Welcome from JPL

8/10/2020

I, John Linderman, am the owner of the friendsofbrightwood.org domain. I live a couple blocks from Brightwood Park. I walk past the Park almost every day and I often walk into it. You don't have to go very far into the Park before the sound of leaf blowers is overtaken by the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves. If you're not in a hurry -- and Brightwood Park is a good place to not be in a hurry -- you can plunk down on a bench and listen to the birds and the bullfrogs. If you're lucky, you might spot a heron who has quite a different interest in the bullfrogs. You could encounter a jogger, or a dog walker, or a stroller, perhaps the kind that wears comfortable shoes, perhaps the kind with wheels and a baby on board.

Neither I nor the people who have registered here own Brightwood Park. The Park is owned by Westfield, which is a tiny bit unfortunate since it borders Scotch Plains too. Scotch Plains residents don't elect Westfield town officials, so they have less influence over the Park owners than Westfield residents do. But anyone who enjoys the quiet, unspoiled nature of the Park is welcome to this website, and our Westfield members can nudge our officials when the occasions arise.

The creation of this website was occasioned by discussions of inviting a state-wide off-road biking association, JORBA, to create and maintain off-road bike trails in the Park. You can find out more about this elsewhere on this site. It was something that I, and many of the neighbors we contacted, felt would adversely affect the Park and the neighborhood. Most of the registrants of this website signed on because they agreed. You can see a letter I wrote to the July 2 2020 issue of the Westfield Leader here But this is not a single-issue DON'T TOUCH OUR PARK website. We're interested in changing the Park by helping to get rid of invasive species, enhancing learning about nature and the history of Westfield, and maybe doing some fund raising to assist the Town in paying for improvements. We're very much sympathetic to calls for making the greater Westfield area more bicycle friendly and safe for all cyclists.

7 Comments

andrew stillufsen

9/2/2020 03:07:59 pm

Stop the blatant falsehoods on this site. Riding bikes on trails has ALWAYS been permitted at Brightwood, and has been a welcomed activity from before the current park was built. The current proposal only calls for expanding and improving the existing trail network by a group of Westfield volunteers. Win-Win for the park and users.

Jeff Swanson

9/3/2020 01:56:31 pm

It's difficult to imagine the kind of selfishness and self righteousness one requires to be against expanding access to nature for our children. People like you and your disciples continue to deny access to playgrounds and other public parks to our children so that you may benefit. You cite reasons such as safety and liability, and absoluteness of each, driving our children to their basements to be confined to video games. Your views serve yourselves and are not representative of a path toward a greater good; and I fear you will never be able to recognize that.
Serious mountain bikers will have no use for the proposed small trail network, except to use it as an occasional pass-thru. Our children, on the other hand, will. Kids from Westfield, Scotch Plains and possibly other areas can ride there and enjoy nature, since bicycling expands their area of reach. They will (unknowingly) be recipients of the cardiovascular benefits associated with bicycling, which is becoming ever more important these days - COVID-19 is shown to have greater affect on persons who have comorbid conditions associated with obesity. They will naturally grow curious about wildlife and vegetation in the park which will inevitably help them grow an appreciation for the great outdoors. The list of reasons to get our children outdoors is likely endless, and it's ALL positive.
The counter argument is absent reason, logic, and a desire to benefit the greater good. Should you feel unsafe about bicycles riding around you, you can simply stay on the walker only trails or you can get a grip on reality - not everything is about you, bad for you, or is going to hurt you.
Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who give up essential liberty for a little safety deserve neither". Think about it.

jpl

9/4/2020 11:28:47 am

Let's get the record straight. Our kids played in Brightwood, too. They sometimes played there on bikes, ordinary street bikes, nothing fancy. Walkers have co-existed with cyclists in Brightwood for decades.

Then, in 2020, we heard reports that the Recreation Department had plans to make major changes to Brightwood Park. We were surprised that residents living near the Park had not been notified. Researching the plans, we learned that a survey of Westfield residents found Mountain Bikes a low priority, and Hiking and Nature Parks a high priority. So we were puzzled that JORBA, a state-wide mountain bike advocacy group, had been appointed a "stakeholder" in determining plans for Westfield parks. How did JORBA get a seat at the table to direct park priorities? How did JORBA get to speak at the town meetings held in Brightwood Park after the plan came to light?

