Opening up wilderness areas, even “de facto”
wilderness areas, to mountain bike use will set a bad precedent for
the future of wilderness management in this country (HCN, 11/22/04:
Racetrack). Allowing mountain bike use defies the basic principles
of the 1964 Wilderness Act.
The comment made by Gary
Sprung that “cycling in the backcountry is no worse for the
environment than hiking,” is misleading, in my opinion. Opening up
backcountry areas to mountain bikes poses many problems: What about
the trails built through meadows and steep areas of highly erodable
soils? What about the disturbance this activity will have on
wildlife? What about conflicts with other wilderness users such as
backpackers and pack stock users? Lastly, while funding for
wilderness programs in all of the four agencies responsible for
managing these lands continues to dwindle, what impact will this
have on budgets already stretched thin?
I’ve been
an avid mountain biker for 17 years. I’ve also been a
wilderness ranger in northwest California for the past six seasons.
With all of the modern technology at our disposal these days,
people are getting deeper into remote areas that in the past were
not accessible, from snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park to
OHVs in the Mojave Desert, and dirt bikes in national forests. Now
mountain bikes in our wilderness areas? When do we start saying,
“Enough is enough?”
Jerry
Jordan
Weaverville, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Enough is enough!.
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