California Wilderness Bill Finally Introduced - It's Time to Write Letters!
Action Alert
Click here for more California Wilderness Campaign Information
For Immediate Release
06-14-02
Contact: Jenn Dice, IMBA advocacy director
303-545-9011
IMBA asks California mountain bikers to contact their congressional delegation to help preserve access to important trails.
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer recently introduced the California Wild Heritage Act of 2002 in the U.S. Senate. The bill, S. 2535, proposes to add 2.7 million acres to California's 14 million acres of federally designated Wilderness.
Elements of this bill put mountain bikers in a difficult position. We care deeply about the environment, strongly support conservation and can endorse new new Wilderness designations. Like all outdoor recreation enthusiasts, we are saddened when a local trail is closed or interrupted by new development. We want to protect roadless lands from road construction, mining, logging, dams and drilling. But bicycle use is prohibited in all Wilderness areas and this bill proposes Wilderness status for trails that are popular mountain bike rides.
IMBA's Goal is to Help Shape a Bill We Can Support
It would be easy for IMBA to abandon negotiations and simply oppose the bill. Some other groups have already taken that path. Since last August, IMBA has been working with Senator Boxer's staff and Wilderness advocates to shape a bill that mountain bikers can support.
Areas IMBA Will Support for Wilderness Protection
At this time, IMBA can endorse roughly half of the areas in Senator Boxer's bill. These areas do not include significant bicycling opportunities.
Boundary Adjustments Needed
It's likely that IMBA will be able to endorse many more proposed Wilderness areas in California. But Senator Boxer has not yet provided maps that confirm IMBA-requested boundary adjustments - changes that would keep important trails open to bikes.
Areas of Strong Conflict
For almost 20 percent of the areas in the bill, boundary adjustments will not suffice. Wilderness designation would eliminate significant bicycling opportunities. The bill would prohibit bicycling in important riding areas near Lake Tahoe and Donner Pass, around Mammoth Mountain, in the northern Coast Range and southern Sierras, and north and east of Los Angeles.
For these areas of strong conflict, IMBA endorses other land management designations that provide significant protection, such as National Conservation Areas and Protection Areas.
IMBA Database of Areas
For a list of problematic areas in Senator Boxer's bill and IMBA's position http://www.imba.com/news/action_alerts/ca_land_protection/ca_wilderness.html. We welcome your input and comments on the areas identified.
If You Do One Thing - WRITE U.S. SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN
1. The first action you can take is to contact U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Senator Feinstein's support is crucial to the advancement of Senator Boxer's bill. Senator Feinstein is carefully examining the proposal and is listening to her constituency. The time to influence her is now!
Due to security, mailed letters are not the best way to convey your concerns. It takes as much as a month between mailing and the opening of a letter by congressional staff. Please send a fax or place a telephone call, then follow with a mailed letter.
Honorable Dianne Feinstein - PLEASE FAX YOUR LETTERS
Fax: (202) 228-3954
Alternate Fax: (310) 914-7318
Phone: (202) 224-3841
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Fax a copy of your message to Senator Boxer.
Honorable Barbara Boxer - PLEASE FAX YOUR LETTERS
Fax: (415) 956-6701
Phone: (202) 224-3553
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0505
2. WRITE A HOUSE SPONSOR OF THE BILL - U.S. Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) will introduce a companion bill in the House for northern California and U.S. Representative Hilda Solis (D-CA) will do the same for southern California. They, too, are examining the details of Senator Boxer's proposal. Fax your letter to:
Honorable Mike Thompson - PLEASE FAX YOUR LETTERS
Fax: (202) 225-4335
Phone: (202) 225-3311
119 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0501
Honorable Hilda Solis - PLEASE FAX YOUR LETTERS
Fax: (202) 225-5467
Phone: (202) 225-5464
1641 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0531
3. WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON - To find the name and address of your member of Congress visit http://www.congress.org. Ask your member to speak to Representatives Thompson and Solis about bicycling and the Wilderness bill.
4. WRITE YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER - Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. To learn the address of your local paper, visit: http://newsdirectory.com/news/press/na/us/ca/.
Messages to television and radio stations, web news sources and discussion groups are also appropriate. Letters to media should be short -- around 200 words. Reasoned discussion is always preferable to inflamed rhetoric. The goal is to persuade others, not to yell.
Points To Make in Your Letter
- State your concern that some of California's best trails will be closed to bikes through Wilderness designations. If you have specific knowledge of areas in Senator Boxer's proposal that overlap great riding, provide that information.
- Mountain bikers support conservation and Wilderness and want all roadless lands protected from development. In areas that include significant bicycling opportunities, please protect land using other designations.
- Mountain biking is a low-impact, human-powered activity that is appropriate in some protected places. It is not distinctly different from hiking or horseback riding -- two uses allowed in Wilderness.
- California is the birthplace of mountain biking and home to 2.5 million off-road cycling enthusiasts. We are an important constituency that generates millions of tourism dollars for the state of California. Bicycling adds more than $2 billion annually to the state's economy.
- Citizens need detailed maps of all proposed Wilderness areas to carefully examine this geographically based proposal.
Long Process Ahead - Stay Tuned
To pass, this bill must go through a committee process in the Senate, then a vote of the full Senate. The bill must go through a similar process in the House of Representatives. Once both bills make it through their respective chambers, they must then go to a conference committee to iron out the differences. If the bill doesn't pass by November, the entire process must start again next year.
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