Haldon has a very wide diversity of wild life including deer, badgers and endangered birds of prey, right down to rare lichens, and plant life. So we think it’s important to state that we like to treat ‘Environment’ as an important factor in how we construct our trails.
We put a lot of research into obtaining the correct materials for the construction of the project. Consequently wherever possible, we use natural materials, that impact as little as possible on their surroundings. We use alot of stone to armour parts of the trail that are prone to erosion and natural timber to create structures and northshore. Afterall, none of us come to the forest to be reminded of the concrete jungle that we all live or spend time in, so we want to make as little visual impact on the forest as possible. Using natural materials enables us to blend the trails with their environment, keeping the forest looking like the forest.
But the care taken extends past the boundaries of its appearance. We take into consideration the local wildlife also, it would be wrong of us to rampage through the forest, cleaning up all the brash and dead wood. Sure, everything would look nice and tidy, but we would have destroyed the natural habitat for hundreds of plants and creatures, in turn restructuring the ecological balance of the habitat.
None of us like to be disturbed when we’re relaxing and the wildlife of Haldon is no different, which is why we think its very important to consider the route that a trail will take, we make sure to leave certain areas untouched to create havens for the local ‘inhabitants’. For instance, if there’s a big patch of shrubs in our way, rather than just cutting through, we try to find a way round them as these are favourite resting spots of Haldon’s large deer population.
We have even designed a method for constructing really solid kickers/drop offs using no fixings, ie nails, screws etc.
As a result we are adding less metal to the forest, and they just look like they are supposed to be there.
Not to mention them carrying no nasty chemicals from being treated against rot.
However, we choose the timber very carefully. We do not use any wood that has even the slightest signs of being rotten and also make sure to use certain types of trees that are inherently resistant to rot, such as ‘Chestnut’ or the trailbuilding holy grail ‘Western Red Cedar’ that when cleft or rough sawn, provides a naturally grippy surface requiring no chicken wire.
Not only does all this help the forest, but in return it helps all of us Mountain Bikers too. When our presence in the woods is felt at its minimum, it creates far less opportunity for anyone to have a reason to moan about us being there.
So remember, you play a part in this, make sure you are courteous to all the other users of the forest which will in turn help us to keep building trails.
Remember, we don’t own the forests, we are just tolerated by its real inhabitants, so we believe its best to respect the fact that really, we are playing in someone else’s back yard, so its needless to say “Take your litter home” ;)
