HR-1349 is a bill to amend the Wilderness Act and allow mountain bikes in designated wilderness.

Please contact Rep. Scott Tipton and ask him to vote no on this.

Currently, in the lower 48, less than 3 percent of our public lands are designated wilderness. That’s it; that’s all.

Wilderness wasn’t created for our recreation, it was created to keep these places wild! A place where things slow down, free of mechanization.

If this bill passes, these wild places will be gone, forever. I have a mountain bike and I know there are hundreds of miles of trails and closed roads in our area alone open to bikes. Two more new trails in Hermosa Creek special management area open to bikes, I read.

How does our local mountain bike group feel about this bill? Do you care about conservation or just want more, and more, and more access? Take a public stand on this and help oppose this bill as the International Mountain Bike Association supposedly has.

This administration is chipping away at our public lands, with the shrinkage of the monuments, opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and now this, and who knows what’s next?

Please oppose this bill for our kids and grandkids and keep the last wild places we have left wild.

Rick Hooley

Bayfield