Online Exclusive: MTBs In National Parks?
But it's not a done deal yet, as he explains. “We're still waiting to see the specific language that the NPS uses,” he says, noting that whether or not the regulation changes actually help bikers will come down to its details. “We've suggested ways for the parks to make better use of mountain biking,” he says of IMBA, “and we have good proposals in a number of parks.” IMBA's idea is to use a few big parks as case studies in mountain bike land use. One of the first will be Big Bend National Park in Texas, where IMBA hopes to build a trial loop of singletrack to demonstrate that it can be done sustainably and with minimal impact on other park uses.
IMBA has been lobbying for a change like this for over 15 years, according to Eller, and critics say that the new regulation's sudden traction is a result of a powerful special interest: President George W. Bush, who is a mountain biker himself. Eller admits that “a lot of things get pushed through at the end of a [presidential] term, and we may be in a position to benefit from that,” but he dismisses the idea that the president pulled any personal strings for the change. “The White House is only pushing this through in the sense that the Secretary of the Interior is in the president's cabinet,” and that it's that secretary whose agenda includes the special regulations revision. “This has, however, been a good administration for us,” he adds.
Asked whether the upcoming presidential election might have any effect on the positive relationship being forged between mountain bikers and the Parks Service, Eller is quick to emphasize the importance of IMBA's lobbying power in Washington. “We think from experience that if we have a Democratic president and a Democratic congress, that we'll see a lot more land protection and wilderness bills,” he says. That's good for mountain bikers, but it's important, Eller asserts, that riders pay attention to bills as they're written, and make sure there are provisions for bikes included in them.
“It's important that mountain bikers support IMBA right now, so that we can have a seat at the table when these bills are being drafted,” he says. “We have to make sure our trails stay open.” But as long as we're vigilant, Eller is optimistic about the direction of things. “We see a lot of good things happening,” he says enthusiastically. A bit of proof is in the research being reviewed by the National Parks Service. The Service's administrators have recently acknowledged studies that show that mountain bikes are less damaging to trails than horses. Better than horses? Now we're getting somewhere.
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