Mountain biking in Houston is on cycling’s equivalent of the endangered species list.

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) classified the area as an “urban hot spot” last year. That designation translates into Houston being one of the worst places in American for off-road biking.

At the heart of the issue is access. There isn’t much of it.

Last month, IMBA officials set up shop in Houston for 10 days of trail inspections, site surveys, meetings and discussions in an effort to help off-road cyclists, cycling advocates and community leaders craft a strategy for improving access in Houston.

“I think the visit resulted in a much better understanding of the trail situation at Memorial Park,” said Christina Case, president of the Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Association, which worked closely with IMBA to coordinate the visit. “Based on discussions IMBA had with parks officials, it appears as though only 10 percent of the existing trails in Memorial have problems.”

That is welcome news to the cadre of off-road cyclists who use the park daily. They had feared that trail access in the south side of the park might be virtually wiped out based on initial proposals in a new master plan for the park.

Case believes having the IMBA experts visit Memorial provided the independent third-party assessment that was necessary to convince parks officials that the south side trails can be used for off-road cycling in an environmentally compatible manner.

“We also discussed establishing new trails in the northwest corner of the park, known as the Triangle,” said Case. “Those trails would be built to IMBA standards. It’s possible that one of IMBA consultants would come in to assist with that.”

The need for a trail-management plan for existing and proposed trails was also discussed as a critical element to ensure the long-term viability of off-road riding in Houston.

“The IMBA visit provided more credibility for us and what we’ve been doing to advocate trail access,” said Case. “Now we need to begin implementing some of the concepts we’ve been talking about, put together a maintenance plan to address certain problems with the Memorial trails and continue our work with Harris County Flood Control to identify other areas for riding.”

The next step regarding trail access in Memorial is round two of the master plan for the park, which is being developed by the Houston Parks Board and Memorial Park Conservancy.

A revised master plan is due to be presented for public comment in March.