Talk:National Wilderness Preservation System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wilderness Act actually does NOT prohibit bicycling in Wilderness Areas, though bicycling is usually not allowed by regional managers. This is the finding of a recent extensive report as discussed below:

I am interested in other Wikipedians thoughts on how to handle this in this article, as the article currently states rather bluntly "In general, the law prohibits logging, mining, roads, mechanized vehicles (including bicycles), and other forms of development." -the dharma bum 21:31, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

My understanding of the wilderness act is that is does not allow bicycles on wilderness lands. The links you provided show that this is being contested, but not that the law has been changed. My experience with the National Park Service leads me to believe that indeed, no moutain bikes or any bicycles were allowed in designated wilderness zones. It may be that some regions do permit it, but the law written in 1964 forbid such activity. I also quickly saw that one of the links claims that other mechanical equipment is allowed in wilderness...the only time I can thing that this is the case is to deal with forest fires and their aftermath, or if there is a search and rescue underway. I'm not saying that the land management agencies don't themselves violate the law, just that it is a fineable offense to ride bikes in wilderness zones...how stringently it is enforced is the big question.--MONGO 01:10, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
MONGO, thanks for the response. After rereading all the documents, I would say that issue hasn't changed and I don't think any wilderness area effectively allows mountain biking either. It's probably worth keeping an eye on. - the dharma bum 19:59, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I am not opposed to mountain bikes there as they allow horses and either one is likely to be ridden off trail. But I do think that the law is pretty specific to bicycles as a form of "motorized transport". The fight between the mountain biking enthusiasts and the environmentalists is oftentimes a strange struggle, as on almost every other point, mountain bikers would be environmentalists for the most part. Happy editing!--MONGO 01:32, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Expansion of wilderness areas in California

Should the California Wilderness Act of 1984 and the most recent expansion, the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act be added to this article? or is that too state-specific? Marcia Wright (talk) 00:33, 14 March 2008 (UTC)