A report by Rupert Barry focuses on communication and its role in the future of mountain bikers and their stewardship of their environments.
The future of mountain biking and user connection with the environments their spend their time could, a report by Rupert Barry states, is in relationships between land managers and riders, including shared belonging and collective responsibility.
Report reveals role of communication in shaping future of mountain biking and environmental stewardship.
A new report explores how communication and storytelling can transform mountain biking’s role in nature protection and restoration. The report was supported by IMBA Europe and received funding as part of their Take Care of Your Trails campaign.
Key findings reveal that riders deeply connect with their trails—not just as places to ride but as spaces for meaningful experiences with nature. However, current messaging often focuses on minimising impact rather than actively engaging riders in stewardship.
The study calls for a shift towards relationship-centred communication—moving beyond transactional messaging to foster collective responsibility, shared belonging, and stronger partnerships with land managers and communities.
By reframing the way we talk about riding and nature, we can empower riders to protect the landscapes and trails they love that face increasing threats from the pressures of climate change and nature loss.
Key findings
The relationship between riders and nature in local trail locations is shaped by experiences: Riding in nature has a fundamental impact on the mountain biking experience. Riders consistently report feeling a deep connection with the land marked by moments with nature and features in the landscape that become part of the ride, often outside of actual riding time.
These references can be positive and negative, reflecting varying environmental concerns and awareness. Importantly, riders’ connection to their local trails is shaped more by their experiences with the place than by the landscape’s characteristics and qualities.
These home hills are in my bones.
Relationship-centred messaging helps to nurture care for local trails: The study suggests that storytelling focus needs to balance away from transactional messaging—focussed on minimising environmental impacts and the benefits to personal wellbeing from riding—to relational messaging that emphasise the symbiosis between riders and nature.
Riders express a sense of responsibility for nature in their local trail locations alongside land managers, but this responsibility is under-represented in stories, language or messaging around trail access.
I’m here to work with nature.
Communication for collective stewardship and belonging: A significant theme identified by the report is that current communication often reinforce divides and hierarchies within riding communities and other interests in the land. For example, top-down codes of conduct can inadvertently create in-groups and out-groups.
Similarly, communication around recreation access and land management can portray nature as something to be managed and controlled, rather than something to collaborate with, reinforcing humans as separate from nature. For mountain biking to further grow its role in environmental care, communication needs to challenge this divide, promoting interconnection between riders, the rest of nature, and other interests in the land.
“The riding community has a duty to educate within the wider context, otherwise we end up with deeper divisions.”
Growing a culture of care through shared responsibility: To protect the future of trails and the land they rely on, a reframing of communication to nurture a culture of care and shared responsibility. This shift involves more narratives centred away from places to ride and new technology towards those focused on collective stewardship.
Environmental concern is recognised through first-hand experience and stories that show how trail and rider health are impacted. This needs to be supported with tangible ways to take environmental action, supporting a shift from passive concern to active engagement. Riding communities, land managers, local communities and mountain bike media can achieve this by forming strong partnerships based on collective understanding, local knowledge and activation of environmental stewardship.
“Positive stories of how change can be made are key. Placing the onus only on individuals will get a lot of pushback.”
A report by Rupert Barry with IMBA Europe, with support from Patagonia and Specialized Soil Searching.
