Crowdog
11-14-2002, 09:57 AM
Boxer's save-the-wilderness bill pits bikers vs. hikers
By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published November 14, 2002)
The gears are oiled. The wheels are spinning. The tires are pumped up, and so is the rhetoric.
Mountain bikers -- those strong-thighed, strong-willed cyclists -- are on the warpath. Their foe: California's major environmental groups, who are lobbying to create an additional 2.5 million acres of federal wilderness across the state.
If approved by Congress, the wilderness plan would permanently protect 77 sites statewide from road-building and other intrusions, but it also would cut off cyclists from miles of trails -- since bikes are included in a wilderness prohibition against "mechanized transport."
It's a conflict that only California could create, but now it threatens to further poison relations between two backcountry groups that, on another day, could be potent allies.
"We are a constituency that is increasingly alienated from the environmental movement," says Gary Sprung of the International Mountain Bike Association. "We get nothing but negative vibes from the wilderness proponents. ... They don't seem to want to talk to us."
Bunk, said Rich Kentz, an activist with the California Wilderness Coalition. Environmentalists, he said, have spent months working with mountain bike clubs on wilderness proposals and have dropped many areas the fat-tire crowd opposed.
"The trouble with the mountain bike folks is they have an all-or-nothing mentality," Kentz said. "If they can't keep all of their trails open, they don't want to talk."
Like Abel and Cain, the bad blood between hikers and bikers has historical roots, but it is also enmeshed in California's ongoing population boom. Across the state, the numbers of hikers, cyclists and equestrians are growing each year, squeezing recreationists onto more overcrowded trails.
Mountain biking, in particular, has exploded, growing from a few thousand avid riders in the 1980s to an estimated 1 million now. Helped by bikes that are stronger and lighter than a decade ago, day-tripping bikers are delving farther into the backcountry -- visiting spots that backpackers can reach only after a few days of hiking.
Both sides agree the increasing ground covered by mountain bikers is adding to tensions, especially when cyclists go zipping down steep trails past startled hikers.
"The reason the conflict is so intense today is because bicycling has grown a lot, and the wilderness movement has grown a lot," said Sprung, whose IMBA group includes 32,000 members nationwide. "The wilderness people are more active and organized, and we have discovered all the backcountry places for bicycling."
Wilderness activists, however, say their crusade isn't about recreation, but a larger goal of protecting intact wildlands -- such as the north fork of the American River and Mineral King near Sequoia National Park.
"Wilderness is a recognition there are landscapes that have an intrinsic value -- clean water, clean air, habitat for wildlife," said Kentz, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis. "These are landscapes that are essentially unchanged, where everything else has been manipulated drastically."
The other day, Kentz laced up his hiking boots and hoofed up to his favorite stomping grounds near Lake Tahoe -- Meiss Meadows, an area included in wilderness legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in May.
Climbing to an elevation of 8,000 feet, Kentz overlooked a panorama of volcanic cliffs, shimmering lakes and gentle meadows that drain into the Upper Truckee River. Far in the distance was Tahoe itself, framed by the jagged spires of Mount Tallac and Pyramid Peak.
"This is one of those places where you can step back and connect yourself to the natural world," said Kentz during a break in his recent hike. "You and I are ten miles right now from the core of the casinos in South Lake Tahoe, but we would never know it."
If Boxer's bill were approved, Meiss Meadows and other areas would be forever protected from new roads, power lines and other activities prohibited under the 1964 Wilderness Act.
Hiking, horseback riding, fishing and hunting would be allowed, but mountain bikers would be prohibited, because federal agencies interpret "mechanized transport" to include mountain bikes.
Becky Bell, a leader of the Tahoe Area Mountain Bicycling Association, said that wilderness, as now defined, would exclude cyclists from several popular trails near Tahoe, which she calls a "mecca for mountain biking."
Mountain bikers would still have access to hundreds of miles of trails and old logging roads, but some say that isn't enough.
"People who go mountain biking don't want to deal with power lines and roads. We share that goal," added Duke Tuchman, who owns a bike shop in Woodland. "But we don't want to be thrown off the trails we now have."
Wilderness advocates acknowledge they have mixed feelings about the wording in the 1964 law, which was passed before mountain bikes were invented.
"I admit, I struggle with it sometimes," said Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society. Mountain bikes depend on muscle power, not motors, he noted. They also don't weigh as much as horses, which are permitted in federal wilderness.
But Watson and other environmentalists reject calls to amend the 1964 act so that mountain biking -- and possibly other uses -- would be allowed.
"That would be a very dangerous exercise," said Watson, who fears that some members of Congress would work to weaken the landmark law. "God knows what would happen."
