Mountain biker Jefe Branham rides down the backside of Richmond Ridge with the Swan Mountains as the backdrop.
When Rep. Greg Gianforte voted in committee in favor of HB 1349, a bill that would allow mountain biking in some wilderness areas, it drew a response from mountain bikers who supported the new bill as well as strong dissent from groups like the International Mountain Biking Association.
After hearing from mountain biking and conservation groups in Montana, Gianforte later backpedaled, saying he no longer supported the bill and would vote against it in the unlikely scenario it reached the House floor for a vote.
But while the fate of HB 1349 is in question, this brought a different issue into question for mountain bikers, other recreationists and policy makers. How can mountain biking co-exist with wilderness preservation? How can wilderness preservation take those forms of recreation into consideration?
The Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project, a result of more than 10 years of negotiations between conservationists, recreationists and industrial interests, provides a potential path forward in regards to this balance through the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act.
The BCSA (S. 507) was sponsored by Montana Senator Jon Tester in 2017. It was heard in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Feb. 7. and is still in committee. Tester has expressed his commitment to moving the bill forward. Among other things, if made law, it would preserve over 3,800 acres of mountain biking trails in the Spread Mountain Recreation area and add 79,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Lance Physher, president of Bitterroot Backcountry Cyclists, the local chapter of the IMBA, said that the BCSA does something that not all wilderness annexations do: It preserves trails that are already there.
"[As we create] new wilderness, those newer areas already have mountain bike use," Physher said. "That's why [annexing wilderness] is going to become more complicated going forward. We need to find a way to maintain that access to mountain bikers while preserving our land."
The IMBA was one of the many stakeholders at the table during the formative years of the BCSA. Another group involved in the bill's creation was Mountain Bike Missoula.
"The BCSA is the product of decades of collaboration and forward-looking management," said Ben Horan, the group's president. "I think people are happy with it because it considers an extremely wide variety of values and user needs."
Horan conceded that there are some trails that will be lost to the wilderness annexations in the bill, like the trail near Monture Creek, but he still said it has value, if only to show people that working together produces good legislation.
"I think the definition of compromise is that nobody comes away from it thinking 'Oh, I won,'" he said.
Local mountain biker Auguste Lockwood said that although he's not well-versed on the areas the BCSA would cover, mountain biking in and around Seeley Lake has been a valuable recreational element for the community.
Lockwood is a supporter of allowing bikes into the wilderness but because the of low likelihood that HB 1349's will even move to the house floor, he expressed that the BCSA could still be an opportunity for people with interests in both recreation and conservation to come together.
"Mountain bikers are one of the most powerful conservation groups out there and right now you have mountain bikers fighting against the wilderness, which is crazy," Lockwood said. "We all want to protect land but as soon as we're excluded from accessing it, that becomes harder."
Reader Comments(2)
mjvande writes:
Mountain bikers are one of the most powerful conservation groups out there: Nonsense! The only thing that mountain bikers are interested in conserving is their bicycle access. Bicycles should not be allowed in any natural area. They are inanimate objects and have no rights. There is also no right to mountain bike. That was settled in federal court in 1996: https://mjvande.info/mtb10.htm . It's dishonest of mountain bikers to say that they don't have access to trails closed to bikes. They have EXACTLY the same access as everyone else -- ON FOOT! Why isn't that good enough for mountain bikers? They are all capable of walking.... A favorite myth of mountain bikers is that mountain biking is no more harmful to wildlife, people, and the environment than hiking, and that science supports that view. Of course, it's not true. To settle the matter once and for all, I read all of the research they cited, and wrote a review of the research on mountain biking impacts (see https://mjvande.info/scb7.htm ). I found that of the seven studies they cited, (1) all were written by mountain bikers, and (2) in every case, the authors misinterpreted their own data, in order to come to the conclusion that they favored. They also studiously avoided mentioning another scientific study (Wisdom et al) which did not favor mountain biking, and came to the opposite conclusions. Mountain bikers also love to build new trails - legally or illegally. Of course, trail-building destroys wildlife habitat - not just in the trail bed, but in a wide swath to both sides of the trail! E.g. grizzlies can hear a human from one mile away, and smell us from 5 miles away. Thus, a 10-mile trail represents 100 square miles of destroyed or degraded habitat, that animals are inhibited from using. Mountain biking, trail building, and trail maintenance all increase the number of people in the park, thereby preventing the animals' full use of their habitat. See https://mjvande.info/scb9.htm for details. Mountain biking accelerates erosion, creates V-shaped ruts, kills small animals and plants on and next to the trail, drives wildlife and other trail users out of the area, and, worst of all, teaches kids that the rough treatment of nature is okay (it's NOT!). What's good about THAT? To see exactly what harm mountain biking does to the land, watch this 5-minute video: http://vimeo.com/48784297. In addition to all of this, it is extremely dangerous: https://mjvande.info/mtb_dangerous.htm . For more information: https://mjvande.info/mtbfaq.htm . The common thread among those who want more recreation in our parks is total ignorance about and disinterest in the wildlife whose homes these parks are. Yes, if humans are the only beings that matter, it is simply a conflict among humans (but even then, allowing bikes on trails harms the MAJORITY of park users -- hikers and equestrians -- who can no longer safely and peacefully enjoy their parks).
08/08/2018, 7:01 pm
Anonymoose writes:
Once you add mountain dirt bikers to the fray, any idea of balance is gone for good. Kick the mountain bikers out, and then there is a real chance at balance in the discussion and planning.
08/08/2018, 2:28 pm