Help Us Protect Wilderness Study Areas in Montana

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Please Help Us Protect Wilderness Study Areas in Montana

We need your help again, Wilderness Watchers!

Please urge the Forest Service to protect the Blue Joint and Sapphire Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in the Bitterroot National Forest in western Montana from mountain bike incursions. Just as mountain bikers are trying to open up all designated Wildernesses to mountain bikes, they are also trying to degrade the wilderness character of the Blue Joint and Sapphire WSAs. The Forest Service is required by law to maintain wilderness character in these WSAs. Comments are due November 19!

The Blue Joint and Sapphire Wilderness Study Areas are some of the last remaining wild places in the lower 48 states, and are home to elk, wolverine, bull trout, wolves, mountain goats, golden eagle, pika, black bears, and other wildlife which need large, undisturbed landscapes. Like lands already protected in the National Wilderness Preservation System, these are rare wild areas where natural processes still dominate, and humans can find solitude and untrammeled beauty. Mountain bikes and other machines have no place in these WSAs.

The 1977 Montana Wilderness Study Act, which established the Blue Joint and Sapphire WSAs, requires the Forest Service (FS) to maintain their wilderness character and potential for wilderness designation. Appropriately, in 2016 the Forest Service banned motorized and mechanized travel in these WSAs.

Unfortunately, mountain bikers and motorized users sued the FS to overturn its closure of approximately 121 miles of trails in the WSAs to motorized and mechanized (bicycle) travel.

Recently, a federal district court agreed with the FS decision to close these trails. However, the court asked the agency to provide another public comment period specifically related to mountain bike use in the Blue Joint and Sapphire WSAs, noting that trail closures to bikes came late in the forest planning process which led to the decision.

Please let the Forest Service know you support protecting the wild character of these WSAs by closing trails to both motorized and mechanized travel.

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Please let the Forest Service know you support closing trails in these WSAs to mechanized travel so these places can be protected in their wild state.

Objection Reviewing Officer Bitterroot Travel Plan

Subject: "Bitterroot Travel Plan Objection"

Message:

Thank you for protecting the Blue Joint and Sapphire Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) by closing them to motorized and mechanized use. I fully support the Bitterroot National Forest's Travel Plan decision to manage WSAs to maintain their 1977 wilderness character and potential for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. With just 2.7 percent of the lower 48 states protected as Wilderness, we need more areas protected, not less.

The non-conforming motorized/mechanized uses in these WSAs since 1977 have negatively impacted their wild character. Mechanized travel degrades wilderness character. Bikes travel farther and faster than traditional forms of travel such as hiking and horseback riding, shrinking the areas' opportunity for solitude and the sense of remoteness associated with primitive recreation.

Due to the combination of speed and silence, mountain bikers can startle hikers, horses, and wildlife, causing stress and displacement. As such, I support minimizing the harassment of wildlife and disruption of wildlife habitat. Plants and animals already pushed to limits don't need more pressures in the form of machines in these WSAs.

Since many of the trails in the Blue Joint and Sapphire WSAs have not been designed for mountain bike use, there is a potential for erosion and other trail damage. Preventing erosion and preserving water quality protects outstanding fisheries and clean headwaters in the Sapphire and the Blue Joint WSAs.

According to a 2016 BNF survey, non-motorized and non-mechanized users make up over 78 percent of all recreational users on the BNF.

There is no shortage of trails and places to ride. According to the Bitterroot Backcountry Cyclist's own website, "Western Montana and the Bitterroot Valley have hundreds of miles of single track..." More opportunities for mountain bikes are planned by the Bitterroot National Forest, such as loops and connector trails at Lake Como and the Como Ridge Trail Construction Project. And mountain bikers that enjoy these areas can still access the Blue Joint and Sapphire WSA, just not with motors or machines.

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