IMBA rallies against California trail threat

US mountain bike access organization IMBA is urging mountain bikers to lobby their senators to delay action on a bill that would ban mountain biking from 170 miles of singletrack trails in Northern California.

Senate Bill 128 (S. 128), the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, sponsored by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), would designate more than 300,000 acres as federal Wilderness, closing it to mountain bike riders because US law interprets a long-standing ban on "mechanized" vehicles in wilderness to include bicycles.

IMBA believes there are other ways of preserving the natural values of the area and that these should be used to in a quarter of the area covered by this bill to accommodate existing bicycle use.

For more information see www.imba.com.