Well having worked and had an interest in this area for 15 years I can tell you that isn’t the case for everything.

And to be frank I would question your actual understanding given your previous post in this thread, and ‘buzzard reintroduction’ given it’s one of the most common raptors in the country and has been for decades.

FC claiming that non sanctioned trails destroy habitats is nonsense

Where have they said that?

What the post actually said was:

Sadly, some have been built through sensitive wildlife and ecological areas

Those are fundamentally different things.

Here’s a scenario for you.

You build a trail over a day in an out of the way bit of woodland. It’s actaully got a nest of a protected bird of prey in it. You are no more than 100m from the nest all day despite building 300m of trail. You disturbed the birds off the nest for 6 hours and the eggs became unviable after 30 mins. This years breeding season is a failure.

The FC fell the entire area in November. It has no impact on the bird of prey because it’s not nesting and isn’t even in the country. When it returns it nests in the area of woodland next to where it nested last year.

You then build a trial in that and cause it to fail for the second time.

You’ll shout about habitat destruction and how that justifies your trial building whilst totally ignorning that the habitat that wildlife use still exists in close proximity to where it was. Habitat’s aren’t a stagnant entity they change over time naturally and by human intervention that actually makes the countryside more biodiverse.

The problem is you can only see if from the perspective of what you want whilst having little understanding of the complexity around matter you are commenting on.

She then explained it was my fault as I shouldn’t be riding there. Common land with unrestricted horse access.

Legally required to keep her dogs under control at all times.

She may technically be correct on access…..unless you were riding a really short horse.

But point 1 applies whether you are there legally or trespassing.

You have itunes installed on your windows laptop? (just checking)

Nothing as it’s not your land to plant stuff on? Especially not willow that’ll become a self seeding / propagating nightmare like the balsalm and knotweed.

Google it.

It looks like there aren’t any great matches for your search

It doesn’t. Right to roam, open access, CRoW extends only to walking – there is a fundamental difference between the legal rights given by the CRoW act and the general permissive access the FC allows for other activities.

What legislation is this tradition of access you keep refering to covered under?

no one is minding.

So much so that they go to the effort off putting up signs say not too.

It’s probably more the case that arguing with the likes of the people on here isn’t worth the time and hassle when they clearly DGAS.

The only expense to FE for unofficial trails is in either removing them or defending liability claims

That’s simplifying it somewhat as to defend claims they need to demonstrate they have done what’s reasonably practicable to meet their legal obligations.

So that’s going to include responding to and dealing with complaints, inspecting trails and sorting anything they find, keeping records of all work carried out and taking on responsibility for anything they modify.

As I said all access has a cost.

Tried loads of saddles then got ‘measured’ – went with Bontrager montrose comp in widest fitting; have them on all my bikes.

One thing I learnt – expensive isn’t necessarily comfier – lightweight with less padding and stiffer materials (even in the same saddle design) doesn’t mean it’s as nice as the cheap one.

How much revenue out of interest? I assume you know the exact numbers to qualify that statement.

Their sites cater for more than just mountain bikers just because you aren’t getting new trail each year doesn’t mean the money isn’t being invested – keeping existing stuff open has a cost each year as does all access.

Volunteers aren’t free. There is a cost in terms of staff time and resources (training, tools, building materials, trail design, legal compliance, h+s management, supervision) depending on how you play with your spreadsheet you may well find contractors are cheap all things considered. A mutually beneficial relationship is often given a value beyond that of just costs however.

SSSIs exist for a huge number of reasons – as an example removal of trees on a SSSI for ground nesting birds is beneficial. Building trails all over it afterwords not so beneficial. Land management is often complex but I expect if you asked they’d happily explain why.

I’d suggest waiting for the updates to be published. But I expect if it doesn’t suit you you’ll ignore it and do what you want anyway so why even bother asking.

Either way, I cannot think of a less essential job than forestry in this time of minimising risk.

The toilet paper isle at Tesco’s begs to differ. I also like oxygen it’s good stuff.

Forestry England are still working which is far more dangerous than my pootling around the woods.

I recall having a conversation with one of their rangers and he mentioned that some 60% of accidents on FC land are cycling related. So statistically…

People who talk about mute points should just STFU.

I bet most of them could care less.

The difference a century makes to word usage was quite pronounced.

I expect 100 Roman soldiers were quite persuasive.

There’s a certain irony to using a ‘forum’ for this complaint – a word, that much like decimate, had a singular meaning in Latin but has multiple uses in English.

Just make sure the envelope gets used 3 times before it gets thrown in the green smugness box.

I have been asking for positives since the referendum and still haven’t heard one.

Garage will no longer be collecting 85k a year of our taxes to sit in his house and fist his own anus.

There’s a Shell garage at the bottom of the hill – but the Texaco is closer and the Esso by the diner closer still :)

At least he wasn’t in leather fetish gear…

If you’re referring to the main knee pad and it’s the same material as the previous k-pacts / k-lites the pad becomes malleable when warmed up (body temperature) and almost sets as it cools down.

Used to find them all kinds of funny shapes when I just chucked them in the car after a ride.

It’s not a clumsy way of saying it. It’s the same dismissive blase attitude displayed in every thread on weed on this forum and people with an alternative opinion / knowledge on the impacts of drugs are hounded out by the halfwit ‘theres nothing wrong with weed’ crowd. You’re still trying to justify it in your second sentence.

OP has now been manipulated to accepting his CHILD regularly smoking illegal drugs. Combined with thinking he’s the one who has to gain his sons trust (you don’t – your son abused your trust don’t be guilted into pandering to his childish tantrums). Pretty standard behaviour for addicts.

I’m frankly aghast that you know the details of the child supplying other children with drugs leading them to commit other crimes to fund their habits but seem reluctant to do anything with them. Whoever is pushing that child to bring them into school needs locking up.

