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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"><b>TAKE ACTION:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/2017nobikesinwilderness/index.html">https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/2017nobikesinwilderness/index.html</a></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">For Release: December 5, 2017</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;text-autospace:none"
align="center"><span style="font-family:Times"><br>
</span><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times">133
Conservation Groups Tell Congress: Keep Bikes Out of
Wilderness</span></b><b><span style="font-family:Times"><br>
<br>
</span></b><b><i><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times">U.S. House
hearing on GOP bill opening all Wilderness areas to bikes
and other wheeled contraptions is Thursday, December 7<sup>th</sup></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">CONTACTS: <br>
George Nickas, Wilderness Watch, <a
href="tel:%28406%29%20542-2048" value="+14065422048"
target="_blank">406-542-2048</a>, <a
class="m_501983807071511302moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:gnickas@wildernesswatch.org" target="_blank">gnickas@wildernesswatch.org</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">Kevin Proescholdt, Wilderness Watch, <a
href="tel:%28612%29%20201-9266" value="+16122019266"
target="_blank">612-201-9266</a>, <a
class="m_501983807071511302moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:kevinp@wildernesswatch.org" target="_blank">kevinp@wildernesswatch.org</a><span>
<br>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"><span><br>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">MISSOULA, MONTANA – A broad coalition
of 133 conservation and Wilderness organizations from across
America have asked Congress “to reject an unprecedented call to
amend the Wilderness Act to allow for the use of mountain bikes
in designated Wilderness.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">The sign-on letter from the 133
organizations was prepared ahead of a December 7th hearing in
the U.S. House’s Subcommittee on Federal Lands on a
Republican-sponsored bill (H.R. 1349) which would open up all of
America’s 110-million acres of Wilderness to mountain bikes and
other wheeled contraptions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">“For over a half century, the
Wilderness Act has protected wilderness areas 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 133
organizations wrote Congress in a sign-on letter prepared for
the December 7th hearing. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">A copy of the letter to Congress
signed by 133 conservation groups can be viewed here: </span><a
href="http://bit.ly/2AU0ume" target="_blank"><span
style="font-family:Times;color:#386eff">http://bit.ly/2AU0ume</span></a><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">“We see this for what it is: an
assault on the very idea of Wilderness and the values of the
Wilderness Act,” said George Nickas, executive director of
Wilderness Watch. “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.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">In the letter to Congress, the 133
conservation groups point out:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">“In a seemingly cynical attempt to use
people with disabilities as a justification for the bill, the
legislation lists ‘motorized wheelchairs’ and ‘non-motorized
wheelchairs’ as the first uses to be authorized in the bill
(even prior to the listing of ‘bicycles’), despite the fact that
the 1990 amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
have allowed wheelchairs in designated Wilderness for more than
a quarter-century.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">HR 1349 supporters 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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">“The 1964 Wilderness Act (36 U.S.C.
1131-1136) banned all types of mechanized transport, including
bicycles, in designated Wilderness. Section 4(c) of that act
states, “[T]here shall be...no use of motor vehicles, motorized
equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, <i>no other
form of mechanical transport</i>, and no structure or
installation within any such area.” (italics added)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times">“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. Bicycles have their place, but that place is not inside
Wilderness areas,” explained Kevin Proescholdt, Conservation
Director of Wilderness Watch. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><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,” the 133 conservation and
Wilderness protection organizations wrote Congress. <br>
<br>
# # #</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span
style="font-family:Times"><b>TAKE ACTION:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/2017nobikesinwilderness/index.html">https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/2017nobikesinwilderness/index.html</a></b><br>
</span></p>
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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
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"Times New Roman"">Follow WW on <a
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</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana"><a
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style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Verdana">Wilderness Watch</span></i></b></span><span
class="actionlistyle33"><i
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</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
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