BY CHRIS COLLORD
Los Alamos

As you may have seen, a small but vocal group has created a petition to oppose the development of a bike skills park and multi-use trail in Pueblo Canyon — and even force the tabling of all future discussions of trail building in Pueblo Canyon. See here: LA Reporter. You can view the final proposal here: Final Proposal.

Even though the petition is signed by only 125 people in a town of 15,000 (<1%), these types of tactics are difficult for County Councilors to ignore. People who enjoy Los Alamos trails and would like to see them maintained and expanded (which, I think, is by far the majority of the people in town) typically don’t show up to Council Meetings to support them, so Council Members are often left to hear from the very, very few who oppose changes and improvements.

That has to change now. We need to let the Councilors know that the majority of people in this town support our local trails and would like to see improvements and additions to them.

You can read the arguments of the anti-trails group in the link above. Many of them are so specious that it’s difficult to even begin to dissect them, and are clearly contradicted by the facts in the presentation linked above. I’ve outlined some of these contradictions below.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Write your councilors. Tell them why you support the skills park and trail improvements. Tell them that you live here and that this vocal minority does not represent our town. Explain to them why the petitioners’ arguments are wrong [see below for ideas].

   [email protected]
   [email protected]
   [email protected]
   [email protected]
   [email protected]
   [email protected]
   [email protected]
   [email protected].

2. Show up to the County Council meeting in person. Show your support for Los Alamos trails. The vocal minority will be there…and you need to be there too!
   7/26 @ 6:00PM in the Council Chambers at 1000 Central Ave.

Some examples of how the petition got it wrong:

• Degradation of Open Space Areas:

  Deforestation is not outlined in the plan and seems to mostly be conjecture or misunderstanding, but would seem to be extremely limited based on the map and the extensive use of existing trails. Professionally built trails (as this trail would be) take into account for water drainage and do not increase erosion or create soil disturbances.

• Disturbance of wildlife species

  There are already trails and roads through these…