The Briones Pilot Project is the result of a broad variety of actions from a number of stakeholders from different user groups who in many cases are not particularly connected. As such this perspective certainly won’t reflect everything that has happened or everybody that has played a part. We do not intend to short change anybody but rather to provide a perspective of the broad amount of work that has led to the Briones Pilot. It came to our attention through a video by Brian Kennedy aka BKXC, that a significant portion of the history that we’re aware of isn’t well known. Much of the BTCEB work is done out of general sight outside of public meetings; working with land manager staff, participating in or monitoring relatively obscure public meetings, submitting written public comment, attending trails & access related conferences to become more informed & network with land managers and other stakeholders, and working internally as a formal nonprofit organization. It’s not sexy work, doesn’t make for great social media posts, moves at a glacial pace, requires persistence, takes away from time riding a bike, and is generally mind numbing.
The Briones Pilot Project might be imperfect, but we hope you can agree that it is a significant milestone in moving forward in working with the EBRPD to create legitimate mountain bike access and address a broader spectrum of mountain bike trail experiences, considerations for other trail users, and natural resource preservation. Managing a transition from illegitimate trails to legitimized trails is messy and fraught with seemingly opposing perspectives such as ‘why reward illegal activity?’ versus ‘these are acts of civil disobedience following decades of legal advocacy’ and many others. We ask that all stakeholders seek to work together on solutions through this imperfect process to improve and reach a better condition for all trail users and the natural resources. It’s much easier to criticize and pick something apart than it is to understand others perspectives, be patient, and work together on collaborative solutions. Please muster all you can and be part of a positive collaboration.
A number of things have come together to reach a critical mass that has resulted in the Briones Pilot. Advocacy within the public process by a variety of groups and individuals both formally organized and loosely associated along has been a piece of it. Some of that advocacy has been for more bike access, some against bike access or related to trail user conflict, and some related to perceived environmental impact. Outside the public process, unsanctioned or bootleg trail building by local users frustrated by the lack of success within the system has created an expanding trail network. These two major forces were accelerated by the influx of people into Briones Park during the pandemic. Unsanctioned trail building accelerated and trail use by nearly all types of trail users doubled or tripled.
The advent of virtual public meetings and social media made it easier for public participation by constituents with land managers. Remote working increased the time people had to devote to advocacy, trail building, or just time in open space. This increased intensity resulted in more visibility and awareness of the need for a variety of trail experiences for mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, trail running, dog walking, etc. and the impact on natural resources by unplanned uncoordinated trail building. There has been unsanctioned trail creation by all user groups over the years. Some of the trails are built relatively sustainably and in locations of low habitat sensitivity while others are not. Grazing practices bring into question how truly sensitive some of these areas are and cloud the issue. Advocacy, unsanctioned trail building, and increased trail use during the pandemic amplified the situation and reached a point where decision makers agreed something different needed to be done. From this the Briones Pilot Program came to be.
Now to some history at more of an inside baseball level which you may or may not be interested in. If that’s the case, just scroll to the end. BTCEB was formed in 1987 when EBRPD was considering banning bikes from fire and ranch roads. It has been advocating since then for expanded access and additional narrow natural surface trails with EBPRD and other East Bay land managers. While success with EBRPD may be marginal there are other positive results such as the access at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland, some initial access to EBMUD, and increased access in John Muir Land Trust properties. Crockett Hills in EBRPD is a success and is a great introductory trail system. Much of this advocacy work is based on building relationships and credibility with land manager staff, decision makers, which are elected officials in the case of EBRPD, and other trail and open space stakeholders. Building these relationships takes time, consistency, patience and persistence. The process is slow, takes years at best, and often has to be re-started when personnel change in various organizations. Individuals showing up to make a comment at a public meeting or contacting their elected officials is an important part of the process but consistent efforts and relationships are key to making change. It has been challenging to keep the consistency but BTCEB has managed to exist for over 30 years. We’re not getting the results we want but we’re doing the best we can as an all volunteer organization and currently working on making it easier for more people to get involved and creating a more reliable and sustainable effort.