To date, California is relatively well endowed with federal wilderness, with 14 million acres statewide. Activists, however, note that Congress hasn't approved a statewide wilderness bill since the 1980s, back when California had 10 million fewer people.
Environmentalists are concerned that, because of continued road-building, logging and population pressures, the national forests continue to lose pristine areas that are now prime candidates for wilderness.
"We did a study two years ago which found that from 1979 to 1999, we lost 675,000 acres of roadless areas in national forests," said Keith Hammond, a spokesman for the California Wilderness Coalition. That's roughly the size of Yosemite, Hammond said.
For the last five years, the coalition has been refining and mapping proposed wilderness areas, trying to ensure that such areas are "untrammeled by man," as the federal law requires.
Earlier this year, Boxer took the coalition's suggestions and eliminated 300,000 acres that might cause conflicts with mountain bikers, said Tom Bohigian, an aide to the Marin County Democrat.
Near South Lake Tahoe, Boxer dropped popular mountain bike trails at Freel Peak from the package. Even so, some mountain bikers question if wilderness activists were ever serious about including Freel Peak, and only pursued it as a bargaining chip.
"My dealings with wilderness advocates have been pretty negative," said Bell, a tourism marketing agent whose husband owns a bike shop in South Lake Tahoe. "I don't think they have been totally honest."
Kentz, however, says it is "zealots" like Bell who are deceiving people. Earlier this year, Bell was quoted as saying the wilderness proposals would "destroy" mountain biking at Tahoe, even though cyclists would still have access to 300 miles of nearby trails.
Justified or not, the rift between bikers and hikers has thrown a wrench into Boxer's legislation, which is opposed by logging interests, several rural counties and off-road vehicle groups, such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition.
Even some bicycling groups -- such as the Warrior Society of Orange County -- have joined the Blue Ribbon Coalition, creating an unlikely alliance between pedal-powered recreationists and those who like internal combustion engines.
Don Amador, who heads the California chapter of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, said Boxer's bill faces mounting obstacles with the new Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, and the bill was in trouble anyway.
"Mountain bikers are a key factor in the success or failure of any wilderness proposal," said Amador. Boxer will have to deal with them, he said, "if her bill is going to go anywhere."
http://www.sacbee.com/ips_rich_content/753-1114wild.gif
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/5192213p-6201036c.html
By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published November 14, 2002)
The gears are oiled. The wheels are spinning. The tires are pumped up, and so is the rhetoric.
Mountain bikers -- those strong-thighed, strong-willed cyclists -- are on the warpath. Their foe: California's major environmental groups, who are lobbying to create an additional 2.5 million acres of federal wilderness across the state.
If approved by Congress, the wilderness plan would permanently protect 77 sites statewide from road-building and other intrusions, but it also would cut off cyclists from miles of trails -- since bikes are included in a wilderness prohibition against "mechanized transport."
It's a conflict that only California could create, but now it threatens to further poison relations between two backcountry groups that, on another day, could be potent allies.
"We are a constituency that is increasingly alienated from the environmental movement," says Gary Sprung of the International Mountain Bike Association. "We get nothing but negative vibes from the wilderness proponents. ... They don't seem to want to talk to us."
Bunk, said Rich Kentz, an activist with the California Wilderness Coalition. Environmentalists, he said, have spent months working with mountain bike clubs on wilderness proposals and have dropped many areas the fat-tire crowd opposed.
"The trouble with the mountain bike folks is they have an all-or-nothing mentality," Kentz said. "If they can't keep all of their trails open, they don't want to talk."
Like Abel and Cain, the bad blood between hikers and bikers has historical roots, but it is also enmeshed in California's ongoing population boom. Across the state, the numbers of hikers, cyclists and equestrians are growing each year, squeezing recreationists onto more overcrowded trails.
Mountain biking, in particular, has exploded, growing from a few thousand avid riders in the 1980s to an estimated 1 million now. Helped by bikes that are stronger and lighter than a decade ago, day-tripping bikers are delving farther into the backcountry -- visiting spots that backpackers can reach only after a few days of hiking.
Both sides agree the increasing ground covered by mountain bikers is adding to tensions, especially when cyclists go zipping down steep trails past startled hikers.
"The reason the conflict is so intense today is because bicycling has grown a lot, and the wilderness movement has grown a lot," said Sprung, whose IMBA group includes 32,000 members nationwide. "The wilderness people are more active and organized, and we have discovered all the backcountry places for bicycling."
Wilderness activists, however, say their crusade isn't about recreation, but a larger goal of protecting intact wildlands -- such as the north fork of the American River and Mineral King near Sequoia National Park.
