In case you’re not aware of the Briones Pilot Program here’s a little background first. After 100’s of hours of meetings and trail tours with EBRPD planning staff and members of organizations that have historically advocated against increased bike access on public lands, BTCEB is thrilled to report on the Briones Park Pilot Project, a two-year pilot project intended to test a variety of trail management strategies. The pilot project is limited to a portion of Briones Regional Park in the northeast corner of the park (Project Map). The pilot project was launched on April 21, 2023 and establishes specific rules limiting trail use within the Pilot Project Zone and for two trail segments adjacent to the Pilot Project Zone, such as hiking only, biking only, or biking/hiking only and direction of travel. On weekends, trail use within the Pilot Project Zone alternates between bicycle and equestrian based on even and odd calendar dates (see table). A key component of the Project is the restoration of illegally built “bootleg” trails to protect natural habitat for wildlife.
The Briones Pilot project continues forward with a variety of items. The July Dig Day was hosted in partnership with the Stewards of Briones (SOBs) who are a group of local Briones riders that are becoming a formalized group. Work was focused on a Hank & Frank line on rebuilding berms, jumps, drainage, and removing breaking bumps. The SOBs crew organized the work and got support from park district staff including a water trailer. Hoses were run to allow wetting the work areas the day before and during the work day. Water availability was critical to being able to do this type of dirt work this time of year. Roughly 40 people attended and included hikers and trail runners. EBRPD Director John Mercurio attended and was pleased with what he saw. In particular he was impressed with the patience, knowledge and instruction experienced volunteers shared with newbies. John brings a history of trail work experience mainly with hiking trails so the exposure to mtb features was educational. The work day was also attended by Midpen Open Space district Craig Gleason who was a repeat participant. A lot of good work was done and the stoke was high. Park District work days are scheduled for August through October and sign ups are released periodically.
As noted, a group of local riders are formally organizing as the Stewards of Briones to engage the park district in Briones specific trail stewardship and advocacy. BTCEB is taking a supporting role. We attended a meeting with SOB leadership and park district staff that was very productive and included frank discussion on items that are working and items that both the district and the mtb community would like to see improved.
The park district has progressed into some enforcement actions inside and outside of the pilot area at Briones. There was at least one report of park police not being aware of the ride around option of Orchard trail on ‘off’ days for users. Please continue to use the online feedback option to the park district for things that aren’t working, things that are working, and things you’d like to see them consider as the pilot progresses. This is a key communication and data collection tool for the park district. The pilot is a work in progress.
The park district has hired two interns that have been working on validating their trail counter data with field counts. The park district is using a variety of data collection tool including trail counters and intercept surveys (talking to people on the trail or at trailheads). Technical issues are being worked on the trail counters. If you find a trail counter in the field please leave it in place. The data on types of trail users, trail use patterns such as time of day/week and location are important information for the pilot. In cases where user behavior is not in compliance with pilot rules the park district is seeking to understand why as well and work towards sustainable solutions. The interns will move on from the trail counter validations to intercept surveys to gather more direct information from trail users and the types of trail users using Briones.
The pilot includes six month updates to the board. Data collected from trail counters, live trail counts, intercept surveys, enforcement actions, volunteer engagement, and the online data collection and other sources will be reviewed and reported. There may be another open house coming before the 6 month update as well. The February open house was positive and productive and periodic open houses are being considered. The pilot is expected to be dynamic and data will be used to drive changes in the pilot design. Stay tuned for the first 6 month update in a few months
The park district reported in their pilot updates that they held a field tour on June 26th with a variety of regional land managers to share pilot information with them and discuss their experiences in this realm. You can sign up to get the pilot updates directly by email. EBRPD Trail Program Senior Planner Suzanne Wilson delivered an informative presentation on the Briones Pilot at the July Quarterly meeting of the Bay Area Trails Collaborative which BTCEB is a participating member. The district is working on sharing information with the land manager and the broader trails community and drawing on their experiences as well. There is great interest from those groups as well as this is a more progressive step in the Bay Area.
For those that want to learn more:
- Overview of the Briones Pilot Project
- Detailed history of how the Pilot originated
- BKXC video of riding the mountain bike legal trails within the Pilot Study area
