Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Ron Ford's Comments on IJ Article

I agree totally with John Parulis. The IJ completely missed the real story here and that is illegal trail usage. Tom Sienstra of the Chronicle did a much better job on this same piece. John Parulis is a member of Green Peace and was on the Rainbow Warrior (Green Peace's environmental tracking vessel). He is doing a video documentary on the clapper rail (his own dime) at this time. His tracking of illegal trail use goes back many years. His credentials as an environmentalist are impeccable and no doubt more involved than Mark Prado ever has been.
The main character in Prado's article is a professional mountain bike downhill racer. I think Mark is enamored. His title was meant to sell papers and was totally derogatory to our Parks & Open Space personnel who are some of the best in the business at what they do. The down hill racer was obviously pissed that her favorite illegal trail was blocked off. As far as the danger or so called "booby-trap", this barbed wire fence was bent down by bikers trying to take it out. They have destroyed or moved any barriers placed to stop use of illegal trails. Barbed wire fences are common in parks and ranches around Marin, Sonoma and most counties with rural areas. If she doesn't use the illegal trail, there is no danger to her or anyone else. The legal trail is clearly marked.
Their is a huge problem with down hill racers making Marin Open Space their play ground and descecration of virgin hillsides. They chose to illegally construct huge jumps made with two-by-fours, chicken wire and steel reinforcement bars on private land (without permission) and Open Space.Some of these jumps are as tall as 8 feet. I personally destroyed one that was over 8 feet tall and 30 feet long, a literal bridge in the Open Space. They cut down baby redwoods with chain saws(one 8 inches in diameter) in one section of the Open Space to utilized the wood to build bridges over ephemeral streams. If we all took this attitude about our Open Space we would have no Open Space.
This piece is obviously biased in favor of use by down hill bike racers in our Open Space. It's sad that the statement by people who have so little respect for the Open Space that their attitude is "go ahead and fine me, $50 is nothing to me".


Ron Ford

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