Along the way there was the East Bay Trails Council which BTCEB was one of the participating organizations along with other trail stakeholders and conservation interests. It fell by the wayside after years of trying to work out solutions to access and trail conflict consistently resulted in stalemate. The EBRPD Change In Use checklist would rarely result in any changes in use for trail access and was considered broken by all including some EBRPD staff except those interested in maintaining the status quo. There has also been mountain bike community participation in public planning for Pleasanton Ridge and Tyler Ranch over a decade ago which is just now resulting in the addition of multi-use trails. Multi-use trails coming a decade or more after planning are then outdated compared to current trail user desires in many cases.
In more recent history there are several items – the Sibley McCosker Land Use Plan Amendment (LUPA) culminating in November of 2018, EBRPD Board Trails Workshop in October 2019, the EBRPD Trail User Working Group (TUWG) (August 2020 to February 2022), post TUWG activity, and years of ongoing discussion with the EBRPD Trails Development and Planning Groups over, that lead into the Briones Pilot Program.
In the Sibley-McCosker LUPAt approval trail use designations were pulled during the EIR certification and LUPA approval at the Board of Directors meeting. ‘Environmentalists’ held hostage millions of dollars of grant funding for the McCosker Creek restoration with the threat of lawsuit if bike access is approved in the LUPA & EIR. The creek restoration is the largest ever taken on by the Park District at a price tag of $12 million and they pulled trail access designations from the LUPA (resolution 2018 – I I – 288). They have not revisited the trail user designations as of 2023. This action nullifies the public participation of cyclists, hikers, and equestrians that worked together in the Sibley-McCosker public land use planning process for several years to come up with mutually agreeable access for hikers, equestrians, and bikes while protecting sensitive habitat areas.
In October 2019, the Park District Board of Directors held a public workshop on Trails. At that workshop, the Board heard testimony from a number of different park and trail users. The Board directed staff to convene a working group made up of stakeholders who are active trail users. On August 21, 2020, a Trail User Working Group (TUWG) was convened by Park District staff. Meetings were held throughout 2020 and 2021, and the final meeting was held on February 7, 2022. The meetings were recorded and are available on the Trail User Working Group – Videos page. A final report, Goals, Issues & Solutions: A Summary of Concepts for New Trail Development (PDF) was published in March 2022. The TUWG was a cumbersome process with a large number of participants that had limited success in reaching specific solutions. Scope was limited to land bank properties although participants did discuss items that could be applied in existing parks and on existing trails. It did provide a broader base of stakeholder perspectives and more foundation to take action.
In January of 2021 BTCEB advocacy and trail stewardship discussions with staff noted significant mileage of bootleg trails in Briones and challenges for operations, enforcement, and trails program staff to address them. The situation would take a significant effort to try to address and they were in very early stages of working on an approach but challenged by the complexity. The idea of considering legalization of more sustainable trails was not met with enthusiasm from staff at this time.
A group including Morris Older (Bay Area Ridge Trail & Bay Area Barns), Gary Fitts (Tilden Wildcat Horseman’s Association), Amelia Marshall (CA State Horseman’s Assoc, Metropolitan Horseman’s Association), Helen Gilbert Snyder (Bike Advocate, Equestrian), Austin McInerny (NICA, BTCEB) , and Scott Bartlebaugh (BTCEB) were discussing Briones at the same time outside of the TUWG. A draft proposal for a collaborative group of varied user group stakeholders to discuss trail access and conflict issues and propose solutions was written by Austin with input and review from the group. The proposal was submitted to the Park District Trails Program and Planning staff in April of 2021. This group recognized that they were not regular users of Briones and any successful process would need input and buy-in from regular Briones users and this was captured in the proposal. The situation at Briones was encompassing many of the issues being discussed by the TUWG and looked like a reasonable real case to try to address. During this time Scott Bartlebaugh hiked with a couple of equestrians, Amelia Marshall and Kerry Roussellot, to better understand what areas in Briones were of high value to them and where they are experiencing conflict. Staff shared that they are working on the concept of a pilot that may involve adoption of some bootleg trails but they were at a very early stage.
