The federal Wilderness Act of 1964 is clear: everyone is welcome to visit designated national wilderness areas as long as they use their own feet or those of horses or other pack animals. No motor vehicles nor “other form of mechanical transport” are allowed. Years later, the Americans with Disabilities Act made wheelchairs an exception.
Now, a California congressman wants to amend the Wilderness Act to allow mountain bikes and other machines in the approximately 109 million acres of land designated as wilderness across the country.
It’s a bad idea. It cracks open the door for other changes that violate the spirit of the Wilderness Act. These lands were not set aside as playgrounds for humans but to preserve their continued existence as wilderness.
There is plenty of public land already open to mountain bikers. When I hike in a designated wilderness I do not have to keep watch for mountain bikers hurtling down the trail at me. I can enjoy the peace and tranquility of the wild.
I urge Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, to oppose any bill amending the 1964 Wilderness Act to allow “mechanized transportation” currently barred by the act.
