Federal Rule May Open National Parks and Forests to ATVs
Received this today from the NY-NJ Trail Conference. It’s important that you read this and voice your position on the issue.
Deadline for Comments Is August 18
The Appalachian Trail and other traditional backcountry areas in our national parks and forests may be opened to All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and other power-driven mobility devices. We face imminent danger of a fundamental alteration to our backcountry trails including the A.T.
WE NEED YOU TO ACT SOON to tell the Department of Justice that this initiative is potentially devastating to the silent, challenging and primitive ideals and standards of the A.T. and other trails and backcountry areas in our national forests and parks.
On June 17, 2008, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We are writing our clubs and partnering agencies to urge that you respond to the NRPM by August 18. Your own, personal responses will be most effective.
Be sure to point out that we would never want the Department of Justice or others to misconstrue our opposition to other-powered devices as opposition to persons with disabilities. The hiking community encourages and is inspired by the achievements of hikers with disabilities who seek quiet and nature on footpaths. Several, including blind AT thru-hiker Bill Irwin and his service-dog Orient, have completed thru-hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
Indeed, these hikers inspire us to appreciate the challenge of a backcountry trail that is not compromised by All Terrain Vehicles or by machinery that will compromise the A.T’s silent, challenging and primitive values.
To read details about the proposed rule and our concerns about its potential impacts click here
All comments must be received by August 18, 2008. Submit electronic comments and other data to www.regulations.gov Search for and reference CRT Docket No. 105. You will be required to include your full name and address. You can type your comments in the box provided or attach previously written comments.
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This is a disgusting idea. Keep the bloody noisy machines away from the Wilderness. Get the users off them and onto their 2 feet. May help some of the chronic obesity issues your (and my) country has……
I think all ATV riders should be made to wear antlers and puffy white tails.