The St. Gallen Rhine Valley is considered an attractive biking region: with the race in Buchs, the region has a classic event to offer and a strong racing team in Team Koba. However, local bike activists are now reporting that all single trails in the Werdenberg Süd region (municipalities of Grabs, Buchs, Sevelen and Wartau) are under threat of being closed to bikers. Before the last meeting of the responsible working group, which incidentally also includes three "bikers", the following key statement can be found on an object sheet entitled "MTB Management" in the WEP draft: "Preventing the use of single trails".

The Werdenberg prank will go out for consultation next week ? and those responsible can expect a letter from the newly formed "Politics and Environment Working Group" of Swiss Cycling (formerly IG MTB). Bikers in the Rhine Valley can also report their displeasure with the planned bans directly to the local authorities.As is so often the case: tricky path definition
The "MTB Management" object sheet from the District Forestry Office II does not exactly reflect a balanced view of the topic. While foresters elsewhere want to tolerate biking on "existing trails" and understand "trail" to mean all regularly maintained natural paths used for transportation, the forestry superiors in the Werdenberg Süd district apply their own strict standards, which are probably unrivalled in Switzerland at the moment: "According to the cantonal forestry law (EGzWaG), only biking on paved public roads in the forest is permitted. As a rule, this is understood to mean a road width of 2.5 meters. From the mountain biker's point of view, single trails are also of interest in addition to roads, especially in places where a single trail would be created without the use of single trails. Conflicts with other recreational users and nature conservation interests can arise on such single trails or hiking trails."Consultation: Bikers are invited to protest
It seems that some people have neither understood the appeal of single trails nor the sport of biking as a whole. However, as the WEP draft will only soon go out for consultation, it's not all evening yet. Local bikers are hereby called upon to protest loudly and unequivocally against the impending, massive restrictions that are planned. The address for comments on the WEP draft is: District Forestry Office II, Werdenberg, Grüelstrasse 59, 9475 Sevelen, Tel 081 740 13 75, Fax 081 785 17 52.