Portland Parks & Recreation is committed to providing a wide variety of high quality recreation services and opportunities for all residents. As part of this commitment, we are convening a group of interested stakeholders to address the need for single track cycling opportunities within Forest Park, following the policies and procedures adopted in the 1995 Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan.

BACKGROUND

In 1995 the Portland City Council adopted the Forest Park Natural Resource Management Plan. This plan was developed to guide PP&R as they worked to satisfy the current and future needs of the park and the expectations of users. The plan recognized mountain biking as a growing recreational trend. It has been and will continue to be an allowed activity in Forest Park. There are currently 29 miles of trail open to bikes. The Forest Park Management Plan identifies a number of actions to create connectors and improve biking in the park that have not yet been implemented. The committee's proposed recommendations represent an increase of 8.4 miles of new trail and the creation of four new loops.

In August 2009, Commissioner Fish and PP&R Director Santner appointed a 15-member Advisory Committee, which used the recently adopted Trail Design Guidelines for Trail Type G-Mountain Biking to achieve three goals:

• Clearly identify the need for increasing single track cycling opportunities in Forest Park.
• Develop a common language for single track and trail development.
• Set a goal for short-term single track opportunities in Forest Park.

The recommendations from the committee focus on two areas:

Trail Options – What are the opportunities for increasing access to single-track in Forest Park?

Management Recommendations – What are the priority tools, resources, and tasks that need to accompany increased use in Forest Park?

We want to thank the Forest Park Single Track Cycling Advisory Committee for their ongoing time and commitment to this work.