Green Mountain Forest Mountain Bike Access

Hello all - a very simple request - in a nutshell the Green Mountain National Forest is 400,000 acres (not a typo) with practically zero mountain bike trails. VMBA have worked very hard with the Forest Service in 2007 to get access, and the National Forest are now seeking public comments regarding mountain bike access. It is a very simple equation, if we speak up, we will have more access in the future, if we do not speak up, we will not have access, period. Can each of you please take 15 minutes and write a simple letter (addresses below) stating that you would like to see more access for mountain bikes in the Green Mountain National Forest, specifically on the Oak Ridge and Chandler Ridge Trails (believe me, they are excellent trails, I'll lead a ride there once we get them legalized). I hope you can help with this. Thanks, Patrick

Patrick D. Kell
Executive Director
Vermont Mountain Bike Association
1949 East Main Street Richmond, VT 05477
802-434-3969 x 112
www.vmba.org


The Forest is requesting comments before April 21, 2008 on the best trails to provide such uses. Postal, hand-delivered, oral, electronic and facsimile (FAX) comments on the proposal will be accepted. Postal comments and hand-delivered comment can be submitted to the Rochester Ranger District, 99 Ranger Road, Rochester, VT 05767, the Manchester Ranger District 2538 Depot Road, Manchester, VT 05255, or the Middlebury Ranger District, 1007 Route 7 South, Middlebury VT 05753. Oral comments or questions about the project can be directed to David Harloff, North Zone Trails Manager, at (802) 767-4261 ext. 530, or Doug Reeves, South Zone Trails Manager at (802) 362-2307 ext 224. The office hours for those submitting oral or hand-delivered comments are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

Electronic comments must be submitted in a format such as an email message, plain text (.txt), rich text (.rtf), Word (.doc) or Portable Document Format (.pdf), to comments-eastern-green-mt-finger-lakes-middlebury@fs.fed.us. Comments must have an identifiable name attached or verification of identity will be required.