SUSTAINABLE TRAILS COALITION OPPOSES E-BIKES ON WILDERNESS TRAILS

April 3, 2016

Sustainable Trails Coalition (STC) opposes legalizing electrically powered or assisted off-road bicycles (e-bikes) on any Wilderness trail anywhere in the United States.

STC’s goal is narrow. It is to restore and/or improve access to federally designated Wilderness areas for human-powered visitors, and only those visitors. We are working toward this goal in two ways.

First, STC is asking Congress to give federal agencies flexibility in allowing bicycles, hunters’ hand-walked game carriers, and parents’ baby strollers on Wilderness trails where the agencies conclude their use will conform to Congress’s original vision for recreation in Wilderness.

Second, STC is asking Congress to reaffirm the authorization already found in the Wilderness Act of 1964 that federal agencies can use hand-walked wheeled equipment like wheelbarrows, and other small-scale modern tools, to better maintain trails for the benefit of all human-powered visitors.

“E-bikes can help the disabled, elderly, and less physically fit visit trails already open to other motorized travel,” said STC co-founder and treasurer Jackson Ratcliffe. “But in Wilderness, as in many other places, there is a rigorous separation between nonmotorized trail uses and motorized ones. E-bikes are motorized. The Wilderness Act has always prohibited motorized travel in Wilderness, and properly so.”

This issue arose when STC learned recently of an unfounded rumor in North Carolina that STC is advocating for allowing e-bikes into Wilderness areas. STC hereby firmly rebuts any such rumor.

For more information, contact

info@sustainabletrailscoalition.org

Former IMBA Chair John Bliss Joins Our Board

Boulder, Colo. - January 21, 2016 - Sustainable Trails Coalition (STC) is pleased to announce the addition of Boulder, Colorado’s John Bliss to the organization’s board of directors. He joins current board members Jeff Barker, Jane Ragan, Jackson Ratcliffe, David Simon and Ted Stroll. A fervent endurance athlete who competes in long-distance mountain bike events and cyclocross competitions across the country, Bliss served as President of the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s (IMBA) board of directors from February of 2009 to September, 2010.

Bliss’s Beltway resume includes roles as Minority Chief Counsel to the Technology and Law Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as well as Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Hank Brown (R-Colo.). He has also functioned as executive director of an international trade association headquartered in Washington, D.C., facilitating the passage of more than 22 state laws and two pieces of federal legislation during his tenure.

“We’re delighted to add John to the team. His background in mountain biking advocacy, his interaction with the federal-government and his considerable experience in the legal arena bring invaluable expertise to STC’s board,” offers Ted Stroll, co-founder of STC. “His addition is particularly well-timed as it coincides with our group’s introduction of the Human-Powered Wildlands Travel Management Act of 2016.”

“Mountain biking and cycling advocacy are topics for which I have great passion,” states Bliss. “As STC’s legislation nears introduction, I feel that my operational experience at the intersection of law, politics, technology and policy on or around Capitol Hill will prove particularly useful to the group.”

He is currently General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer for the technology company Atigeo Corporation, of Bellevue, Wash., whose flagship software is the intelligent Big Data platform, xPatterns. The co-holder of three U.S. patents, Bliss is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, and the Georgetown University Law Center. He is also a member of the District of Columbia and Hawaii State Bars.

For more information regarding The Sustainable Trails Coalition and the Human-Powered Wildlands Travel Management Act of 2016 or to donate to the cause via credit card, Fortua or PayPal, please visit www.sustainabletrailscoalition.org. Media inquiries may be directed to info@sustainabletrailscoalition.org