Rep. Blumenauer: Please fix the Mt. Hood Wilderness Bill!

While I wish I could share your enthusiasm for the new Mt. Hood wilderness bill -- and I enthusiastically supported earlier versions of it -- I must vehemently oppose it in its current form because it bans bicycling on more than 130 miles of trails.

As you well know, bicycling is clean, quiet and environmentally friendly, and this is equally true on dirt trails as it is on pavement.  Previous versions of this Wilderness legislation set a landmark precedent for the future by calling for the creation of a National Recreation Area that preserved bike access to many of Mt. Hood's trails while still protecting them for development just as well as formal Wilderness status.  This historic compromise has been stripped from the current version.

The bipartisan support for earlier versions of this legislation was contingent upon this compromise, and I find it a heartbreaking betrayal that it is left out now.

As a fellow cyclist (I just finished my 12 mile ride home from Beaverton a few minutes ago to discover this awful news), I beg you to oppose this legislation until it can be fixed.  There is absolutely no legitimate reason to kick bikes off this many miles of trails, and I find the bill completely unacceptable in its current form.