Monday, April 7, 2008

EBRPD Hall of Shame, Pleasanton Ridge Edition

Back in the winter of 2002-2003, someone in the EBRPD had the bright idea of "maintaining" Pleasanton Ridge trails with bulldozers and other heavy machinery during the middle of the rainy season. The result was predictable: a big, muddy, erosive, environmentally destructive mess. Check out the zig-zags in the middle, where the machine got stuck! (Click images to see them full-size.)

Here's a nice close-up of some high quality EBRPD trail work:

The ground was torn up so badly that they had to put straw down to cover the mud pits! Remember, these trails were mostly singletrack cow paths before the EBRPD's machines got there.

The herds of cattle didn't seem to mind so much...after all, they made the trails in the first place...

But wait a second. Let's take a closer look at that yellow sign. What might it mean?

It means "We've hugely screwed up our responsibility to public lands in a really obvious way. What do we do? Apologize? Restore some of the trails we destroyed? No, that's too much work. We'll BLAME BICYCLISTS! They FORCED us to run bulldozers through the mud! We'll call a news conference to tell everyone this, and then ban them from the public land that we have somehow got control of."

And that's exactly what the EBRPD did.

(All photos by "scooderdude" @ MTBR. Thanks!)


Anonymous said...

I know of two individuals who suffered terrible accidents as a result of the EBRPD "trailwork" described above - at different times AND at the same exact location. One individual required shoulder surgery, the other suffered a broken collar bone.

Anonymous said...

Hey - nice photos! They happen to be mine, btw. Photo credits would be appreciated. You can call me "scooderdude" from MTBR, if you wish. Thanks!

Better East Bay Parks said...

I added photo credits for you.

Thanks for taking them! The Pleasanton Ridge damage and subsequent closure was such an underhanded and disrespectful move by the EBRPD that people just can't believe it actually happened without seeing photographic proof.