Tag: mountain biking

  • “Stick to the Facts”–How Green Groups Fail to Protect the Gallatin Range

    The Buffalo Horn drainage is one of the most important wildlife habitats in the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and deserves to be designated as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act. Photo George Wuerthner  A recent guest commentary by a representative of Wild Montana in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle titled “Sticking to the Facts about Forest…

  • Lessons From The Effort To Designate The Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness

    The Lake Plateau, part of the 900,000-acre plus Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness. Photo by George Wuerthner Years ago, I moved to Livingston, Montana. Livingston strategically lies at the northwest corner of the Custer Gallatin National Forest’s Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness (known as AB Wilderness). One of the factors that attracted me to Livingston was the AB Wilderness.…

  • Lionhead Proposed Wilderness

            One of the most outstanding wildlands on the Custer Gallatin National Forest is the 43,759-acre proposed Lionhead Wilderness. The Lionhead lies along the Continental Divide and rises up above  Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone. The Madison River and Quake Lake on the north, while Targhee Pass on the south and Raynold…

  • Impacts of Mountain Biking

    Mountain Biking is a significant threat to our wildlands—both in designated preserves like national parks, wilderness areas, and the like, but also Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) and roadless lands that may potentially be given Congressional protection under the 1964 Wilderness Act. Wilderness designation is one of the best ways to protect biodiversity, watersheds, wildlife habitat,…

  • Elkhorn Wildlife Area MT threatened by thrill bikers

    Recently the Helena National Forest released a scoping letter on a proposal to create 39 miles of  mountain biking (aka thrill biker) trails in the Strawberry Butte area of the northern Elkhorn Wildlife Management Area. https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/110309_FSPLT3_4486872.pdf In its scoping letter, the FS notes that “Since 2001, the Forest has observed an increase in recreational use…

  • Recreationists–the latest threat to wildlands

    “Voluntary adherence to an ethical code elevates the self-respect of the sportsman, but it should not be forgotten that voluntary disregard of the code degenerates and depraves him. Our tools for the pursuit of wildlife improve faster than we do, and sportsmanship is a voluntary limitation in the use of these armaments. It is aimed…

  • Mountain Bikers as Wilderness Advocates? No evidence so far.

    In a recent editorial in the Jackson Hole Guide, Luther Propst of Jackson asserts that conservationists needed to keep in mind that many public lands recreationalists have a common interest in protecting the land. (see Propts piece here http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/opinion/guest_shot/fun-hogs-and-the-future-of-conservation/article_f98a41a3-6dd0-5915-b166-fe0a5b898138.html) Recreationists like mountain biking proponents could be allies in efforts to protect wildlands as designated wilderness for…

  • Mountain biking impacts on bears and other wildlife by Brian Horejsi

    This is a short email that Brian Horejsi sent me on mountain biking and bears. It is a thoughtful review of how mountain biking can have substantial impacts on wildlife. The basic science solidly supports the general claim that bikers and bikes are displacing bears, can contribute to their habituation and are consequently adding negative…

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