Wissahickon trail usage spurs debate
by JOEL HOFFMANN

Since mid-December a heated debate has been playing out in the Local’s pages over the rights of Wissahickon Valley Park users.

Mountain bikers have been accused of “marauding” down trails reserved for hikers, who, in turn, have been criticized for being “grumpy” and trying to police the park. Here we had the opening salvos of a turf war between passionate factions from both camps.

The rules of engagement are conspicuously posted at the Valley Green ranger station and on a sign jutting out of Forbidden Drive: “A Trail Use Permit is required of all trail users over the age of 16 (excluding pedestrians), except on Forbidden Drive or paved trails. All cyclists and equestrians must use appropriate designated trails. … Dogs must be on a leash no longer than 6 feet.”

The Fairmount Park Commission Web site is more explicit: “Seven (7) miles per hour is the fastest you are allowed to go on Park trails. Please do not drive any faster. Joggers - pedestrians have the right-of-way except during sanctioned and/or organized running races.  Bicyclists - all other trail users have the right-of-way, except during sanctioned bicycle races. Bicycling is allowed on all roads within the Park, except as posted on Kelly Drive and Martin Luther King Drive (West River Drive).”

Erik Werner, an avid trail-walker from Germantown, believes that some mountain bikers are brazenly disregarding park rules. In two letters to the Local he described mountain bikers disturbing his peaceful walks along the upper trails. He wrote that he has been intentionally bumped by mountain bikers in “several incidents,” and that one mountain biker even threatened to kill him.

In a follow-up interview via e-mail, Werner was asked whether he believed that those who had accosted him represented the mountain-biking community at large.

“I think the responses from other cyclists I have encountered since then make the case that the transgressors are in the know; well informed, well equipped, and deliberate,” he wrote. “I referred to several incidents of being insulted. The greater insult is the continuing trespass of riders in the know.”

Werner suggested that stricter enforcement of the rules could remedy the problem.

“Its value to the soul of the region is greater than its immediate use as an obstacle course in transition,” Werner said of Wissahickon Valley Park. “I would prefer that the [mountain bikers] not be present at all on the restricted upper trails. Second to that I think that on Sundays they should be excluded completely. This should be enforced by a MTB user permit fee, which pays for the manpower of The Fairmount Park Rangers to enforce it. The penalty for riding a closed trail should be forfeiture of equipment.”

According to a sign on Forbidden Drive, “Park regulations are strictly enforced and subject to fines from $25 to $300.” The problem is that there aren’t enough people to enforce them.

Twenty rangers patrol the 9,200-acre park system, but no more than two are on duty in the Wissahickon Valley at any given time, according to Christopher Palmer, director of the Fairmount Park office of operations and landscape management.

Although rangers are in the Wissahickon seven days a week between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. (until 10:30 p.m. in the summer), they are responsible for 1,800 acres.

That’s 78.4 million square feet.

Joshua Haims, a mountain biker from Chestnut Hill, has proposed a more hands-off solution.

Haims concedes that there are “rude” people in the local mountain-biking community, as with any other community, but he thinks they’re in the minority. He believes that more dialogue among the park’s user groups would go a long way toward peaceful coexistence in the park.

“The park continues to evolve along with the user groups,” he said. “This park should be open to all user groups based on mutual respect for each other.”

Haims said that all park users should be good stewards of the trails, even if there are some people who continue to ignore the rules. The park’s maintenance is every user’s responsibility, he said, adding that the welfare of the trails and the local water supply depends on a renewed spirit of cooperation.

Education may be the key to resolving trail-use disputes, according to Maura McCarthy, executive director of Friend of the Wissahickon, a nonprofit group that works with the city to preserve the park.

McCarthy said she respects how passionately some people have defended what they believe are proper uses of the park, but she said that all user groups are causing trail degradation because the trails were poorly designed.  The park’s primary purpose has long been to preserve and purify the water supply in Northwest Philadelphia, she said.

“Enforcement would be nice,” she said, “but with the most recent round of budget cuts more city enforcement doesn’t seem likely.”

McCarthy said that user groups would need to police themselves and coordinate with one another to mitigate environmental degradation at the park. She’s hopeful about the park’s future, but she knows that one problem will remain out of her control: There will always be jerks.