The dry answer: Today yes, tomorrow no. The answer in a tweet: Carrying out unauthorized trail building work is illegal, can have major negative repercussions and nefarious effects on the growth of mountain biking and access to trails.
Source: IMBA Italia news -www.imba-italia.org
The answer with an analogy: Two friends browsing Instagram see a photo of a new mountain bike, it's beautiful and they both want it desperately. The first leaves the house and goes to rob a bank so the next morning he is already riding the shiny new bike.
The second begins to save by putting aside the necessary money little by little and after a few months comes to have the necessary nest egg aside for the purchase. Meanwhile, his friend is under house arrest and his bike has been confiscated.
The complete answer it is much longer because it is a multi-faceted theme that can provoke heated debates while cycling with friends, rather than in front of a beer and, above all, behind a computer monitor or mobile phone.
There are many aspects to take into account, many of which can be viewed from different angles; but there is one point on which there is very little room for opinion: the legal aspect.
But we proceed with order.
The design and maintenance of the trails are essential to ensure a safe experience for all users of the trails.
Carrying out unauthorized trail building work is illegal, can have major negative repercussions and harmful effects on the growth of mountain biking and access to trails.
Premise
In the past, the land and woods were an important resource for agriculture, livestock, wood production or other agricultural activities and the owners managed them with great attention. In addition, the paths were fundamental communication routes to reach the plots and connect the villages and for this reason they were maintained with extreme care.
Following the gradual displacement of the population from rural centers to large cities, the countryside and the mountains have seen a slow and apparently inexorable abandonment of many of those areas, especially for those small plots, difficult to reach and with low profitability.
Asphalted roads have begun to take the place of paths in the function of connecting the villages and so many paths have slowly fallen into disuse when not used for their recreational aspect, first on foot and later also by bicycle.
With a few virtuous exceptions, even the public administration, struggling with increasingly small budgets, has often neglected the endless kilometers of paths that cover the woods and hills of Italy. In this bubble of interest, volunteers from various non-profit organizations have been taking care of the routine maintenance of the paths and signs for years, thus keeping those of greatest interest open and usable.
Despite this, many of the users have at times found themselves in the situation of walking along paths in a state of decay and in apparently forgotten areas; all this has created over time, and in some cases, the impression that the paths (and the woods) belonged to no one and that therefore it was possible to do what was deemed most appropriate; for good and, unfortunately, for bad.
If for those who practice hiking the path is an almost marginal element of the experience, for those who practice mountain biking the relationship with the path is very different and we often find ourselves wanting to change something in order to make the experience " improve". Obviously the term "best" opens the door to hundreds of different visions: the neophyte will try to make the path easier, for example, by opening cuts on curves that are too narrow for him, while the more experienced biker will want to build jumps and banks.
Without planning and often with self-taught skills, the results can only be questionable in many cases both in terms of usability and in terms of safety for those who walk them.
The legal aspect
From this point of view, there are two aspects to know:
the first is that anyone who carries out unauthorized trail building works on third party land is liable to criminal charges and penalties of even thousands of euros,
The second is that in the event of an accident involving a user traveling on land, the responsibility falls, by law, on the owner of the land, even if he is unaware of everything. Owner who can then perhaps refer back to who carried out the work without, first of all, his authorization.
Here we could open a long debate on what are the ways to discharge the owners of the land from this responsibility (spoilers, the ways are there and they all go from carrying out authorized works).
As trail users we have to think that it is as if we are guests in someone else's house, so to speak, and we should always keep this in mind as we enjoy our outing. On the other hand, have you ever seen tennis players building playgrounds in the neighbor's garden while on vacation or golf enthusiasts creating "mini-greens" in the common areas of an apartment building?
Here, we should learn to see things from this point of view.
They say hell is paved with good intentions
Doing things correctly is not impossible but “Nobody said it was easy” (nobody ever said it was easy) an IMBA instructor said years ago to our courses talking about trail building and the same principle can be applied to advocacy [ or lobbying, although in Italian the latter term is frequently associated with negative contexts, ed].
Shortcuts over time can almost always lead to problems, we might as well do things right now avoiding wasting money and energy in carrying out works that will be destroyed and that could potentially ruin our lives with very important complaints and penalties.
Since we are at it, let's also dispel the myth that “everything is easier abroad”, because it is almost never like this!
Of course, in a trail building video it is certainly more emotional to show the construction of jumps and banks than the months of meetings, bureaucracy and requests for permits; but the fact that it is not seen does not mean that it has not been done. Certainly some nations have laws that regulate access to trails and wilderness areas in a very different way from the Italian one (just see for example the "freedom to roam "Of northern European countries such as Scotland, Sweden and Norway); but this is precisely where an enormous challenge for advocacy in Italy lies.
The disposable trails
It is undeniable that the construction of illegal paths is faster than the correct method [which passes through the request for permits and authorizations, ed.], But in the medium-long term it is precisely the unauthorized works that cause access bans to the paths to mountain biking and tensions with land owners and public administration.
A trail or jump area created illegally without permits will sooner or later end up being closed, with negative repercussions on the image of the entire community of clawed wheels and forcing improvised trail builders to move to other areas to start building again. yet another disposable path.
If it is true that in some cases it has been possible to make those illegally born paths official, it is equally true that this procedural process cannot, and must not, become the norm.
So how can this be done?
There will always be volunteers more interested in carrying out work in the woods surrounded by nature and others more inclined to the equally important part of obtaining permits, consents and perhaps funding for the arrangement or construction of a path or a pumptrack.
Precisely for this reason it is essential to organize yourself in trail advocacy and trail maintenance associations to have more skills and resources available, in order to carry out projects in the correct way. The process will undoubtedly be longer, but it will lead to higher quality results that will last over time and will help the growth of mountain biking in that place, without turning into boomerangs that will return to hit us in the face when we least expect it.
In Italy and abroad there are many virtuous examples of shared trail network management or dedicated to mountain biking and one thing unites them all: a leading body that manages their development and maintenance.
In Tuscany we can mention Firenze Freeride with the trail area of Rincine which has a path management agreement with the Union of Municipalities and similar agreements have also been made by the Zena Trail Builders Consortium of Genoa, the Trail Brothers in Massa Marittima, by Machete Team for the Natisone trail area and from Valceresio Bike in the province of Varese. If we move abroad to see other approaches, including economic ones, we can mention Golovec Trails in Ljubljana which economically compensates the owners of the funds on which the paths pass, Taupo in New Zealand where you pay a minimum subscription to be able to enjoy a vast network of trails starting from the city center, Bentonville in Arkansas where OZ trails has even purchased some parcels of land to be able to connect different areas of the trail area which today is very vast and sees over 25 trail builders working full time in development and maintenance of the paths.
Conclusions
If until ten or twenty years ago the numbers of mountain bike practitioners in Italy were still small and consequently the need for access to the trails was still limited, today off-road cycling is growing rapidly and must be able to welcome newbies as more experienced riders. , thanks to quality projects.
It is undeniable that in the history of mountain biking the paths created on the wave of passion without asking too many questions have played an important role in the growth of a sport that was in its infancy at the time, but today all this is no longer possible: we have to leave. behind improvisation and illegality.
To do all this the only way is to get out of the shadows by developing quality projects in an increasingly professional way.
Mountain biking can play an important role in relaunching the local economy, sustainable tourism and improving the quality of life (embracing a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle) but all this will only be possible if all bikers organize themselves better by coordinating between associations and organizations to build a bike friendly future together.
IMBA is committed at the forefront to preserve and improve mountain bike experiences in a sustainable way while respecting the environment, read our vision and mission here.
