Originally Posted by
rosefarts
I think only the most delusional of mountain bikers can straight faced say that it’s an environmentally friendly activity.
Mt. biking is likely the least environmentally damaging when compared to horse packing, ATV, ORV, 4WD overlanding. Of all the things the OP article is ranting about, having mt. bikers riding high altitude dirt trails and roads is a reasonably benign activity. As well, the mt. bike community is and has been one of the most proactive at building sustainable trails and then helping to maintain them. The article is on the side of maintaining the status quo, likely horse packing is part of that and that's a worse activity for the trails then biking, but let's ignore that. I can understand opening trails and roads to mt. bike use, also horses, maybe not motorized use, but allowing some motorized is a give back to get the bill passed to see some currently closed area's get opened. I personally think there are enough area's of Nat'l Forest and BLM lands not currently designated as wilderness where additional trails can be built, bike or motorized, that there is no need to open up wilderness.