Several regular Briones mtb riders reach out to BTCEB seeking legalization of bootleg trails in Briones and we engage them. A survey is drafted with Ed Martin to collect input from Briones users for staff to consider as they determine an approach to issues at Briones. The draft survey is shared with EBRPD trails staff in May 2021 and staff ask to hold off on the survey so as not to get out in front of the park district. There are valid concerns that opponents will mobilize and block any action through influence with the board or lawsuit. We comply with the request in light of the concern and to maintain and build a positive working relationship with staff despite the frustration of other users polling and providing input.
A field walk with staff along some bootleg trails happens in May 2021. There’s discussion regarding what type of features could be included and what might not. Part of the driver for unsanctioned trail building is the type of trail experience from more advanced features and staff recognize this. A multi-discipline team is forming including public affairs, public safety, stewardship, trails, and planning. Outreach to public stakeholders will begin after they’ve collected enough information on stewardship issues, CEQA, and other aspects to have a reasonably developed proposal worthy of discussion. BTCEB also engages EBRPD public safety at this time.
At the May 11 2021 Board Meeting staff provided an update on the TUWG. Board discussion moves toward the need to do something different and Director Weiskamp challenges to try something different in Briones or Pleasanton Ridge by year end. Public Safety notes that there needs to be the ability to direct the public to places to safety recreate (access is needed) and notes the effort on the Briones Pilot including adopting existing trails or new trails with an aim to implement in the next few months. Inclusion of the mtb community is directly noted. Enforcement is a last tool and will not be effective until there is mtb access.
The TUWG activity concluded in February 2022. Staff has been continuing to work on a broad spectrum of details for the Briones Pilot including a robust basis to defend from procedural or legal challenges which moves bureaucratically and politically slowly. Information sharing was limited. Feedback from BTCEB to staff included concerns with having a sufficient number of trails included, options available for trail users arriving on ‘off’ days with an even/odd system, and input from local trail users from all user groups.
Austin McInerny and Scott Bartlebaugh were approached by Josh Sonnefeld who is working with California Native Plant Society and Sierra Club about interest in continuing dialogue post TUWG. We were interested and engaged in facilitated discussions including Norman LaForce and Virginia Reinhart (Sierra Club), Jim Hanson (CANPS & SC), and Amelia Marshall(CA State Horseman’s Assoc.) & Elizabeth Hudson (San Ramon Valley Horseman’s Assoc). The group decided to start with the Briones Pilot and Trail Master Planning as the first two items to discuss. Discussions start with Briones and first seek common ground. Items we agreed on included the need for more public input from actual Briones users and communication of intended goals, desired outcomes, and the data that will be collected (both baseline data and data from the pilot period), as well as natural resource protection plans. Joint input is submitted to the park district. There are a series of communications from the group with park district staff and a field walk of some of the proposed trails happened in September of 2022.
Staff made their first public presentation of their Briones Pilot design at the June 2022 PAC meeting and began a broader public input phase.
In January of 2023, BTCEB sent out a trail user survey via our IG, FB, and email along with BAMBi & East Bay MTB FB pages to get information on preferred trails and opinions on trails included and excluded from the latest available Briones Pilot map. At this point staff have not shared plans for public input. The survey gets several hundred responses and the data is shared with staff. Suggestions were made to include several trails that were not included at the time including Issac’s which would be added later.
February 2023, EBRPD held the Briones Pilot Open House at the Alhambra Creek staging area. The event was well attended and staffed. A large amount of public input was collected and there was constructive discussion between various types of users (hikers, equestrians, and mtb), users and park district staff and amongst various pockets of the mtb community. The Briones Pilot team digested the input and make several changes to the pilot plan including adding several new sections of trail which were also reflected in the January BTCEB survey along with revisions to provide a bypass route for users showing up on an ‘off’ day. The pilot begins in April 2023.
Pulling back to a higher level the route to get to a Briones Pilot is the result of many groups and individuals with a variety of perspectives taking action over years. Some of the action is directly focused on Briones while other action is building a user case from a broader perspective. Actions range from individuals making a single public comment to longer term formal organizations with more sustained efforts. There are formally organized groups and informal groups all of which play a role. It’s both people working within the system and people working outside the system. Hopefully the Briones Pilot is a key step to a system that works better and we see planned trails providing for a range of sustainable mtb experiences while protecting natural resources.
