Presentatie over de invloed van mountainbikeroutes op fauna op de IMBA Europe Summit van 2022 in Val di Sole (Italië).
Patrick Jansen, Tracks & Trails / The Trail Company / Bosmeester Patrick combines his profession as a forester and professional trial builder. Het studied forestry for seven years and has worked most of his career at the forest institute Probos. In 2016 he quit his job as the director of this institute and started his own consultancy firm on sustainable forest management; Bosmeester. Patrick started mountain biking in 1990 and has been racing since 1996. He has been Dutch champion six times and world champion in 2013 in the master-category. In 2003 he conducted an extensive literature study on the ecological and social effects of mountain biking. Building trails was a spin-off from this project. He built his first singletrack in 2004 and ever since he has designed and built more than 100 mountain bike trails and bike parks in the Netherlands and Belgium. The number of mountain bike trails grows rapidly in the Netherlands and, although volunteer work is crucial for many aspects, professional maintenance is getting more attention. Focussing on maintenance Patrick and a friend started a separate company in 2021 (The Trail Company). What more than 30 years of mountain biking and almost 20 years of trail building has taught Patrick is that the sport of mountain biking if evolving a l the time. Therefore, trail builders, advocates and others constantly have to adopt to new challenges and opportunities. That’s what reframing mountain biking, the theme of this year’s IMBA EU Summit, means to me.
