News

Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance - A Banner Year

November 9, 2012

By Stacy Karacosta, Communication & Membership Director for Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance

Seattle, Wash. - Thanks to your support, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is making sure mountain biking in Washington is on a roll!

It's been a record year in so many ways; from building new trails, to maintaining access to old favorites, to getting kids out riding, and more. And we want you to share in the successes you've helped create, as well as learn a bit about what we have on tap for next year.

A few highlights reel of successes from 2012:

Trailwork

Completed construction on the world-class Duthie Hill mountain bike park with an Evergreen managed budget of over $500,000 and 20,000 volunteer hours. Now 100,000 riders visit per year, and the park has become a model other cities and counties have visited to learn what's possible.

Completed the new East Tiger Summit trail and started work on the new Silent Swamp trail. The Summit trail adds 500 feet of vert and 1.5 miles of sweet singletrack that connects right into the Preston RR Trail. Silent Swamp will connect the bottom of Preston to the start of NW Timber eliminating miles of gravel road riding.

Started planning, permitting and flagging for new Reiter Recreation Area mountain bike trails off Hwy 2 near Goldbar.

Hired three Trail Crew Leads - Graham Turnage, Tyler Salvage and Chris Yankoviak - and exceeded trail maintenance and building goals for 2012 thanks to our expanded program, with a total of 6,500 volunteer hours donated - 4,000 of which went to maintaining trails statewide on some of your favorite trails AND in remote areas.

Advocacy

Established a first ever agreement with the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, and one of the first results is a Forest Service proposal to build 50 miles of front country trail, much of it mountain bike specific, in Number Two Canyon right outside Wenatchee. This was identified by our Central Washington Chapter as one of the most important projects for the area - and the USFS agrees.

Assisted with mediating solutions for trail conflict at the North Fork Nooksack trails in Whatcom County. So far we've secured 100% legislator support from the affected districts and recently walked the site with DNR District staff to evaluate trail reopening. Keep your fingers crossed!

Saw the Wild Olympics Proposal come to fruition. After years of negotiations the most important MTB trails on the Peninsula are now outside of the proposed Wilderness and still open to riding including Lower SF Skokomish, West Fork Humptulips, the Lower Big Quilcene and more. This plan will protect the wild areas we love while also retaining access for our low-impact form of recreation.

Added two new regional chapters (Eastern Washington and Methow). Combined with our Central chapter in Wenatchee, this strengthens our representation of mountain bikers, and our ability to get more done, statewide.

Regularly mobilized our members to speak out, creating a direct impact on access issues statewide including: Mt Spokane, Lake Whatcom, Wellington Hills Sports Park, RTP funding, WA State Parks, Snoqualmie Corridor, Recreational Trails Grant Program, and North Fork Nooksack issues.

Strengthened our power as advocates for the mountain bike community by hiring a full-time Communication & Membership Director who keeps you informed about advocacy issues, classes and events and has helped to grow our membership by more than 40% and increase our reach online by 80%.

Classes & Events

Launched the Washington Student League for kids in grades 7-12 that includes mountain bike riding and racing, stewardship & leadership development.

Hosted the first ever mountain bike race on Tiger Mountain - the Evergreen Enduro at Tiger - with 140+ satisfied, muddy riders. The event raised $4,000 towards building the new Silent Swamp trail at Tiger.

Thanks again for helping us make it all happen! We couldn't do this without your support.

Next year has huge potential too, but we need your help so we can keep the momentum going in 2013.

To meet all of our goals for next year, we need to raise a total of $97,000. So far we've secured $55,000 via grants and donations - which is a great start!

But, that means we still need to raise another $42,000 by December 31.

Please donate online today so we can make 2013 another banner year for mountain bikers statewide. No amount is too small (or large) to help.

Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and your donation is 100% tax deductible.

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