Comments on: Are We Ready for Wilderness Lite?
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By Jeffrey Hunter on 12-21-07
Bill:
Interesting concept. I’ve been following your columns on this for a while now. To me, this simply smacks of accommodation for one user group. Who puts their recreational interests before protecting grand parts of the American landscape? Your column seems to suggest that new wilderness areas will be fenced off, and no one will be permitted inside. Of course, nothing of the sort will happen. Many mountain bikers are hikers too. The mountain bikers wouldn’t be prohibited from entering wilderness. They’d just have to walk in like everybody else.
Who will we make an accommodation for next? The wilderness skateboarders? Hang gliders? ATVs? Some new user activity that will be invented next week? Why can’t we just leave our mechanical contraptions out of wilderness areas?
The mountain biking community is doing a great job building trails all across America. IMBA’s “Trail Solutions “ book is a great addition to the body of literature about trail construction. I take my hat off to them for all the great things that they are doing.
Personally, I ask myself, what would Aldo Leopold do? I know the answer. So I wouldn’t stand in the way of designated wilderness, regardless of the impact that it might have upon my recreational activities. It’s all about the greater good.
Happy Holidays!
By steve kelly on 12-21-07
Wild Bill is convinced the ORV/snowmobile crowd is, all of a sudden, the biggest threat to wilderness designation. He fails to even mention the “old” (logging, mining, oil and gas, grazing) threats have not gone away. Why are national environmental groups are caving to industrial threats who need more and more subsidies to keep operating? The focus on one, over all other threats, seems to distract our attention away from these “collaborative” efforts that give away to industry the most productive, lower-elevation roadless lands in exchange for uncontested “rocks and ice.” It’s time to protect water, fish and wildlife habitat, as well as the hikers looking for a little peace and quiet. Why not rally around the only bill that protects all wilderness values, not just the recreationalists? One bill protects all 24.6 million acres of roadless backcountry: H.R. 1975 (Northern Rockies Ecosystem Act). Let’s rally around that first, before we talk compromise.