Colson Road Forest update

"This smelly little pine forest is the worst ride in the country" - Classic NZ Mountain Bike Rides, 7th Ed.

The NPDC have appear to have finished logging along a 20m wide strip in the area where the main 4WD track finishes climbing and comes closest to the landfill area (and you have a scenic view down into the open landfill). The gate is now unlocked and you can ride in there with care after hours.

The NPDC are to erect in this area, a high and supposedly more rubbish proof fence and then plant in behind the fence eucalyptus trees. The existing track in this area will be lost and a new one will need to be constructed to the east of the eucalypts to make it possible to have a circuit.

The adjacent landfill has a finite life and it is anticipated that the landfill operations will move elsewhere. So we will be pressing for the landfill area (that would be unsuitable for re-planting with forestry trees) be used for off-road recreational use. The extent of trails could then extend to the west back to where they were in previous years.

So in the meantime it is the interest of off-road bikers that the existing forest is kept in use by mountain bikers and events are held back there. Being within easy riding distance of suburban New Plymouth, the Colson Road Forest is a facility that should not be lost.


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