<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><pre cols="72"><span style="font-family:Times">For Release: March 23, 2016
Contacts: George Nickas, Wilderness Watch, <a href="tel:406-542-2048" value="+14065422048" target="_blank">406-542-2048</a>, <a href="mailto:gnickas@wildernesswatch.org" target="_blank">gnickas@wildernesswatch.org</a>
Kevin Proescholdt, Wilderness Watch, <a href="tel:612-201-9266" value="+16122019266" target="_blank">612-201-9266</a>, <a href="mailto:kevinp@wildernesswatch.org" target="_blank">kevinp@wildernesswatch.org</a></span>
</pre>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Times"><br>
116 Conservation Groups Tell Congress: Keep Bikes Out of
Wilderness<br>
<br>
</span></b><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Times">Some
mountain bikers are attempting to amend and weaken the
Wilderness Act</span></i><b><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Times"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times"><br>
MISSOULA, MONTANA – This week 116 conservation organizations
from across America have asked Congress to oppose attempts to
amend and weaken the Wilderness Act and Wilderness protections
by allowing bicycles in designated Wilderness.<br>
<br>
“For over a half century, the Wilderness Act has protected
wilderness areas designated by Congress from mechanization and
mechanical transport, even if no motors were involved with such
activities. This has meant, as Congress intended, that
Wildernesses have been kept free from bicycles and other types
of mechanization and mechanical transport,” the 116
organizations wrote Congress.<br>
<br>
A copy of the letter to Congress signed by 116 conservation
groups is here: </span><a href="http://bit.ly/1VFoL1U" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Times">http://bit.ly/1VFoL1U</span></a><span style="font-family:Times"><br>
<br>
The letter to Congress comes as some mountain bikers and a
mountain biking organization – the Sustainable Trails Coalition
– have announced the intention to have legislation introduced in
Congress to amend and weaken the Wilderness Act to allow
mountain bikes in units of the National Wilderness Preservation
System. <br>
<br>
“These mountain bikers erroneously claim that mountain bikes
were allowed in Wilderness until 1984, but then banned
administratively by the U.S. Forest Service. This claim is
simply not true,” pointed out the 116 conservation
organizations. <br>
<br>
“At a time when wilderness and wildlife are under increasing
pressures from increasing populations, growing mechanization,
and a rapidly changing climate, the last thing Wilderness needs
is to be invaded by mountain bikes and other machines,” said
George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness Watch.<br>
<br>
“Mountain bikes are exactly the kind of mechanical devices and
mechanical transport that Congress intended to keep out of
Wilderness in passing the Wilderness Act. Mountain bikes have
their place, but that place is not inside Wilderness areas,”
explained Kevin Proescholdt, Conservation Director of Wilderness
Watch. <br>
<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times">“We believe
that this protection has served our nation well, and that the
‘benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness’ would be
forever lost by allowing mechanized transport in these areas.
Please oppose attempts to weaken the Wilderness Act and
wilderness protections by allowing bicycles in Wilderness,” the
116 organizations wrote Congress.</span></p>
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