"Wilderness is a recognition there are landscapes that have an intrinsic value -- clean water, clean air, habitat for wildlife," said Kentz, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis. "These are landscapes that are essentially unchanged, where everything else has been manipulated drastically."
The other day, Kentz laced up his hiking boots and hoofed up to his favorite stomping grounds near Lake Tahoe -- Meiss Meadows, an area included in wilderness legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in May.
Climbing to an elevation of 8,000 feet, Kentz overlooked a panorama of volcanic cliffs, shimmering lakes and gentle meadows that drain into the Upper Truckee River. Far in the distance was Tahoe itself, framed by the jagged spires of Mount Tallac and Pyramid Peak.
"This is one of those places where you can step back and connect yourself to the natural world," said Kentz during a break in his recent hike. "You and I are ten miles right now from the core of the casinos in South Lake Tahoe, but we would never know it."
If Boxer's bill were approved, Meiss Meadows and other areas would be forever protected from new roads, power lines and other activities prohibited under the 1964 Wilderness Act.
Hiking, horseback riding, fishing and hunting would be allowed, but mountain bikers would be prohibited, because federal agencies interpret "mechanized transport" to include mountain bikes.
Becky Bell, a leader of the Tahoe Area Mountain Bicycling Association, said that wilderness, as now defined, would exclude cyclists from several popular trails near Tahoe, which she calls a "mecca for mountain biking."
Mountain bikers would still have access to hundreds of miles of trails and old logging roads, but some say that isn't enough.
"People who go mountain biking don't want to deal with power lines and roads. We share that goal," added Duke Tuchman, who owns a bike shop in Woodland. "But we don't want to be thrown off the trails we now have."
Wilderness advocates acknowledge they have mixed feelings about the wording in the 1964 law, which was passed before mountain bikes were invented.
"I admit, I struggle with it sometimes," said Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society. Mountain bikes depend on muscle power, not motors, he noted. They also don't weigh as much as horses, which are permitted in federal wilderness.
But Watson and other environmentalists reject calls to amend the 1964 act so that mountain biking -- and possibly other uses -- would be allowed.
"That would be a very dangerous exercise," said Watson, who fears that some members of Congress would work to weaken the landmark law. "God knows what would happen."
To date, California is relatively well endowed with federal wilderness, with 14 million acres statewide. Activists, however, note that Congress hasn't approved a statewide wilderness bill since the 1980s, back when California had 10 million fewer people.
Environmentalists are concerned that, because of continued road-building, logging and population pressures, the national forests continue to lose pristine areas that are now prime candidates for wilderness.
"We did a study two years ago which found that from 1979 to 1999, we lost 675,000 acres of roadless areas in national forests," said Keith Hammond, a spokesman for the California Wilderness Coalition. That's roughly the size of Yosemite, Hammond said.
For the last five years, the coalition has been refining and mapping proposed wilderness areas, trying to ensure that such areas are "untrammeled by man," as the federal law requires.
Earlier this year, Boxer took the coalition's suggestions and eliminated 300,000 acres that might cause conflicts with mountain bikers, said Tom Bohigian, an aide to the Marin County Democrat.
Near South Lake Tahoe, Boxer dropped popular mountain bike trails at Freel Peak from the package. Even so, some mountain bikers question if wilderness activists were ever serious about including Freel Peak, and only pursued it as a bargaining chip.
"My dealings with wilderness advocates have been pretty negative," said Bell, a tourism marketing agent whose husband owns a bike shop in South Lake Tahoe. "I don't think they have been totally honest."
Kentz, however, says it is "zealots" like Bell who are deceiving people. Earlier this year, Bell was quoted as saying the wilderness proposals would "destroy" mountain biking at Tahoe, even though cyclists would still have access to 300 miles of nearby trails.
Justified or not, the rift between bikers and hikers has thrown a wrench into Boxer's legislation, which is opposed by logging interests, several rural counties and off-road vehicle groups, such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition.
Even some bicycling groups -- such as the Warrior Society of Orange County -- have joined the Blue Ribbon Coalition, creating an unlikely alliance between pedal-powered recreationists and those who like internal combustion engines.
Don Amador, who heads the California chapter of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, said Boxer's bill faces mounting obstacles with the new Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, and the bill was in trouble anyway.
"Mountain bikers are a key factor in the success or failure of any wilderness proposal," said Amador. Boxer will have to deal with them, he said, "if her bill is going to go anywhere."
http://www.sacbee.com/ips_rich_content/753-1114wild.gif
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/5192213p-6201036c.html