Tahoe leading e-mtn bike access
The Tahoe National Forest, which includes the Truckee area and wraps around portions of the North and West shores outside the Tahoe Basin, is leading the way on opening Forest Service lands nationwide to e-mountain bikers. Last year, it opened 35 miles of trail to Class 1 e-bike access (those with no throttle) and is looking to expand that trail network.
This move has come in response to the growing use of e-mountain bikes and a push by advocates to expand trail access, as was discussed at the recent E-Mountain Bike Summit in Olympic Valley, attended by long-time contributor Priya Hutner for her story in this edition.
Whatever one’s opinion of e-bikes of any class, their use is only growing in popularity and the Forest Service is moving to meet this growing demand for trail access by opening public trails and monitoring the use of e-bikes. I commend the Forest Service for looking ahead and meeting this public demand for trail access instead of acting too late to effectively monitor and designate trails for e-bike use.
As Tahoe Weekly has reported for years, the Forest Service, along with other public agencies at every level, has not acted at all or acted too late to address other access issues in the region.
We have written dozens of stories centered around conflicts created from a lack of winter parking for back-country users; a lack of public snow play areas for visitors; a lack of winter recreation access to popular Forest Service sites around the region like Taylor Creek and East Shore beaches; and a lack of parking and trail access to trails and beaches around Emerald Bay year-round. Read about these issues at TheTahoeWeekly.com/Access.
Public agencies and local organizations are now actively working to address several of these issues, but the problem had to burgeon nearly out of control before plans even started to be discussed – think of the traffic snarled East Shore and Emerald Bay areas; think of the mounds of trash along roadways and at areas like the Spooner Summit snow play area; think of the back-country skiers having vehicles towed from a lack of winter parking access.
In this instance, however, Tahoe National Forest has stepped up to become a leader in addressing the demand and need for e-bike access on public lands by designating trails and monitoring their impact.
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