We are not trying to keep responsible cyclists out of Brightwood Park. They are welcome now, as they have always been. We are trying to prevent JORBA from
replacing the natural areas of the Park with a trail system that is primarily for use by mountain bikes. And can we please turn down the rhetoric a couple notches?

Joshua Wayne link

9/9/2020 10:55:01 pm

Mr. Linderman, I think what you see in the replies are people reacting to level of misinformation or misunderstandings contained within this site. So lets cover a few things.

Trails: since 2007 there is no such thing as mountain biking and hiking trails, from design, construction and maintenance point of view. The previous guidelines were folded into a single guideline, called sustainable trails. Those guidelines (post-2007) are based on previous International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) guideline. Therefore, if a municipality wished to create new trails within a natural area, by default, they are creating shared use trails (not just mountain biking trails). That means, of course, they need a group or groups that know those guidelines to help build or at least maintain those trails. In New Jersey, there are no hiking or multi-use organizations that know those guidelines like JORBA. Since the current guidelines are built around mountain biking guidelines, the people who know how to maintain these trails are familiar with those guidelines and they are willing to re-wild the park by removing illegal trails and invasive species, involving JORBA becomes a win-win-win.

Natural Parks/Passive Use: As previously mentioned, post-2007 there is one standard for trails, regardless of the usage. That is a qualifier for a passive use. In fact, in 2009 the EPA designated (XC) mountain biking as a passive use. That wasn't new nationally, just a new acknowledgement of what was true in other places. Nature parks, refuges, preserves, urban wildernesses and variations of thereof contain trails that allow mountain biking. In fact, in a few instances, the construction of the trails was integral to species refuges, like the Swan Refuge at Elm Creek in Maple Grove, MN.

Park Size: What matters in creating trails isn't the size of the park, its the ratio of trail mileage to acreage. Traditionally, for urban areas, that is 1 mile to 10 acres on the low end, up to 1 mile to 20 acres. The proposed trail mileage at Brightwood is well within best practices. There are PLENTY of examples of trail systems that are on 40 acres of natural park space. In fact, a few are smaller than that, like Saunders Springs Nature Preserve in Louisville, KY at 26 acres.

Mountain bike speeds: The current speeds at Brightwood are due to the type of trail available around the lake. The smoother and wider the trail, the faster the speeds. This is why modern trail building (again post-2007) includes speed control factors. In an urban setting, where usage rates are extremely high, you design backwards in way, calculating the speed desired and letting that dictate radi, choke points, sightlines, etc. This can lead to fun trails that are also very safe for all users. The North Loop at Theodore-Wirth Park in Minneapolis, MN is a good example. Its just outside downtown, the area the trail is in a natural area about the size of Bightwood, its the most popular trail running/hiking trail in the park. The Strava listed KOM/QOM speed are less than 10 miles an hour.

Use of questionable sources/people: Your use of or links to articles by Micheal J. Vanderman and John Miller are problematic. Vanderman has a PHD in psychology not environmental studies. He also has assaulted multiple mountain bikers, being convicted (finally) in 2011. John Miller has... lets call them challenges... that you may not be aware of since he lives in Portland. The fact is neither one has any experience in environmental sciences, engineering, trail planning or municipal management. There are people who do have that knowledge. (For instance, I work in the civil/environmental engineering field, have written EAWs for trail designs, wetland & stormwater certifications, designed over 17 miles of urban trail.) No offense, but choosing these people as sources while not looking at real sources regarding the actual impacts of mountain biking paints a picture that isn't positive about what this site cares about. Facts are needed to make rational decisions. Neither Mr. Vanderman nor Mr. Miller are rational and informed.

This represents the barest example of what needs to be discussed regarding urban mountain biking. We haven't talked about management strategies, MOUs, Collaborative Ecological Layout or a myriad of other things that allow cities to create positive trail experiences for all users, whether on feet or wheels, in their parks, natural areas and urban wildernesses.

