by David Diamond

Gans Creek Recreation Area Fact Sheet

1. Gans Creek Recreation Area shares a common border with Gans Creek Wild Area within Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. These public lands together form an important, core natural habitat that has been recognized by national and statewide organizations.  No other City Park land is so ecologically important based on connectivity and landscape context.
   1. The area is at the northeast edge of an Important Bird Area designated by the American Bird Conservancy and The Audubon Society.
   2. The area is within a Conservation Opportunity Area designated by Missouri Department of Conservation.
   3. Gans Creek is designated an Outstanding State Resource Water by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources immediately downstream within Gans Creek Wild Area.
2. The area contains natural features, including the creek, karst topography (cave and sinkholes), highly erodible soils, and steep slopes that are recognized as sensitive to development and disturbance by the City’s Natural Resource Inventory (2023) and Columbia Imagined (2013).
3. City plans in 2010 and 2018 included a 87.5-acre natural preservation area along Gans Creek and adjacent steep slopes, but these plans were ignored by the 2024 development plan.
4. Despite the area’s natural ecological significance and highly sensitive features, and in opposition to the City’s own 2010 and 2018 development plans, the City proposed a high density of mountain bike trails for development. Bike trails north of Gans Creek were approved for development in late 2024.  A trail south of Gans Creek was put on hold by the City Council due to advocacy of environmental groups.  That trail originally crossed Gans Creek, had switchbacks that crossed a steep upland drainage 4 times, and consisted of high density in sensitive uplands with karst features and highly erodible soils.
5. Mountain bike trail construction and use is inherently destructive to the environment compared to nature trail development, causing removal of native vegetation and increased levels of soil erosion and sedimentation of Gans Creek.
6. Development of mountain bike trails would effectively exclude other recreational users who favor a nature trail system due to competition between mountain bikers and hikers as has occurred in other communities with dual purpose trails.
7. Environmental groups propose to designate Gans Creek Nature Preserve (about 140 acres) within Gans Creek Recreation Area (about 320 acres) and limit development to uses that are compatible with the sensitive natural features, such as nature trails, and preserve and improve the core connectivity with Gans Creek Wild Area. Ecological restoration should be a focus of future management plans.