At the end of the day he’s your kid but he’s going to get himself into big boy trouble – he needs to understand his actions have consequences (possession class B + C, fraud, possibly supplying controlled substances if he shared with a friend etc).

There is no biodiversity on a heather moorland

UWOTM8?

DWR windproof soft shell trousers + Northwave x-cross GTX.

Stand in all the puddles…because you can.

I had one that wouldn’t stay up (or reinflate after I’d taken it off). New double wrap of tape fixed both issues.

I’d just walk 10 metres to the cycle path and avoid giving dicks the opportunity to be dicks so I don’t in turn end up being a dick.

Also doubling down on being a dick when a dicks pointed out you’re being a dick is probably going to end up with both of you being bigger dicks. When you could of just acknowledge you were being a dick and walked so de-escalating the entire situation.

I’m sure these an easy to summise morale to this story but it escapes me at the moment…

Nearly there…

I explained it to you.

Address your inability to read and you might get somewhere.

Your first calculation is incorrect.

ONS will provide net EU contribution including private sector credits.

Of course they couldn’t, because they were talking shite..

The mind boggles…

Let’s see your maths..

Work out 3.5% of GDP (for some reason copy + paste ignores the .5).

Find out UK net contribution to EU. Hint: UK government figures don’t account for all credits.

Divide 3.5% of GDP by net EU contribution.

It’s 9.5 times if you want to be pedantic.

3.5% is 10x the cost of being in.

Or 12.5million hip replacements a year.

Just sayin…

it said 3.5% in the long run

Selective quoting of headline that suits your narrative.

Unfortunately it didn’t

Lie.

which I think they mean 10 years

Making stuff up.

Entirely unsurprising you can’t grasp things like that – psuedo-intellectualism at its best.

It actually says:

GDP will be 3% per cent smaller each year in perpetuity than it would have been had the UK stayed an EU member.

STW posters in selective quoting (lying and making stuff up) none shocker.

opposing Johnson’s deal?

capitulate
verb [ I ]
UK /kəˈpɪtʃ.ə.leɪt/ US /kəˈpɪtʃ.ə.leɪt/

to accept something or agree to do something unwillingly:

Get a bloody grip man.

Get a bloody dictionary man.

Brexit capitulators are truely awful people.

I’ve got 2 pairs of briskers. The new ones have a different cuff – yes they are tighter than the old ones. Large still fits my hands fine tho.

No I wouldn’t expect a refund on the day. It’s a business and they have operating costs – if you start letting people cancel on the day you’re probably going to struggle to stay in business.

As for telling a 10 year old to calm down it’s pretty simple using basic parenting skills – tell him directly, take a break, get him on another trail or just stop him if he’s putting himself in danger. Failure to adequately supervise your child is neglect.

There’s quite simple reasons why lots of sites seem to go at once – 1) ramorum has decimated larch in the western half of the UK 2) mature crops are favoured for their ease to build in which also means they are likely to be felled around the same time.

Almost every criticism is covered in the management plan from the misrepresentations about them felling 15% of the area to the reasons why normal operations have been largely put on hold for so long.

https://cdn.naturalresources.wales/about-us/what-we-do/welsh-government-woodland-estate/afan-forest-resource-plan/?lang=en

The information is freely available how much more transparent can they be.

It’s great that people are passionate about this kind of stuff but they should at least educate themselves or ask if they don’t understand.

The social media posts were turgid tabloidesque melodrama and merely act as a vehicle to perpetuate people’s own interpretations and uninformed opinions. Some of the narrative being pushed was just outright nonsense.

There is always a cost to access; it’s just demonstrating a total lack of understanding saying anything different.

They are considering the ‘public that fund them’ – by clearing dying trees so they don’t injure anyone (avoiding negligence claims which are paid from…taxes) and to establish productive habitats as per the management plan.

I’d love to see some quantitative evidence for the ‘benefits’ to the local area from these trails. I assume there is some as it keeps being used as an argument to keep them.

For claritys sake most of my riding is unofficial trails and I couldn’t count the number of trails I’ve had a hand in bringing back after harvesting. I do also have a pretty good understanding of ‘the bigger picture’ coupled with a lack of time / interest in social media hyperbole.

Sustainable – nope
Provides progression – nope
Accessible – nope
Cater to all but a small minority of users – nope
Meets various legal requirements – nope

If you poke your head out of the rad enduro bubble you would realise that (going off actaul trail usage data) 95-98% of trail use is red, blue, green – that is the mass market, that is where funding is best spent for maximum impact.

There may be more people riding off-piste now but there are more people in general riding off-road – the percentages change very little.

You may think paying taxes gives you a right but it doesn’t. NRW provide an opportunity for consultation on management plans that is your opportunity to have a say but it doesn’t mean they have to do what you want and there will always be other people to consider and management objectives that they need to meet – whilst not wanting to go all Brexit thread we don’t live in a direct democracy – see my previous point on entitlement.

Large parts of the MTB community resent paying the parking charges that fund trail centres (irrespective of where it is) it’s fascicle to think people will pay for a permit to ride and even more so that you would ever be able to enforce it.

If only NRW knew how to manage the MTB trails properly

The thing is they do. It’s just the self-entitlement of large parts of the MTB community means they think they can do everything better without even the most basic understand of what it entails.

eg: Annual membership to ride on NRW trails inc Wild trails

So the great idea is to charge people for something they can do for free at the moment?

Afan / Cwmcarn car parks + visitor centres aren’t NRW. That’s the main source of income for recreation sites – hence my point about the timber production side subsidizing other parts of the organisation.

Your more than welcome to show us ‘the plan’ and tell us what qualifies you to do it better tho…