The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Forest Service revision also an issue
By Mark Reaman
E-bikes are an emerging open space issue in the valley and how to deal with them was part of a general open space update to the Crested Butte Town Council on August 21.
Crested Butte Open Space coordinator Hilary Henry provided the council with a comprehensive overview of the town’s open space situation at a work session and told them two major emerging issues were use of e-bikes on local trails and the revision of the Forest Plan for the surrounding Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, Gunnison (GMUG) National Forest.
“E-bikes are a complicated issue,” she told the council. “The federal government considers e-bikes motorized so the Forest Service and BLM [Bureau of Land Management] limit them to trails where motor vehicles are allowed. The Colorado state legislature has three classifications of e-bikes but also allows local authorities to regulate e-bikes. Currently all our open space trails are open to e-bikes. But the town is working with its regional partners, including the county, to regulate e-bikes.”
In a memo to the council Henry explained that the emergence of e-bikes could increase the number and speed of users on local trails, especially in high-use areas such as the Lower Loop. Some e-bikes can reach 28 miles per hour. The mixed private-public land ownership situations that accommodate many local trails is also an issue.
“There are good arguments on both sides of the e-bike issue,” Henry said. “One complication is that many of the trails in our area include some BLM or Forest Service property as a portion of the trail. People aren’t going to be riding their e-bikes on our trails and then turn around when they get to federal land.”
The potential that e-bikes could encourage commuting, especially between places like Crested Butte and Mt. Crested on the Rec Path or out to the Skyland area on the Deli Trail was noted as a plus, as was the potential for increased access for physically impaired and older individuals to open space lands in the area.
“The town staff expects that e-bikes will be a continuing conversation with our partners,” Henry wrote in her memo. “We will keep the council updated as we work through the issue.”
As for updating the Forest Plan, Henry said the town is obviously interested in the process, given the town’s proximity to federal land. She said the town would be commenting on the plan but since the National Forest land lies outside the town’s jurisdiction, Crested Butte would not be considered a “cooperating agency.”
“The last time the plan was updated was in 1983 and a lot of things have changed since then,” she said. “We will be paying attention to the process.”
Councilman Jim Schmidt said that since the town’s watershed was located outside the town boundaries but included Forest Service property, the town might qualify as a cooperating agency. “I think it is important for us to be deeply involved as a cooperating agency in the Forest Plan’s revision process,” he said.
Community development director Michael Yerman said the revision process was in its “infancy” and the staff would look into the possibility of engaging as a cooperating agency.
Overall, the open space budget looked healthy, even with a $1 million contribution earmarked in 2018 for the Trample Ranch conservation project. The town is expecting about $600,000 in revenue this year and next, to be collected through the town’s open space Real Estate Transfer Tax.
