Make Brown's Bike Legal! Email CIU FLSRA Now Due 1/31/2022

• Send your comments here to support the Chang-In-Use trails@parks.ca.gov ; use the subject line: “Browns Ravine Trail” before 1/31/2022 **check out our topics below if you need writting ideas**

Since the early 90’s, FATRAC has been advocating on behalf of the mountain bike community asking for more access to existing trails in and around Folsom Lake, especially the Browns Ravine Trail.  This 11 miles of singletrack from Brown Ravine to Old Salmon Falls Parking lot would serve as a major connection between El Dorado Hills and Old Folsom, and would add capacity to an overloaded trail system for cyclists. Sounds good to you too?  Plenty of people will be arguing against allowing bikes on this trail, so we need to come out in force to support this cause!  Folsom Lake State Recreation Area is currently undergoing a Change-In-Use process for this trail and your input is needed to make it happen! See photo below of the 11 miles CIU plan.

Folsom Lake State Recreation Area (SRA) invites members of the public to attend the Browns Ravine Trail Change-in-Use (CIU) Project virtual public meeting scheduled at 6:00-8:00pm on Wednesday, January 12th. Attendees will be briefed on the project before having a chance to provide public comment. 

Send your comments here to support the Chang-In-Use

trails@parks.ca.gov ; use the subject line: “Browns Ravine Trail” 

deadline to send is 01/31/2022

Stuck on what to write? use the topics below to get started: 

• Describe the connections you have built with friends, family, and nature through mountain biking and how riding Browns Ravine will help strengthen those connections.
• Describe the local connections you have and how trail access is one of the reasons for living in this community.
• Describe why mountain bike access, especially access near your home, is important to you.
• On the more objective side:
• -There are 46 miles of pedestrian/equestrian trails yet only 11 miles of pedestrian/bike trails despite the fact that there are clearly orders of magnitude more mountain bikers than equestrians using FLSRA trails (per Parks evaluation form).
•  Browns Ravine Trail is immediately adjacent to thousands of homes.  It is not appropriate nor practical to exclude such a large and growing user group like mountain bikers to placate a small minority of users that are uncomfortable sharing trails.
• -Mountain biking is clearly growing with youth all around the foothills area and providing for this growing user group must be a priority for State Parks.
• Providing legal access for mountain bikers is a long overdue step towards legitimizing mountain biking that is truly supported by State Parks.
• This decision is 20 years overdue; Parks has pushed it off due to “staffing shortages”, then the General Plan, and then the Road and Trail Management Plan.  It is time to approve mountain bike access on Browns Ravine now!
•  The vast majority of the proposed trail modifications are to reduce erosion; and while very necessary and appropriate they are essentially deferred maintenance.  There is no reason to further delay mountain bike access for them to be completed.  The Parks evaluation form provides no compelling evidence to delay mountain bike access to complete them. Parks currently targets 2024 to open the trail to bikes. It needs to be open upon the final decision.
• Request that trail modifications, especially any suggested trail “widening” or “engineering” be conducted with a “very light hand” and preserve the current character of the trail.
•  One of the findings of State Parks own Trail Use Conflict Study (2012) was that actual incidents or accidents are “relatively rare” and generally suggests that trail use conflict is primarily a matter of perception.
• For more details related to the change in use see Parks website here: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27913