Senator Mike Lee of Utah Introduces Bill to Restore Bicycle Access in Wilderness
June 17, 2024
Senator Mike Lee of Utah today introduced renewed legislation that reminds Forest Service and Interior Department units that they may decide locally on bicycling in the Wilderness areas they manage, in keeping with the Wilderness Act of 1964 and as practiced by the agencies in the past.
Senator Lee’s legislation would remove federal agencies’ blanket bans on bicycling in Wilderness and restore a prior Forest Service rule that allowed line officers to treat bikes as they do horses, hikers, campers, and hunters—i.e., allow or prohibit access based upon local conditions.
Like other legislation that has been introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate since the Sustainable Trails Coalition began advocating for it in 2015, this legislation is a modest reform. It would not be a blanket permit for bicycling in Wilderness. Federal agencies’ local land managers could continue to prohibit any and all bicycle access, depending on what is required to preserve the character of the Wilderness areas they manage.
The legislation follows on the heels of other legislation that has brought Wilderness management out of the era of rabbit-ears television antennas and dial telephones and into the 21st century. The 2022 Bonneville Shoreline Trail Advancement Act, co-sponsored by Senator Lee and supported by STC, restored bicycle access to once-prohibited Wilderness segments of that trail in the Salt Lake Valley.
STC is a nonprofit, grass-roots organization. We work to restore Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service staff discretion to allow mountain biking in Wilderness on a case-by-case basis.