We’re often asked by our members what they can put back into the mountain biking scene. The great news is that a new project by the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers (PPCV) means we (you) will soon be able to get directly involved in regular trail maintenance on popular rights of way. The trails we ride don’t look after themselves. Someone needs to maintain them and since we enjoy riding them so much let’s look after them.
As some of you will have read on here before, Peak District MTB has organised dig days, but these have had to be arranged through and with Peak Park Rangers. Maintaining popular rights of way within the Peak District is not simply a case of anyone turning up with a spade and mattock and setting to. However the Practical Rights of Way Project was set up to eliminate some of the hurdles in the way of putting something back into the outdoor scene through trail maintenance. With the Practical Rights of Way Project user groups such as PDMTB will be able to undertake rights-of-way maintenance at a time and date suitable to them. In essence this means we will be able to arrange trail maintenance directly with volunteers from our membership.
Peak District MTB will be involved in the pilot project through summer and autumn and the tools have already been delivered. We see no reason why this won’t be a success which means we will soon be able to build a PDMTB team of trail maintenance volunteers. Those trails you love riding don’t maintain themselves and volunteers equals better riding. Through this project volunteers will be shown the right methods to safely maintain trails, assess and survey the state of rights of way and propose future rights of way that require work. This will be ongoing volunteer work and volunteers will be the eyes, ears and hands on specific rights of way, regularly reporting back to the rights of way team at the Peak District National Park.
Even better we will also have the benefit of being able to call in the wider Peak Park Conservation Volunteers, who are mainly school groups in the Peak District for the weekend. This could be fantastic for larger jobs requiring greater manpower and materials.
In summary this is a tremendously positive step in empowering volunteers to get involved and give something back to this beautiful national park we ride in. We’ll keep you updated regularly on this project and will soon be able to share the specific roles and responsibilities of volunteers, but if it’s something you feel you want to get involved with, email us.
