Riding at Ae Forest? Please avoid the windblown area at Green Hill, where forestry works are being undertaken.
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Here’s the full press release:
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is calling on mountain bikers riding off trail in Ae Forest to use common sense and stop flouting safety and closure warnings.
In a recent one-week period, FLS harvesting contractors reported about 40 bikers coming through the operational site on Green Hill despite very clear signage.
The Green Hill area is off-limits because there are dangerous windblown trees that need felling. However, there is only minor impact on official FLS trails with some diversions in place.
FLS’ Area Visitor Service Manager, Katharina Koehler, said:
“Storm damage is extremely hazardous. It might look solid but downed or partially fallen trees can twist, roll, pivot or fall at the slightest touch and can cause serious injury.
“The disregard of warnings and failure to observe access restrictions not only puts mountain bikers at risk of serious injury, but also puts an added burden onto FLS staff and contractors and also eats into the already limited resources we have at our disposal.
“There are multiple machines working on the site clearing old windblow and felling other trees in the process so safety is a serious concern.”
Unfortunately, the actions of these riders means that FLS has to divert efforts away from key tasks such as path and trail repair and maintenance, to instead monitor this inconsiderate behaviour and increase security measures around the essential operations.
Katharina added:
“We really want to welcome people back to all of our forests as soon as possible and we know that it is frustrating to not be able to visit some places but recent storms mean things will be disrupted for some time to come.
“Most people are exercising common sense and are continuing to enjoy the forests in a safe way with other options available for mountain bikers.
“We’ll keep working as hard as we can to get things back to normal as soon as we can and we appreciate the patience and understanding being shown.”
FLS is asking all visitors to:
- always obey signage
- stay well away from work areas
- if a path or trail is blocked, turn back
- do not walk around, climb over or duck under felled trees
- avoid going to the forest when weather conditions are bad, as trees or debris which is unstable may be blown down without warning
- Always check the FLS webpages for the latest updates before visiting a forest
Update 10th March
The story above is a reposing of a press release from FLS. Following comments from local riders suggesting signage was not in place, we asked FLS for further comment and received this response:
As ever, public and staff safety – including contractors – is a top priority for FLS.
FLS can confirm all relevant safety signage was and is in place advising of closures due to forestry operations in the Green Hill area of Ae Forest. These are also being regularly checked.
We also recommend people check the FLS webpages for the most up to date information before visiting a forest.
Replies (8)
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Whilst I’m content to assume my own level of risk in negotiating fallen trees locally, I do draw a line at accessing trails where harvesting is taking place. I suppose there will always be those who couldn’t give a monkey’s when it comes to accessing closed trails.
Hmm, we were there 3 times in the last week, we did use the fire road on Green Hill to access one of the trails, but, it was around 8pm when we were there, and I certainly didnt see any signs saying dont go up there. It is quite clear that the hill is being cleared of trees, but there arent any trails through the bit that is being felled anyway, the fire road past the felling is used to link in other bits.. From the top of green hill, all of the natural/off-piste trails are open afaik. We didnt bother this Tuesday, as the fire road up there is a mess, due to the forestry vehicles churning it up, making it a horrible slog up there.
As for most of the other trails being open, thats rubbish.Around a third of the Red is shut due to trees down, part of the green has been shut for over a year, even the blue (which is mostly fire road) has a diverted section – maybe thats the bit Katharina means? The diversion signs are not great, and there is nothing saying ’Stop, dont go this way!’ on the route. Some of the ‘off-piste’ trails are closed, mainly as the forestry staff dont monitor or maintain them, and the volunteers shouldnt be using chainsaws to clear the route.
Did I miss them saying how long the felling/clearance work is going on for?
I was at Ae a couple of weeks ago, just riding the other hill and it was obvious the storm had caused havoc.
TTTT lower and Frazers both wrecked I believe?
The Green Hill felling is different from the storm fallen tree clearance. Contractors come in and do the felling/cutting to length/stacking/removing. AFAIAA, its the foresty staff who do the storm tree clearance.
Yes, there was still no access to the trig point on Tuesday, saw a pic a couple of weeks ago, there must have been 20 trees down on one fire road up to the trig point, I’d presume the trails were no better. Note, FS do not advertise or take any responsibility for the ‘off-piste’ trails. They allow the volunteers to do the work on them, but they can be a bit strict on what can/cant be done. It was offered that some people went up there with chainsaws, but that got a straight refusal.
i understand that often forestry work takes place over a protracted time and sometimes there’s not very much going on, and the reasons that signs and fencing aren’t removed during idle periods have been explained to me (if there’s a contract in place still, the signs stay up) but those signs loose all effectiveness if there’s f all going on. it might take an hour to go around and take down/put signs up, but if you want them to be effective they have to relevant to what’s going on. no one in their right mind wants to go in to an area where there’s wiring blades at work (which BTW does often continue in to darkness) but equally, if the bit of forest that has the great trails hasn’t been touched for 2 months you can’t blame people for having at it. the very definition of the boy that cried wolf.
Chatting to a contractor at glentress he was telling me he’d had dozens of folk blast past him from his blind spots (360 with flail head).
Having worked in forestry, the machines just turn their lights on and bash on. Productivity doesn’t rely on daylight.
I ride at Ae regularly and am quite annoyed at the way this has been reported. Inaccurate to say the least.
I went for a ride two weeks ago just after the works started and went up to Greenhill I noticed there was a harvester working so changed my route. There was no signage to say the works were being carried out. No restrictions on access obvious just the noise of a machine working.
The contractor and FLS are souly responsible for this situation due to their inability to let the public know that this was happening and more importantly basic health and safety procedures not being in place to prevent the public from walking / riding into a dangerous environment.
I am a local and was completely unaware that this was happening and due to zero messaging and signage anywhere I could have put myself in danger … the big machines gave that away a wee bit though.
I don’t know who reported this to the rag that is the Daily Record but they should be asking themselves a few questions about accurate reporting.
All riders in my experience at Ae are reposnsible and will take there own safety and that off others to heart.
I was there a few days ago and cycled past Greenhill and there was still no signs or any warning that works were being carried out. Sure the Health and Saftey Exec would have something to say.
It’s a shame that single track have jumped on the band wagon instead of looking for the truth.
Why let the Truth get on the way of a good story…
I’ve been up there today, and they have now put up fencing to stop people going along that fire road. There was nothing there before, not even signs saying ‘No Entry’.