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Oct. 4—A group of environmentalists has sued the Marin Municipal Water District over bike access on Mount Tamalpais.
The lawsuit claims a pilot program to open 7 miles of watershed trails to bikes is bad for the mountain. The suit states the water district failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act by forgoing an analysis of the potential disturbances to the habitat from bike riding.
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The plaintiffs in the case are the Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, the Marin Audubon Society and the Marin Conservation League.
In the suit, the group says the project area "contains critical biological resources, including dozens of rare plant species and plant communities, the federally listed Northern spotted owl and up to eight special-status bat species.
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"The addition of mountain bikes and e-bikes to these trails and roads for an indefinite two year period has the potential to harm these resources, disturbing owl nest sites and activity centers, trampling scarce and rare plant populations ... and disturbing sensitive bat colonies due to the high pitch sound of the e-bikes' mechanical engines," the suit says."
