PROPOSED INAPPROPRIATE WILDERNESS WILL CLOSE 35 SINGLE-TRACK TRAILS TO TRAIL BIKES & MOUNTAIN BIKES

There are currently three proposed Wilderness additions in Sequoia, Brightstar, Domelands & Golden Trout.

• None of these areas were recommended for Wilderness designation in the 2000 Sequoia Forest Service Roadless Inventory.

• All of these areas have historical Multiple Use trails, allowing motorized use.

• Motorized users fund trail crews to maintain these trails, as well as providing thousands of hours of volunteer labor.

• If these areas are designated as Wilderness over 35 existing trails would be closed to trails bikes & mountain bikes.

Here is a Letter from Senator Morrow supporting OHV use & opposing further inappropriate Wilderness

Click here to see maps showing the 35 trails in RED, which would be closed to wheeled use:
                     Brightstar addition, closing 22 trails
                     Golden Trout & Domelands addition, closing 13 trails

Here is a report outlining why the above proposed areas are inappropriate for Wilderness designation

Common sense rears its head in Arizona Wilderness debate Click for More

MORE WILDERNESS INFORMATION
Wilderness designation has been used to lock up millions of acre of land from multiple use. Wilderness offers little protection to the land that did not exist without Wilderness protection, but it does lock out a large segment of the public from public land.

How much wilderness is designated in California? (According to www.calwild.org)

Currently, California contains approximately 14 million acres of federal wilderness. This includes six million acres managed by the National Park Service, 4.4 million acres managed by the Forest Service, and 3.6 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Sequoia National Forest, these are the best approximate numbers available from Forest Service.

About 1.1 million total acres

About 322,314 acres are locked up in Current Wilderness

About 224,651 acres are designated as Roadless areas & were unsuccessfully proposed in 2003 as additional wilderness on Sequoia National Forest & adjacent BLM lands

Recent Giant Sequoia Monument 327,769 acres

That could leave 22% or 243,000 acres for multiple use out of the 1.1 million acre Sequoia National Forest, Land of Many uses.
 

Add it all up Wilderness, proposed Wilderness & Monument 874,734 acres of public land in Sequoia National Forest would no longer allows multiple use

Leaving 225,266 for possible multiple use in Sequoia National Forest

Here is a map showing the proposed additional wilderness & existing wilderness

Click on some areas of the map to see supporting info on proposed wilderness areas. If the Land Closure advocates have their way there will not be much public land open to the majority of the public As the public is forced onto a smaller & smaller area for recreation the impact on the land will be much greater.

a different map of Sequoia Roadless & Wilderness Areas

CALIFORNIA
Wilderness - 56 areas for 4.5 million acres (22% of FS land in CA)
Wild & Scenic Rivers -
13 designated rivers totaling 1,070 miles (25% of FS national total)

NATIONAL
Wilderness - Approximately 100 million acres (400,000 km²) are designated as wilderness in the United States. This accounts for 4.71% of the total land of the country; however, 54% of wilderness is in Alaska, and only 2.58% of the continental United States is designated as wilderness. Wikipedia Encyclopedia 2004

Update 2006- Currently there are now 104 million acres of designated Wilderness on public land in the continental United States. This is equal to the land mass of the states of Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania combined. 273,000 acres of additional wilderness has been designated so far in 2006 and additional wilderness designation proposals are making their way through Congress. As our country converts more and more land into County, State and National Parks, Wilderness Areas and Wildlife Refuges it is becoming increasingly harder for the average recreationist to find a place to simply enjoy open space. It is not that we need more open space protected, it is that access to more and more acres of the country is being cut off to all but the hardiest backpacker. The person who has the health, the affluence and the ability to schedule their time in order meet the restrictions, not only of climatic conditions, but seasonal closures of areas.

Below are the Wilderness acreage figures for each agency from Wilderness.net

Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management manages about 270 million acres, 7,796,837 of which are Wilderness. Among other activities, the Bureau conserves these lands and their historical and cultural resources for the public's use and enjoyment.

Fish and Wildlife Service
The Fish and Wildlife Service conserves the nation's wild animals and their habitats by managing a system of more than 500 national wildlife refuges and other areas, totaling about 91 million acres of land and water, 20,730,636 of which are Wilderness.

Forest Service
The Forest Service manages national forests and grasslands. It conducts forestry research and works with forest managers on state and private lands. The Forest Service oversees nearly 200 million acres of national forest and other lands, 35,372,522 of which are Wilderness.

National Park Service
The National Park Service was established to protect the nation's natural, historical, and cultural resources and to provide places for recreation. The Park Service manages 51 national parks and more than 300 national monuments, historic sites, memorials, seashores, and battlefields. It oversees 43,536,647 acres of Wilderness.

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In 1905 there were 83 forest reserves which had increased to 155 National Forests and 20 National Grasslands by 2005. The total number of acres preserved as open space by the Forest Service has increased from 63 million acres in 1905 to 192 million acres in 2005.