GHORBA Attends the International Mountain Bicycling Association Summit in Washington DC

   As most of you are aware, GHORBA has been working on mountain bike access issues for about the last 6 years.  Christina Case went to the International Mountain Bicycling Association summit 2 years ago in Moab, UT to learn more about those types of issues and improving a non-profit organization. Since that time, GHORBA has grown considerably in membership, projects, and stature in the community. 

   This year the summit was held in Washington DC, and GHORBA sent three board members:  Jeff Nielsen, President; Cynthia Stewart, Secretary; and Christina Case, Events.  Over 150 advocates, industry reps, and pro riders (Marla Streb and Ned Overend) from the US, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka (yes!), and Scotland attended; 3 people from Houston and 7 from other TX cities.  The workshops were extremely helpful and interesting and covered a variety of topics, including obtaining grants, increasing membership, fundraising, environmental impact, trail building, free ride parks, etc.

   This year's summit was especially important, as funding for trails is up for reauthorization under the Transportation bills in the House and Senate...the two bills are about $200MM apart in appropriations. This funding comes from a small portion of the off-road vehicle gas tax and is split up amongst all of the states for use in building new off-road trails for hiking, nature watching, equestrian, 4-wheelers, jeeps, and mountain bikes.  Houston has received several of these grants from Texas Parks and Wildlife for Memorial Park, the Hill at Sims Greenway, Red Bluff area in Pasadena, etc..  At the full House appropriation, Texas would receive over $21MM over the next 6 years for new trail projects!!  The Senate version would allocate just over $15MM over 6 years for trail projects.

   We all received lots of training from lobbying consultants and our DC staff, so we felt pretty well prepared for the day.  On Monday all 150+ of us went to Capital Hill to speak to our state reps and senators on voting the full appropriation for this program, as well as speaking to each of them about dwindling budgets for the US Forest Service, the Corps of Engineers (closing lakes and trails due to budget short falls), Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service.  We also thanked everyone who voted to approve the Safe Routes to School bill that Oberstar introduced.  It was passed with a significant majority from both parties. 

   What an experience!!  We mainly spoke to staffers, but felt important to be there at all.  Now we just have to wait for the Transportation Bills to be reconciled and passed.....we're hearing that it won't be until after the election, so it could still get interesting. 

   If you aren't a member of or aren't familiar with IMBA, go to www.imba.com.  They are making a big difference in mountain biking and trail access issues across the country.  They also selected Houston as a 2003 Urban Hot Spot and spent 10 days assisting GHORBA with meetings and trail issues.