Unless rescued by a suddenly informed public, Castle Rock State Park and the lands of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) may undergo a transformation that will seriously degrade their environmental quality and aesthetic character.

At Castle Rock, management apparently seeks to permit the use of mountain bikes on many existing trails, currently used exclusively by hikers and equestrians. At MROSD, bikes powered by electric motors may soon access all trails open to non-motorized bikes. Why is this unacceptable and why is it happening now?

Despite a national leveling off of the growth in conventional mountain biking, extreme downhill mountain biking is enjoying dramatic growth especially among thrill-seeking young men. Simultaneously, the increasing use of electric-powered bikes is popular among older riders. The former damages the environment and injures reckless enthusiasts at a rate two times that of downhill skiing. The latter enables seniors to ride on more difficult trails for longer periods than is possible using a non-motorized bike.

Both downhill and e-bike riding negatively impact the land and wildlife, and in the case of downhill biking, intimidate and dominate non-biking trail users including families who cannot afford mountain bikes but deserve safe access to wild land. As a result, many believe bikes transform a tranquil path in the woods into a dystopian negation of nature.

The biker machismo agenda to turn existing trails into thrill-inducing downhill raceways and the emergence of electric mountain bikes are both possible because technological “progress” makes them possible. In response, managers of preserved land should reject the implicit assumption that if a technology exists it must be adopted. Not true in the past. Then, policy controlled the threatening technologies of trail motorcycles and all terrain vehicles, containing them in their own denuded, sacrificial landscapes called off road vehicle “parks.” Their continued separation from real parks should make us all eternally grateful.

Acting responsibly, the practitioners of most recreational activities such as golf and tennis do not expect to appropriate an ever-expanding piece of our public wild land as does the mountain bike lobby. Imagine if skeet shooters, zip line enthusiasts, drone hobbyists, to name only a few, felt so entitled. Those who argue their recreational choices are more important than environmental protection should be understood as the selfish, self-indulgent narcissists they are.

One more reason parks and open spaces face an intense threat from mountain biking is the increasing influence of commercial interests in public land management. After all, there’s big money in bike sales. Accordingly, bike retailer REI, in 2015, donated $15,000 to fund an extreme downhill bike “park” proposed within Sanborn County Park that was found to be environmentally unsound. More recently, it has been reported REI helped construct a new visitor entrance at Castle Rock State Park. Good corporate citizenship? Or is it an attempt to influence state park policy to expand mountain biking on hiking trails?

If we want to keep public wild land wild, we cannot stand by and watch it transformed into playgrounds for those who can afford pricey bikes sold and promoted by retailers whose concern about the environment is little more than a marketing strategy. Let the managers at Castle Rock and MROSD know, as local visitor studies indicate, when it comes to managing wild land, the public cares about environmental preservation much more than recreation of any type.

John Miller is a longtime resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains and author of “Egotopia, Narcissism and the New American Landscape”.