Letter to the Editor - The Origination of Park Trails

My name is Tom Massman. I have been a citizen of Decorah all my life. I started and owned businesses for 46 years in Decorah. There have been comments made by mountain bikers about being a tax-paying citizen of Decorah vs. not being a city resident. First of all, I have perhaps paid more taxes to the city and county than all of you making remarks about this will ever pay in your lifetime. Also, comments made that most of the bikers are citizens within the city limits and pay city taxes vs. a lot of the equine users are not within the city limits, so horse people should not have the same privileges? Parks are not meant just for city residents, they are also for out-of-town visitors which benefits our tourism. While riding horseback on trails, numerous times we have come across hikers from out of town who were so thrilled to see horses, wanting to take pictures, pet the horses, and have a nice conversation. Some expressed how this was the highlight of their trip to town and made their whole trip to Decorah amazing. On the other hand, we have come across bikers who would come flying over a knoll or from around a corner startling our horses. They would have to slow down or even stop and sometimes voicing such anger, even cursing at us. This would ruin the adventure for my guest. We have even come across hikers and dog walkers who remarked about how they had to suddenly pull their dog out of the way and/or jump off the trail from a racing bike. Using the trails should be an experience for enjoying nature, seeing wildlife, listening to birds, etc. at a casual pace. Riding a horse through the park is such a peaceful feeling after a hard day's work. Horses fit in well with wildlife and nature since they are around many other species of animals in pastures and woodlands. I have noticed in the past 10 approx. years that there are, by far, more deer within the downtown area than there ever has been. It is not natural for deer and other wildlife to be constantly startled by mountain bikes, so they are roaming to other areas where they feel safe. The DHPT group was formed by mountain bikers. I do appreciate the work they have done, such as repairing some of the damaged trails they have caused from biking and clearing brush and downed trees now and then from storms. I do not agree with the massive veins of trails that DHPT has created within the park system. For example, when coming in from the parking lot to Van Peenen Park, within 75 yards approx., there are 5 offset veins of bike trails that spread out to many other veins (and of course all of them have no horses allowed signs). The parks are not as natural as they used to be with the enormous number of bike trails created. A public comment was made a couple of weeks ago about "equestrian use puts our trails at risk." I believe that DHPT bikers are striving for any claims against horses they can to have mountain bikes racing through our parks and not have to worry about stopping or slowing down for a horse and rider. The real focus on risk of park deterioration should be from mountain biking. Van Peenen Park was donated to Decorah from the Van Peenens in 1976 with special covenants to run with the land (this is a section of the deed agreement) and states as follows "Shall be left in a state of nature as a wildlife preserve with facilities only for walking, horseback riding, backpacking, including simple camping." The Van Peenens were avid horseback riders, Duane Larson and others would ride with them throughout Van Peenen land, Palisades, Dunnings, and Ice Cave parks. Duane, his family, and friends helped develop trails while closely working with former park director Bob Hunt, spending days and years on building the trails and maintaining them. There is never mention of credit for this? Every Memorial Day, the saddle club would be in the parade then followed by a trail ride (weather permitting) through Palisades, Van Peenen Ice Cave, etc. There were no issues then that horses were putting trails at risk. Hikers and horses were getting along for all these years up until recently since the DHPT and bikers came into the parks. A remark made in last week's opinion that Dr. Van Peenen said that he personally had no issues with mountain bikes. Here are some items not mentioned though, that are very important, in Dr. Van Peenen's letter to the parks, "But we were also much concerned for the wildlife. I have nothing against mountain biking as such, but does degrade trails and promotes erosion which may or may not affect wildlife habitat. I know that bikers like to ride loops and fear they would end up creating all sorts of new trails which will make the problem worse. Barbara and I wanted to keep the land as close to 'nature' as was possible. If even hiking and cross country skiing have already laced the habitat with far more trails than originally had, mountain biking can only make it worse." The letter goes on a bit from here and, in the end says, "I think the park is already taking just about all the use it can safely tolerate and am reluctant to agree to more." This letter was written 19 1/2 years ago. Did it stop the DHPT bikers from continuing with more and more trails and going against Van Peeneen's wishes and the deed covenants? Obviously not. Another item DHPT is focusing on to discourage horses from trails is horse droppings on the trail, every time we see our horse leaving droppings on the trail, out of courtesy, we have gotten off and kicked it off, and even if we've seen where a rider missed knowing the horse left droppings, we would remove it. What about deer droppings and dog, raccoon, and possum poop on trails, how are you going to reprimand them? If I see it, I step around it. We have been willing to share trails with the DHPT bikers and try to come up with solutions, however it is frustrating that the DHPT bikers are now even recruiting some hikers, bird watchers, etc. to side with them, and have been making statements and remarks, always against horses. Understand, we as horse people have just as strong of a passion as mountain bikers and yet are not being treated as such. It seems as though the bikers have been given way too much authority and decision-making, bringing their mainly one-sided ideas and requests to the city parks commission.