Mountain Biking - good public land use news in MBA

In the April issue of MBA, there is a freeride article with some good news, and it follows what I have been hearing from the local forest service people. I will snip out what's not applicable to this issue:

"snip...Armed with the wilderness act and custom-made legislation, groups like the Sierra Club were steamrolling across public lands in a sucessful bid to ban all user groups that they deemed dangerous or unworthy... snip. Wilderness and anti-recreation groups have badgered land managers and politicians continuously for two decades. With each successive trip to the bargaining table, their list of demands and proposed restrictions grew larger until local and federal agencies finally had enough. From the federal to the local level, they are sick and tired of being bullied by zealot-filled environmental groups and are beginning to refuse their draconian demands."

Sweet. It's not so bad here in the south central than it is in other places. This has been something I have watched ever since me and a friend pulled into a park office in Vale, CO. We stopped to ask where the best trails were, and the lady that greeted us looked down her snoot and said "this is a wilderness area, you can only go in these mountains on foot", like we were lower class citizens because we rode bikes (I have to admit, we probably did look like lower class citizens hehe). Also, last year I got to know several local land managers while getting a road easement to some property I own through federal land. They pretty much sounded like this article, only their hands are tied by red tape and regulations that serve no purpose whatsoever, but to keep their jobs they have to comply even when they don't agree.

Yea Mike, the environmental groups such as Sierra club will ban everything including bikes if allowed. Funny hgow horses have always been considered environmentally ok but the damage I see from just one group of horses pales the damage of a months worth of biking

Horses are and have been on their list, Sam. I don't know why they aren't higher on the list than mountain bikes are. I agree that we need some places to stay pristine, but there has to be a limit. I took the quote above just a little out of context but only to make the point that the problem usually does not come from the managers, but from knee-jerk reactions that create all these terrible rules that the managers have to abide by.

I was mountain biking one time near Crested Butte, co, and one day we ran across small groups of dirtbikes through most of the day. Turned out that they were doing an annual event where they ride across a pass from (can't remember exactly where it started) but it ended in Crested Butte. This would be an excellent trip on a dirtbike, and I've wanted to take mine up there and ride the same trails. I heard recently that this area was possibly going to be closed to ORV's. What a shame that would be.

Horses are way worse. I know I've never taken a **** on the trail. When it's kinda soft, the hooves tear it up way worse than a bike tire.

Nothing is worse than a trail that horses walk on regularly in the winter. Big huge craters from the hooves that freeze. Talk about bumpy and the ride is much less enjoyable because you can not build up a lot of speed. I don't see how MTBs tear up the trail to such an extent that they have to be banned. I could see dirtbikes/ATVs etc because of the torque but bikes can't be too much more destructive than a hiker or a horse. I would think most mountain bikers are outdoors people and try to take care of wildlife and preserves anyway.