As my wife and I were walking our dogs in Richmond’s Forest Hill Park yesterday, we came across a sign attached to a tree with string. It reads exactly as follows.
HAPPY EARTH DAY 2008
Riding on these trails adds
to already bad erosion
problems, please stick to legal,
funded, state run James River
Park System
Aside from the grammar errors, a couple of things jump out at me: 1) The JRPS is not state run; it’s operated by the city of Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. 2) The JRPS is not funded all that generously. That’s why groups like JROC, Richmond MORE and others are constantly engaged with the people at the JRPS on volunteer projects that supplement what the city can afford to do. 3) Properly built trails are designed to minimize erosion. Richmond MORE hasn’t been in Forest Hill Park in close to a year to work on the trails, some of which are eroding, because the city parks and rec hasn’t signed a “memorandum of understanding” that would give them the right to do so. This stems from a disagreement with a group called the Friends of Forest Hill Park who don’t want MTBers to have access to the park. 4) Who would have put up this sign? 5) Does whoever put up this sign know the state the park was in before the trails, mostly built by MTB enthusiasts, brought runners, dog walkers and MTBers to all corners of the park?
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