Forget Tired Stereotypes: Dirtbikers are Actually Environmentalists

Blue Mountain Motorcycle Club

Dirt bikers have been building trails at Maple Ridge’s Blue Mountain for at least 50 years. It wasn’t until the last 15 years that they started thinking about erosion, runoff or creek crossings, says Ryan Thom, the president of the Blue Mountain Motorcycle Club (BMMC).

“The original trails were cut very roughly,” he says. “They mostly went straight up and straight down.”

That led to sustainability issues and complaints from environmental groups. In response, the BMMC has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteer hours renovating the trail network and steering rider behaviour. 

“As a club we realized we had to develop better practices or we might lose Blue Mountain,” says Thom.

Today, Blue Mountain is a model of sustainable trail management, but not unique. It is part of a province-wide effort to change the reputation of motorized recreation and shift the perception of dirt bikers from Mad Max in the woods to helmeted stewards of the environment.

“We set a path 20 years ago to be leaders in doing things the right way,” says Peter Sprague, the Executive Director of the B.C. Off-road Motorcycle Association (BCORMA).  “Many non-riders often don’t realize that dirt bikers love being in nature and care about the environment and the sustainability of the trails.”

BCORMA was formed in part to shift that reputation. In the early 2000s, private land developers tried to close access to Kelowna’s Bear Creek OHV, one of the largest recreation sites in the province. Strong opposition and sound science kept the riding area open, but the dirt bike community “saw the writing on the wall,” says Sprague. “Things were getting more regulated and controlled. We needed to get ahead of that.”

Dirt biking clubs across the province formed BCORMA as a federation to advocate for the sport at a provincial level. Today the federation represents more than 30 clubs, which steward over 6,000 kilometres of mostly multi-use single-track trails. Part of that is developing best practices, like trail design and building, but also how to share the trails. 

Recently BCORMA developed A Guide to Meeting Horses on the Trail, to educate riders about what to do. It wasn’t just dirt bikers who found it useful. The Back Country Horsemen Society of BC distributed the guide amongst its members and thanked BCORMA for the effort.  

“Our experience is that the majority of dirt bike riders are thoughtful and careful,” wrote Ken Matthews, Treasurer of the horseman association in a letter. 

The reaction didn’t surprise Sprague. He’s seen a big change of attitude among dirt bikers. He used to go to his local riding area every Monday to pick up trash dropped on the weekend. While he still likes riding on Mondays, there’s now nothing to pick up. 

Blue Mountain Motorcycle Club

“Dirt bikers are carrying themselves differently than they used to,” he says. “The dirt biking community is now saying that riding off trail, littering, that’s not a cool way of being anymore.”

Other motorized recreation groups are also working to change user behaviour and adjust public perception. The Four Wheel Drive Association of BC’s member clubs often organize garbage clean-ups as community service projects. Education about environmentally sustainable riding is a focus of the Quad Riders ATV Association of BC. 

There’s a similar effort going on at Blue Mountain, says Ryan Thom. He grew up right at the base of the trails and started riding there with his dad when he was seven. He joined the club about the same time the membership got serious about making the trails sustainable. 

A scientific analysis commissioned in 2010 by BCORMA listed off everything the club needed to do to bring the 120 kilometre trail network up to sustainable standards. Volunteers completed most of the work in the first five years, including building 150 bridges. They have been chipping away at the more difficult and costly changes ever since. Most of that work relates to drainage, trail alignment and intersection safety. But there’s also been an overall effort to steer riding behaviour to be gentler on the trails and the surrounding environment.

Thom figures 98 percent of riders follow the rules without question. He likes to think the rule breakers are just ignorant. To reach them, the club has added more information kiosks throughout the trail network to explain what the club is doing and invite non-members to join and contribute.

All the efforts have paid off in many ways. More sustainable trails require less maintenance, which reduces the workload on a small team of volunteers. The club now has a better rapport with the three tree lot owners whose tenures overlap the boundaries of the recreation area. Along with new forestry regulations that demand respect for recreation infrastructure, the forestry companies are working with the club to avoid trails and, when that’s not possible, reduce their impact during harvesting. 

The biggest difference though is within the dirt bikers. By investing money and sweat to improve the riding experience, the community is more willing to listen to directions from the club, like downhill riding only or wet weather closures. 

Far from Mad Max rebels, that makes the dirt bikers sound more like environmental angels. Today, that’s a nickname the clubs would be proud to hear.