A Republican U.S. senator from Utah has introduced legislation that could open wilderness areas to mountain bikes. Sen. Mike Lee said his Human-Powered Travel in Wilderness Areas Act is needed to "enrich Americans’ enjoyment of the outdoors by expanding recreational opportunities in wilderness areas.”
Under the legislation introduced this week, federal land managers -- including the National Park Service -- would be given the authority to decide whether to allow and how to regulate non-motorized travel in wilderness areas within their jurisdictions.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 prohibits the use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment, motorboats, and other forms of mechanical transport in officially designated wilderness. Current Interior Department policy considers non-motorized mountain bikes to be “mechanical transport," the senator noted.
If enacted, the bill would insert language to the Wilderness Act to ensure that the rules restricting “mechanical transport” do not include forms of nonmotorized travel in which the sole propulsive power is one or more persons.
Through the years there have been many efforts to open officially designated wilderness to mountain bikes. Back in 2017 legislation was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California, to open wilderness to the bikes. Opposition came not only from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which worried that hikers on the iconic footpath that runs from northern Maine to Georgia could find themselves dodging bikers on some sections of trail, but also from the International Mountain Bicycling Association.
“Mountain bikers and the recreation community depend on public lands and thoughtful conservation. Public lands are being threatened at an unprecedented level right now, and it's imperative that public land users come together to protect these cherished places and offer our voices in this critical dialogue,” Dave Wiens, IMBA's executive director, said at the time. “We know Wilderness hits some mountain bikers’ backyards, and we understand why those riders support this legislation. To continue elevating mountain biking nationally, IMBA must remain focused on its long-term strategy for the bigger picture of our sport.”
Comments
HMMM, if "that is a categorically false claim and there is no shortage of historical documentation that shows you are incorrect" then bring it on. I'd like to see this documentation. It probably is the same old false crap that STC has been dishing out for years
Although, I don't like Senator Lee's Bill a compromise needs to be made with Mountain Bikers and wilderness enthusiasts in the years ahead. I'm a mountain biker and I have seen the good, bad, and ugly when bikers don't stay on designated trails. Yet, bikers love the wilderness and wilderness ideals as well. Bikers are avid conservationists as well. Grandfather some trails into the wilderness areas and keep other trails off limits to mountain bikers. The Frank Church wilderness in Idaho has designated air strips that were grandfathered in by Senator Church from Idaho long ago. Compromise, compromise.
Hi Ann Harvey, can you explain why the code of federal regulations that outlined "the rules" of Wilderness defined mechanical transport like this in 1966? "(a) Mechanical transport, as herein used, shall include any contrivance which travels over ground, snow, or water on wheels, tracks, skids, or by floatation and is propelled by a nonliving power source contained or carried on or within the device." [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2002-title36-vol2/pdf/CFR-2002-t... Clearly a bicycle is powered by a living power source. Do you think maybe congress and federal agencies were imagining ski lifts, trams, gondolas, and other non-traditional forms of (motorized) mechanical transport... and not bicycles, wheelbarrows, game carts and jogging strollers?
Hi Tman, are you saying these are fabricated USDA memorandums? https://www.facebook.com/SustainableTrailsCoalition/posts/1420202288088565
Joshua, here's the compromise. Leave your bike home and hike in Wilderness Areas.
Wilderness Areas are less than 3% of the Land Area in the Lower 48 States and Mountain bikers
are less than 3% of the population. Having mountain bikes in Wilderness Areas is really
not needed.
And, what will happen if you do get to ride in Wilderness Areas? Every time you ride in a
Wilderness Area you will not be visiting a trail system developed by a local town. These
towns have spent valuable time and resources developing trails and becoming
bike friendly, and you want to dump them to go biking in a Wilderness Area.
Some thanks you are giving them.
The Airstrips were grandfathered in because they were there before the Wilderness
Act was created in 1964. Mountain biking started in the late 1970's and the first
commercially made mountain bike rolle out of the factory in 1981. Mountain bikes
really can't be grandfathered in because they were not present before the
Wilderness Act.
If you are really an avid conservationist you would support having some areas
without mechanical transport.
Todd....
I agree with you. I was just reading earlier posters muse on how they too love the wilderness, and I thought that is great. Please come and hike into the wilderness like everyone else! You are not deprived of the wilderness any more than I am deprived of interstate transport when they tell me not to hike on the freeways, but instead to drive a car. Time and place, that's all.
Hmm.., I'm not saying those Documents were fabricate, I'm saying they are irrelevant. The Forest Service was in the process of deciding what their policy would be. The one memo even discusses two different interpretations of the Act. Again, if the current ruling is wrong, all STC would have to do is sue the Forest Service. They are not doing so. Sueing the Forest Service would cost far less than the $250,000 they are wasting on lobbying.
No for all of the above reasons! Mike Lee's motivations are always for profit and never for protecting wilderness.