Archive for March, 2009

Thoughts on the Omnibus Bill

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

The Omnibus Lands bill was pushed through as another of one of these patched together political deals that was “too big to fail.”

In some places, mountain bicyclists were able to celebrate both new Wilderness and land protections which preserved riding opportunities. In other places, our needs were ignored.

While there is justified elation over many of the protections offered by this legislation, there are areas that should have public land advocates averting their eyes and holding their noses. It was better politics than policy.

There were giveaways of public lands, unnecessary road excursions into wild places and in some areas where mountain bicyclists needed alternate designations, a steamrolling of our legitimate needs and concerns.

The willingness of Wilderness advocates to go for broke and cobble together this kind of bill is alarming to me. It reminds us that Wilderness designation is fundamentally a political process and mountain bikers have to be more politically effective than we’ve ever been.

As soon as this bill passed, Wilderness advocates began talking about what comes next. Mountain bikers have to step up, so we can do better next time.

Jim H

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Omnibus bill passes

Friday, March 27th, 2009

As I predicted last week, the Omnibus wilderness and public lands bill, a leftover from the previous Congress, passed both the Senate and House in the last week, with more than 2/3 of members of each body voting yes. The House leadership had to find just two more votes to get past the 2/3 mark, which was necessary for suspension of the rules and prevention of proposed floor amendments. It now goes on to the President for signature. The Act is good for the land, good for Planet Earth, perhaps not so good for mountain bicycling.

Gary S

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Omnibus Wilderness bill fails

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Last week, while I was at the National Bicycle Summit, the omnibus Wilderness bill failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives. House leaders had brought it to vote under suspension of the rules, which meant it needed a 2/3 vote instead of simple majority, and it fell two short.

Some anti-Wilderness people are excited about this, but I doubt the situation will persist. Some horse-trading will occur behind the scenes and the vote will eventually pass. Bear in mind that this is the beginning of the session; they have almost two years to get this done. The Senate has already passed the bill.

The bill combines Wilderness and other protection measures from a number of states. It will protect a lot of land, which is good.

From the narrower view of bicycle access it contains at least a couple wins and a number of serious losses. On the plus side: The section for Jefferson National Forest in Virginia includes a national scenic area that allows bicycling — progress for diverse designations. In Colorado, the section designating much of Rocky Mountain National Park as a Wilderness includes a corridor for a bike trail.

In Oregon, the omnibus includes the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act. At one time, this included a new, alternative protection designation tailored for bicycling, introduced by Senator Ron Wyden. I don’t know if that survived. Maybe someone can inform us via comments.

On the down side, we got rolled again in California, where the environmental movement is at its strongest. Lands east of the Sierras will go Wilderness and close existing bike routes, especially in the White Mountains. In Colorado, the BLM Dominguez Canyon goes Wilderness, closing a route I rode many years ago, but it had been closed for many years. In Idaho we’re probably losing a lot of opportunities in the 517,000 acres of Idaho’s Owyhee-Bruneau wilderness. Cyclists also got rolled in West Virginia, where the Wild Monongahela Act  protects 37,000 acres as four new Wilderness areas in the Monongahela National Forest. 

With all these losses, the core reason is that bicyclists were not organized and lacked the political power to get modifications.

For a quick summary of the bill, see:  http://www.leaveitwild.org/news/releases/1437

–GS

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Welcome

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

WildernessBicycling launches.

It’s early March, 2009, and we’re finally online with a web site, blog, and forum about Wilderness and Bicycling. Many exciting adventures ahead.

– Gary Sprung

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