For 60 years, the Wilderness Act has protected designated Wilderness areas from machines of all types. This has meant, as Congress intended, that our National Wilderness Preservation System has been kept free from cars, trucks, ATVs, OHVs, snowmobiles, bicycles, and all other types of motorized and mechanized transport. While events are being held around the country this year to celebrate the Wilderness Act's 60th anniversary, Congress is facing one of the most egregious efforts in six decades to undermine the Act. Notoriously anti-Wilderness Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) recently introduced a bill—S. 4561—that would weaken the Wilderness Act and potentially blast open every Wilderness in the nation to mountain bikes and other forms of mechanized transportation.
S. 4561 supporters erroneously claim that mountain bikes were allowed in Wilderness until 1984, but then banned administratively by the U.S. Forest Service. This claim is simply not true.
The Wilderness Act banned all types of mechanized transport, including bicycles, in Wilderness. Congress passed the Wilderness Act to protect the wild character of these places, to keep them free from the influences of modern civilization, human domination, and human manipulation.
Allowing potentially high-speed mountain bikes and other forms of mechanized transport, and their associated impacts, in Wilderness areas would defeat the very purpose of setting aside and protecting these areas as Wilderness.
Wilderness provides places where wildlife can thrive without being startled by zooming human machines. At a time when Wilderness and wildlife are under increasing pressures from increasing populations, growing mechanization, and a rapidly changing climate, the last thing Wilderness needs is to be invaded by mountain bikes and other machines.
Sign our petition to Congress showing that you oppose S. 4561 and any other attempts to undermine the Wilderness Act and wilderness protections. |
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Help us protect Wilderness around the country. A generous member has pledged to DOUBLE all first-time donations up to $30,000 this year. |
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