: these are no-stress rides where no one is left behind.

Please bring your mountain bike, obviously, in good working condition. (Ebikes are not permitted at in these parks.) Whether you’re running tubeless tires or not, please make sure you have a spare inner tube to fit your wheels, plenty of water and some food for the trail.

We usually hang out for a while after the ride, so bring along your favorite beverages and snacks if you feel like it. And a chair!

And please consider joining BTCEB! We are much more than a group that puts on rides. BTCEB tirelessly advocates for better bike access on trails in the East Bay and we need your support. Join today at https://btceb.org/join-us/.

If you have questions, please leave a comment at the signup link and we’ll get right back to you.

Header image: Ride Like a Girl, October 2022, at China Camp. (Photo: Rebecca Lewington)

The outlook for this Fall through Spring is looking optimistic for cattle management and trail damage prevention.   The park supervisor, park district grazing manager, and the grazer are working together to try to put infrastructure in place that will allow options to prevent trail damage from grazing in the winter.  

– The plan for cattle rotation this coming wet season is to have the cattle out of the top and middle fields of Soaring Eagle, Sugar City, and Tree Frog trails.  The grazer has several alternative pastures adjacent and off site where the cattle are planned to be moved before significant rainfall this season.   

– The park district continues to seek a viable water well in the top field and had a seismic electro survey done.    Results from the survey are not back yet but they continue to work to find a reliable water source for the top pasture. 

– Clean out of the pond near Soaring Eagle trail is scheduled to happen before the end of this year..   Clean out of the pond will provide more storage for rain water and more flexibility for grazing during the following dry season.

– Extension of water line from the water trough at the top of Goldfinch to the new corral has been completed.   This is part of the work that relocated the corral at Warep trail and should reduce damage to trail and fire road in that area. 

These combined steps have a good chance of getting back to the low trail impact we’d seen from grazing for a number of years.