Nature area damaged by bicycle riders

$30,000 grant helped to create spot for Mattie Washburn
nature study
by NATHAN WRIGHT, Staff Writer
Mattie Washburn Elementary School is the home of one of the best
bicycle riding spots in Windsor. The problem is it’s not intended
to be a bike park, and the frustrated staff at Mattie Washburn
can’t keep the bikers away. The one-acre plot is officially the
school’s nature area, but teachers say they rarely use it.
“We can’t bring our students here,” said teacher Kathy Angell,
“It’s just too dangerous.”
The nature area was created in 1994 after the district received
a $30,000 environmental grant from the State Department of
Education. The money was used to clear blackberry bushes, remove
three abandoned cars and dozens of tires, and to build trails. The
nature area was a great place for teachers to take their first
grade and kindergarten classes up until a few years ago when local
kids decided it was also a great place to ride bikes.
“I’ve never been told not to ride here,” said Windsor High
School student Todd Smith, who said he’s been riding in the nature
area for the past four or five years.
There is a sign posted at one of the park’s entrances that
prohibits bikes, but it doesn’t keep the bikers out. Bicyclers
range from elementary school students to riders in their
twenties.
There is a chain link fence around half of the park, but most of
the area is enclosed only by a short, wood fence.
“We want it accessible for the public,” said school Principal
Benita Jones. “We feel that if we fenced it off we’d be taking it
away from the community.”
Some of the teachers have confronted bikers about the park, but
they haven’t liked the results. “You set yourself up for problems
even talking to the kids,” said teacher Nina Lowry. “They’ve done
things in retaliation.” The teachers believe that some of the
bicyclers vandalized classroom mailboxes after one of the teachers
spoke to one group.
With teachers and staff giving up on enforcement, the local kids
have transformed the nature area into a haven for bike jumping.
Some bring shovels from home and build jumps two to three feet
high. The jumps have ruined the paths for Mattie Washburn students,
but have attracted a growing number of bicyclers.
“This is an attractive nuisance,” said Jones. “This is just
waiting for a kid to break his neck.” Jones has good reason to
worry. Bikers are able to vault themselves five to eight feet into
the air using the jumps.
Jones said that the district has bulldozed the area a number of
times, but the bikers just build the jumps again. “They flatten
them out on a Friday and they’re back up by Monday morning,” she
said.
Windsor Unified School District Superintendent Robert Carter
said last Thursday that the district could be liable for injuries.
“We’re liable for any area” on district property, he said. “It’s
problematic. This creates a danger in an unsupervised
location.”
The district removed the jumps the day following the Times’
conversation with Carter. The jumps were not rebuilt over the
weekend, but Jones said that this solution has only been a
temporary fix in the past.
The kids say they’d bike somewhere else if they could.
“I’d bike at the skate park if they’d let me,” said Windsor
Middle School student Dylan Borreiter. “We just want somewhere to
do this. We’d go anywhere there are jumps.”
Borreiter said that his father approves of him biking at Mattie
Washburn, and thinks it keeps him out of trouble elsewhere. “My dad
is totally for this because it keeps us out of doing anything
illegal,” he said.
The teachers at Mattie Washburn have tried to spread the word to
local parents that the nature area is not a bike park.
“No, this is not a bike course,” said Lowry. “We want parents to
realize this isn’t what the park is intended for.”