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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE: January 4, 2017<span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">Contact:
George
Nickas, 406-531-2355; Keith Hammer, 406-755-1379; Mike Jarnevic,
mountain bike
user/Sierra Club member 406-544-8671<span></span></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial
narrow"">MONTANA GROUPS TO SENATORS, FOREST SERVICE––NO
MOUNTAIN BIKE DEALS IN PROPOSED WILDERNESS, GRIZZLY BEAR
HABITAT<span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">MISSOULA––
Nine conservation organizations from throughout Montana today
sent a letter (</span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><a
href="http://bit.ly/2j188Ow">http://bit.ly/2j188Ow</a>)</span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""> to
Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines and the
U.S. Forest Service opposing a mountain bike play area in a
proposed Wilderness
Area on the Lolo National Forest.</span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">The
letter states the deal announced between the Blackfoot
Clearwater Stewardship
Project, Montana Wilderness Association and the International
Mountain Bike Association
proposing a 3,000 acre “play area” for mountain bikes is <i>“both
a terrible idea and a terrible precedent.” </i></span><span
style="font-size:10pt"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span> </span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">“This
deal between user groups, prior to the forest plan
revision process, is an end run around the greater public and
the public
involvement process. Please adhere to the established land
management planning
and public involvement process so that the broader American
public can be
involved and not just a handful of self-selected special
interest user groups.
These lands belong to all of the American people –– not just
the political
elite special interests. The American people are absolutely
fed up with
political insiders making deals that affect them. “ <span></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">The
roadless areas in the Monture
Creek and Swan Front have been proposed for inclusion in the Bob
Marshall
Wilderness Complex for decades and support a host of primitive
recreation
activities as well as being prime elk habitat accessed by
hunters. It is also primary
grizzly bear habitat within the Northern Continental Divide
Ecosystem Recovery
Area.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">"This
is another unfortunate
example of humans and their machines penetrating deeper into our
few remaining
wildlands," stated Wilderness Watch executive director, George
Nickas.
"Places like Monture Creek need to be preserved intact for
wildlife
and wild nature, not divvied up amongst the ceaseless demands of
recreation
user groups.” <span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">The
groups object to the inherent
conflict of mountain biking in grizzly bear habitat, noting the
Forest Service
has not fully learned the lessons from the tragic mountain
biking death of
Forest Service employee Brad Treat, who collided with a grizzly
bear and was
fatally mauled. The groups emphasize that <i> <b>“for
the purposes of public lands management and planning and
assessing the impacts
to wildlife, we strongly believe that mountain bikes should
be re-classified as
mechanized recreation vehicles with impacts more similar to
motorized vehicles
than traditional hiking or stock use.”</b></i></span><b><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">"State
and federal agencies
have long warned against high-speed mountain biking in bear
habitat," said
Swan View Coalition Chair Keith Hammer. "Mountain bike play
areas don't
belong in the backcountry and wilderness designation should
instead be pursued
for the protection of wildlife."<br>
<br>
</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial
narrow";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">“As
a mountain biker, I believe mountain bikes
have their place, but that place is not in roadless areas that
have potential
for wilderness designation. And mountain bikes, by their very
nature, are
disruptive to the concept of </span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial
narrow";background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">‘an
area where the earth and its community of life are untrammelled
by man,’"
explained </span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow"">Mike
Jarnevic, a mountain bike user and Sierra Club member. <br>
<br>
Jonathan Matthews, chair of the Montana Sierra Club and a Helena
resident said,
“I love mountain biking, but mountain bikes do not belong in
wilderness areas
or areas with wilderness character. These places are sanctuaries
from the
mechanized world. There are so few of these truly wild places
left and we
need to preserve them, not surrender them to mountain bike play
areas."<a name="_GoBack"></a><br>
<br>
A copy of the letter is here: </span><span
style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><a
href="http://bit.ly/2j188Ow">http://bit.ly/2j188Ow</a><br>
<br>
# # #</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial
narrow""><span></span></span></p>
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"arial narrow""><span></span></span><br>
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<p class="p1"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"">Dawn Serra<br>
Communications and Outreach Coordinator<b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> <br>
Wilderness Watch<br>
</b>P.O. Box 9175<br>
Missoula, MT 59807<br>
P: 406.542.2048<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.wildernesswatch.org">www.wildernesswatch.org</a><br>
“Like” WW on <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wilderness-Watch/130160330396668?sk=wall">Facebook</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"">Follow WW on <a
href="https://twitter.com/WildernessWatch">Twitter</a><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana"><a
href="https://wildernesswatch.crm.salsalabs.org/webDonation/">Donate</a><br>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><br>
</i></span><span class="style1"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Verdana">Wilderness Watch</span></i></b></span><span
class="actionlistyle33"><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana">
</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Verdana">defends our 110 million-acre
National Wilderness
Preservation System. <br
style="mso-special-character:line-break">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br
style="mso-special-character:line-break">
<!--[endif]--></span></i><span
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