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Impacts of mountain biking on biodiversity and the environment / A review and management recommendations

Anne Turbe

Mountain biking is a popular and fast-growing activity worldwide, but compared to other recreational activities, there is a relative dearth of understanding and scientific studies on its ecological impacts. Yet mountain biking impacts likely differ from those of hikers or vehicles, both in terms of the type of impacts caused, their severity, and the way these impacts permeate the landscape over moderate distances. This knowledge gap is of particular concern for nature-protected areas, that must juggle the development of nature-based recreation with the protection of natural resources.

The aim of this report is to review the existing evidence of the biophysical impacts of mountain biking on vegetation, soil and wildlife, to inform the management of Ramat Hanadiv nature reserve. The review identified 29 research studies, mostly in the USA, New Zealand, and Australia, that investigate ecological impacts related to mountain biking. Two thirds of these studies considered impacts on pre-existing designated trails, but less than half focused exclusively on mountain-biking. While there is good evidence that mountain biking contributes vegetation trampling, soil compaction and potentially soil erosion on the tread, these impacts are highest at trail creation or when riding off-trail, but level off rapidly afterwards. They depend more on slope and soil condition than on the intensity of trail use and remain localized in the immediate surrounding of the trail. The impacts of mountain biking on wildlife are much less systematically documented, and the evidence mainly reports various forms

of behavioral disturbances, such as increased alert rates, avoidance behaviors, modification of predation or reproduction. The longer-term and landscape scale effects of mountain biking remain under-explored. They include the potential for dispersing seeds, fragmenting, or deleting wildlife habitat, long-term modifications in wildlife behavior with potential consequences on their populations.

Overall, mountain biking thus appears to cause minimal and very local environmental impacts under normal use. Studies comparing the impacts of mountain biking with those of other recreational activities concluded that while visibly different, the impacts of bikes on trails were not any worse than those of walkers overall. However, most mountain biking studies appear to test relatively gentle riding conditions, that may not reflect riders quest for thrill. Higher impacts are linked to rider’s behavior, such as tendency to go off trail or to experience ride with intense breaking and skidding.

Furthermore, no study adequately considers the overall impacts of mountain biking, taking into account that it has a much wider extent than walking or hiking.

Based on these findings, the following approach is suggested to be developed in Ramat Hanadiv:

Ensure that mountain bikers stay on trail. Environmental degradation can be substantially reduced when bikers stay on formal trails. To minimize the environmental impacts of formal trails, ensure that they are located on side-hills to minimize erosion, and away from sensitive or critical wildlife habitats. To motivate bikers to stay on formal designated trails, ensure good sign-posting, good maintenance of the trail, provide education for mountain bikers, and perhaps most importantly, design the trails so as to provide them with the experiences they are seeking.
Monitor target habitats and species. In order to ensure no declines in habitats or species of concern, and to help fill knowledge gaps, monitor a small set of species likely to be impacted by mountain biking, e.g. ground beetles, amphibians, reptiles or small birds.
Early detection of invasive or ruderal plant species dispersal. As a precautionary measure, monitor the trailside vegetation yearly to detect the arrival of new plant species, in particular invasive alien species or ruderal species, that might have been spread by trail users.