Change in Use Request for Trails in Olompali State Historic Park

Notes from Invited Meeting 11/18/2024

By Ann Elliott

Community members representing a variety of visitor groups to Olompali SHP attended an informational meeting and field trip with CA State Park Staff on Monday, November 18, 2024. A written request had been made for a change in use for the Loop and Burdell Trails to allow mountain bike access. The older Miwok Trail is not being considered for multiuse as it is too steep and erosive and near many sensitive cultural resources.

Loop Trailhead Olompali SHP
Photo by Woody Elliott

Deputy Superintendent Matthew Allen welcomed and reminded us of CA State Parks mission to “To provide for the health, inspiration, and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation.” Mike Nelson, District Trails Manager, outlined the process that a trail change-in-use request goes through. See the flow chart.

Mike and a CA Parks Service Center staffer have completed the second step in the process, an Inventory of the Existing Conditions (physical trail conditions only, no habitat or cultural resource evaluation). They distributed to attendees a limited number of trail maps noting those conditions. CA State Parks is interested in getting informal public comments before further evaluation by staff.

Mike Nelson explains modifications needed for multiuse trail
Photo by Ann Elliott

The next step is for Parks staff to evaluate the natural and cultural resources, public safety issues, and trail design and development as regards this change in use for compatibility, feasibility, sustainability, and safety. Their recommendations for approval, conditional approval, or rejection of the request will be published with an opportunity for official public comment before a final decision is made by the Parks Bay Area District Superintendent. All evaluations by Parks staff are done on a time-available basis. Consultation about all park development is done with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

Following the meeting, many in the group hiked the Loop. Mike and trail planning staff identified trail features and problems. They described some modifications that would be needed to add another user group (bike riders) to the trail. Currently, the trails are open to pedestrians and horseback riders.

I attended the meeting and hike: Below are snippets of comments and observations:

Mountain bikers prefer to be identified as “visitors” with a different “activity” than pedestrians, not as “users.”
Horses are spooked by fast-approaching bikes.
Hikers and riders reduce their use of trails when mountain bike use increases. Safety for themselves and their children is their concern.
Young mountain bike riders feel “excluded” from the park because they cannot do their preferred activity.
CA State Park Rangers are spread thinly and report that tickets are often not effective deterrents for illegal trail use by visitors on bikes and e-bikes.
Illegal mountain bike trail construction is ongoing in Olompali SHP and other parks in the area where historic stone walls have been dismantled.
Loop Trail narrowed due to slumping of cut into hill
Photo by Woody Elliott

CA State Parks staff report that when mountain bikes are legally allowed in a park, the use and further construction of illegal mountain bike trails increase. This trend is contrary to arguments of mountain bike advocates that bikers will be content to stay on officially developed trails when they have legal access.
When mountain biking is added as an activity in a State Park, calls for emergency medical assistance rise dramatically.
The neighboring Buck Institute is having its fences repeatedly cut, facilitating illegal trail construction and use by bikers on their property and causing cattle to escape their allotted grazing area.
All State Park trails have a maintenance schedule (often delayed). Currently weeds are whipped most years at Olompali SHP. Trail maintenance by staff is insufficient but can be done by volunteers.
The last extensive development/maintenance work on the Loop Trail was done in 2012/2013.
Most sections of the Loop Trail could be made wide enough for the two physically largest users (horses and bikes) to pass safely by digging out the sloughed road-cut banks and filling in ruts in the path, so water drains off the trail. A few stream crossings and switchbacks may need extensive work.
State Park biologists have surveyed and mapped all of the rare and sensitive species and habitats along the trails. Some species of concern are Napa false indigo (Amorpha californica var. napensis, California Rare Plant Ranks, CNPS List 1B2), oval-leaved viburnum (Viburnum ellipticum), and northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), federal and Calif. threatened species.
Erosion along trails, roads, and creeks in Olompali SHP are often revealing burial remains of Native Americans.
To allow bikes on Bills Trail in Samuel P. Taylor SP an EIR was developed. It took over 5 years to construct the trail once its design was approved. Delays were caused by construction being seasonally limited to protect habitat mostly for salmonids. Bills Trail is closed during the wet season to reduce erosion into the creek.
CA State Parks has developed a programmatic EIR for Change-in-Use for trails: California State Parks Road and Trail Change-in-Use Evaluation Process Program EIR (CIU EIR) approved in 2013.
Easy Grade Trail Change-In-Use in Mt. Tamalpais SP was approved with that programmatic EIR in 2019 and is still awaiting funding. maps