HUMAN-POWERED TRAIL-ACCESS BILLS NOW IN BOTH THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE

On May 17, 2018, Senate Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Mike Lee (R–Utah) introduced a revised version of his 2016 Human-Powered Travel in Wilderness Areas Act. With similar legislation by House Federal Lands Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R–Calif.) pending in the House of Representatives, legislation to let Wilderness managers regulate bicycling in federal Wilderness areas is now under consideration in both houses of Congress for the first time.

STC thanks Chairman Lee and Chairman McClintock for their principled leadership and urges people to support the legislation.

Chairman Lee issued a press release on the 2018 Human-Powered Travel in Wilderness Areas Act, S.2877. He stated, “The National Wilderness Preservation System was created so that the American people could enjoy our country’s priceless natural areas. This bill would enrich Americans’ enjoyment of the outdoors by expanding recreational opportunities in wilderness areas.”

Utah residents saluted Chairman Lee’s legislation. In the Salt Lake City region, Linda George noted, “Thoughtful access to new and existing Wilderness areas, where deemed appropriate by local land managers for the health and sanctity of these special areas, will foster appreciation, stewardship and interest in protecting these lands. One example would be an access corridor for segments of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that traverse lower-elevation Wilderness along the western slopes of the Wasatch Range.”

“I am a southern Utah mountain bike guide,” said Jake Weber. “Hooray for a common-sense bill being introduced in the Senate that will allow local land managers to manage their designated public lands as they understand them best. Senator Mike Lee is listening to his constituents. While we may not agree on everything, we can agree that bikes belong. They always have.”

In North Dakota, Save The Maah Daah Hey Foundation executive director Nick Ybarra commented, “Our country’s longest multiuse federal singletrack trail is North Dakota’s 144-mile-long Maah Daah Hey Trail. Most of it is open to mountain biking, but a seldom-used one-mile section inside a wilderness area is off-limits. We have to make a long detour around it.”

S.2877 will not open Wilderness trails to mountain biking unless the federal agency in charge of a Wilderness area authorizes it or takes no action within two years. In the latter case, it is presumed that it wishes to run a pilot program. Trails would open to nonmotorized, human-powered travel, letting agency staff observe the result. They would still be able to restrict or prohibit mountain biking, just as they can other recreational activities.

S.2877 does not require creating trails or modifying existing ones to facilitate bicycling or other human-powered uses, and the character of a Wilderness area is to be preserved.

STC’s base of tens of thousands of mountain bikers will vigorously support Chairman Lee’s bill.

For further comment from Chairman Lee’s office, please contact Mr. Conn Carroll, Chairman Lee’s Communications Director, at Conn_Carroll@lee.senate.gov. For further comment from STC, please send e-mail to the address at the top of this press release. To read section 4(c) of the Wilderness Act in its current guise and under Chairman Lee’s Senate legislation and Chairman McClintock’s House legislation, visit http://www.sustainabletrailscoalition.org/#the-bills.