IMBA Reaffirms Support for Forest Service Roadless Initiative

For Immediate Release
November 16, 2000
Contact: Gary Sprung

303-545-9011

BOULDER, CO - The International Mountain Bicycling Association today reiterated its support for the U.S. Forest Service's Roadless Areas Conservation Initiative, which will preserve 49 million acres of U.S. public land. "This is good for the forest and good for mountain bicycling, too," said IMBA executive director Tim Blumenthal.

Earlier this week the U.S. Forest Service released a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposal, which leaves decisions about trail use to local national forests. "We're pleased that the plan does not prescribe national rules or guidelines for recreation," said Blumenthal. "We continue to believe that travel management decisions should be made by local national forests."

Gary Sprung, national policy consultant for IMBA, said, "Roadless areas are important to mountain bikers because they are undisturbed and natural and because they often include narrow, singletrack trails that off-road bicyclists enjoy."

"We know there will be future debates about designating Roadless Areas as Wilderness, which excludes bicycling," Sprung continued. "But this current decision protects pristine landscapes and allows quiet, human-powered bicycling on singletrack trails."

During the initial public comment period in the fall of 1999, IMBA supported the basic concept of the Roadless Initiative. The group's formal comments stated, "IMBA recognizes that all types of forest uses, including recreation, have ecological impacts. IMBA agrees with the Forest Service statement that roads and activities associated with roads cause ecological problems... Roads are typically built to support logging, mining and other industrial activities, or to access inholdings. These activities can degrade the quality of mountain bicycling experiences, discouraging visitation and hurting tourism."

The Roadless Initiative's effects on logging have made the proposal highly controversial. IMBA has no formal position on the appropriate level of logging, if any, within Roadless Areas and is focused on the Initiative's road-building directives.