wooglin
11-18-2003, 01:23 PM
ABOUT "ILLEGAL" TRAILS (stolen from Cutting Edge News at Bikemag.com)
A bill is currently getting kicked around the House of Representatives that could seriously impact the sport of mountain biking. HR 3247, "The Trail Responsibility and Accountability for the Improvement of Lands (TRAIL) Act," would create new, consistent standards for enforcing regulations on federal property.
At this point in time, federal agencies in different jurisdictions apply varying penalties for the willful damaging of public land. This bill would create a consistent set of penalties for people who damage public lands. All of which sounds fine and dandy. Who, after all, is in favor of damaging public lands?
The rub here is that building a trail without legal authorization from the land manager is, in fact, defined as damaging public lands. You can be slapped with all sorts of charges (from the mundane "damaging public lands" to the exotic and painful "willful destruction of threatened and endangered species"). In short, the government is getting serious about unauthorized trailbuilding. Naturally, you should already know that it's wrong to just pick up a shovel and start building a trail. In some locales, you can even go to jail for doing that (yes, really). If this bill is passed, the penalties for building unauthorized trails will likely be more severe and, finally, universal.
There's one way to deal with this: Always get prior authorization from the land owner (private property) or land manager (public property) before building trails. Yes, this takes more time and effort, but you really don't want to spend time in jail ruminating over the merits of soap on a rope; do you?
I'll keep you posted on the progress of HR 3247. In the meantime, be smart.
Well, that's all for this week. If you feel like sending a virtual bag of flaming dog turds my way, you can always do so by emailing me (there's a hyperlink with my name next to it at the top of the column). If you think I'm full of crap or full of brilliance, you can also send a line. I'm actually pretty good at emailing folks back.
A bill is currently getting kicked around the House of Representatives that could seriously impact the sport of mountain biking. HR 3247, "The Trail Responsibility and Accountability for the Improvement of Lands (TRAIL) Act," would create new, consistent standards for enforcing regulations on federal property.
At this point in time, federal agencies in different jurisdictions apply varying penalties for the willful damaging of public land. This bill would create a consistent set of penalties for people who damage public lands. All of which sounds fine and dandy. Who, after all, is in favor of damaging public lands?
The rub here is that building a trail without legal authorization from the land manager is, in fact, defined as damaging public lands. You can be slapped with all sorts of charges (from the mundane "damaging public lands" to the exotic and painful "willful destruction of threatened and endangered species"). In short, the government is getting serious about unauthorized trailbuilding. Naturally, you should already know that it's wrong to just pick up a shovel and start building a trail. In some locales, you can even go to jail for doing that (yes, really). If this bill is passed, the penalties for building unauthorized trails will likely be more severe and, finally, universal.
There's one way to deal with this: Always get prior authorization from the land owner (private property) or land manager (public property) before building trails. Yes, this takes more time and effort, but you really don't want to spend time in jail ruminating over the merits of soap on a rope; do you?
I'll keep you posted on the progress of HR 3247. In the meantime, be smart.
Well, that's all for this week. If you feel like sending a virtual bag of flaming dog turds my way, you can always do so by emailing me (there's a hyperlink with my name next to it at the top of the column). If you think I'm full of crap or full of brilliance, you can also send a line. I'm actually pretty good at emailing folks back.