Jeff Swanson

9/8/2020 07:28:29 pm

Actually, civil and respectful discourse would be preferred, unfortunately I fear the hidden and true motivation behind this movement is to ban bicycles from Brightwood Park entirely, as was done and recently reaffirmed in Watchung. You state you had an encounter with a bicycle rider wherein you perceived it to be loud and disturbing of nature. Somehow, your followers feel bicycling in the park will decrease home values in surrounding areas. Maybe some people need a safe space and someone else to blame for their issues - frankly, I cannot find a logical reason to not improve the trails in Brightwood Park; the argument herein is clearly fueled by emotion, not reason. I've read mention of a "few errant mountain bikers" riding off trails and wrecking the park - an argument used in keeping bicycles out of Watchung. Let's apply the same logic to, let's say, drunk driving? Did we choose to eliminate driving cars on roads altogether because some people drove drunk, or did we find ways to discourage the behavior and hold wrongdoers accountable? Why ban bicycles - is it the easy button?
The misleading statements on this site continue: It is stated that the trails would be mountain bike trails - Wrong! They would be multi-purpose trails that would provide paths to areas of the park otherwise inaccessible. Even better, the "loud gravel crunching trail" would be off-limits to bicycles - how is this not a win for everyone? If someone doesn't feel safe walking on a trail, perhaps because they enjoy looking up at birds and are comfortable relinquishing awareness of their surroundings, they can simply stay on the trail reserved for foot traffic. Others whom might enjoy a bit more adventure, can stroll off on the multi use trails to discover the remainder of the park -which could soon become accessible thanks to volunteers from Westfield doing the work, and organized and lead by professional trail builders - JORBA.
At various points in life we have to decide when our civil liberties are being affected:
Perhaps if we could reference police reports or verifiable statistics wherein bicycles are shown to have caused a statistically meaningful amount of injuries or fatalities to the "birders" or other foot traffic in Brightwood Park, then we might be on to something, but it's not. This is about individual perception and hurt feelings. You do not speak for the squirrels, the herons or the bullfrogs. Nobody does. You cannot reference reports wherein the chipmunks got fed up with bicycle riders in Brightwood Park so they moved shop to Watchung, because it's an absurd notion... or, is it?
Perhaps your experiences in life have left you a pessimist. Contrarily, I believe most people are inherently good. Nobody rides a bicycle to inflict harm to anyone or anything. Many of us would simply like to have more options and better places to ride (we're already banned from Watchung and South Mountain); choices other than roads (which actually are shown to have become increasingly dangerous to cyclists, likely as result of distracted driving caused by smart phones - these statistics exist and are verifiable). While there may be a few roads with minimal traffic, they cannot be accessed without traveling the remainder of the roads.
Nothing in this great nation gives anyone the right to determine what is best for someone else and/or something else unless it's infringing upon one's safety and well-being. Bicycling on trails does not upend anyone's constitutional rights, but banning bicycles from trails does. Feelings are not a protected right, nor should they be. Let's learn to share, love thy neighbor, and be happy, please.

Richard Griggs

9/14/2020 10:39:26 am

Please keep me on your "mailing" list.I am a life long resident of Westfield .I think my interests in the Brightwood Park are in line with yours.

Claudia Cuca

5/5/2021 01:07:35 pm

Hi JPL,
I was in Brightwood Park yesterday (5/4/2021), walking with friends around the pond, when I chanced upon a gorgeous little wildflower called a "Spring Beauty"(Claytonia virginica), which was, very close (<2 inches) from the trail. This is a new wildflower as I did not see it in Noah Taylor's book, which has been uploaded to this website under the HOME section. Spring Beauties are interesting flowers because they exhibit polyploidy in their chromosome structure, which means they naturally contain more than the original #'s of chromosomes in their cell divisions. Is this a beneficial thing? No idea. In any respect, I think someone needs to document its existence in this Park and an update should be done on Mr. Taylor's book to see the any losses and gains of animal and plant species before major changes to trails, etc. are set in motion.

Location

Brightwood Park is on the North end of Prospect Street. Go past Franklin School and look for the entrance on the left.

What Our Members Are Saying

"I love the work you are doing at Brightwood. Your efforts have shone a light on the essential elements of the park that we all cherish: its natural beauty and tranquility."

"I have a deep fondness for Brightwood park and would like to see it restored, remain natural and continue to be a site of passive recreation."

"I loved growing up in Brightwood Park !"

"I found Brightwood a few years ago and it's a great place to find wildlife, fish, and enjoy nature. Nice and quiet; good place to un wind and relax. Love it!!!"

"As a resident for almost thirty years in the Brightwood area of Westfield, I am thrilled to see what is happening to improve and preserve Brightwood park for today and future generations. "

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