Yes...the subject was meant to cause a feeling of angst and fear.  Please see the link below...any/all participation may be needed to help keep some of our best trail areas rideable.  We have recently seen trails in the western US get shut down to riders due to these same issues.

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The comment deadline is December 15th

I went here to send my comments to the USFS...

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Its important to not send "general" emails describing your views. The USFS has a form that they prefer to be filled out for each area potentially affected by this. IMBA has made it easier in the link above.

"IMPORTANT: Your comments should follow the format that the Forest Service has requested on their form. Relevant sections of this form are outlined below for your information. To more easily make comment, copy the areas in bold into your e-mail and add the proposed wilderness areas which apply. A form to submit comments is at end of this post."

This is very important as Pisgah is one of the few remaining areas where we have so much access to high quality riding on USFS managed land. 

Dont sit by and let us lose Pisgah... 

If you all want to submit your own comments, attached is the form you use per USFS. It was pretty convoluted to find this form and yes, the questions are clearly phrased with an agenda, but this is the formal the USFS request comments be submitted. 

I went ahead an added a section header (highlighted in yellow and name for each of the important inventory areas where mountain biking occurs and may be impacted. Note, if you submit this form ensure you save each section individually and submit the form per section. Your comments should be specific to each inventory area (Wilson creek, Harpers creek, Jarrett, south mills, cedar rock, etc) Completed forms may be submitted by email to [email protected] with the subject line: “Wilderness evaluation input,”...individually. 

I am going to work with the THTB board to formulate our response, at which time i will upload it for reference and usage.  

Also, if you want to send anything to anyone, here is the landuace from IMBA: 



Please consider the following comments regarding the evaluation phase of potential wilderness areas:

In response to Criteria 1c: The following proposed areas have a highly developed trail system which receives use by a wide variety of recreational groups: South Mills River, Daniel Ridge, Laurel Mountain, Cedar Rock Mountain, Woods Mountain, and Jarrett Creek

In response to Criteria 2a:The following areas have high recreational use and are close to populated areas which generate the high use of these areas of the forest: South Mills River, Daniel Ridge, Laurel Mountain, Cedar Rock Mountain, Woods Mountain, Jarrett Creek

In response to criteria 2b: The following areas contain mountain bike trails: Craggy, South Mills River, Daniel Ridge, Laurel Mountain, Cedar Rock Mountain, Harper Crk Ext/Sugar Knob, Woods Mountain, Jarrett Creek

In response to criteria 5c: Due to the amount of use that the trails in these areas receive it is most efficient to use mechanized equipment to keep them sustainable: Craggy Mountains outside the existing WSA, South Mills River, Daniel Ridge, Laurel Mountain, Cedar Rock Mountain, Sam Knob, Graveyard Ridge, Dobson Knob Ext, Woods Mountain, Jarrett Creek, Harper Creek, Steels Creek, Harper Crk Ext/Sugar Knob, Lost Cove, Upper Wilson Creek


Sincerely,
(Insert Name)

Every few years the USFS takes a look around to see if they can convert more lands to Wilderness.  They identify territory, put it in a plan, and release it to the public for comment.  If their is not much push back then the land can be converted to "Wilderness".  

If you Hike or ride Horses this is fine because you still have access to the land.  If you want to ride your bike then you SOL.  How seriously is this enforced...very!  If your riding through the forest and come upon wilderness land, you are not even allowed to pick your bike up and carry it across the" Wilderness " territory.  

The Trails in Western part of the state are the pinnacle of MTBing  on the east coast and are very important to the sport we all love.  Help protect them by making your voice heard.  Follow the links to IMBA's site and help protect a Treasure!  The world is run by those who show up.  Now would be a good time to do just that.  The deadline is Dec 15th

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I hate to sound pedantic, but the deadline is TODAY the 14th.....I don't want a bunch of responses getting thrown out due to bureaucratic bs.

"There are two ways you can submit comments at this time. We strongly urge you to submit comments BEFORE DECEMBER 15, 2015 for consideration."

Thanks for the reminder.  I just sent my comments in today.

This article ran Saturday Citizen-Times 

Groups propose recreation areas on WNC national forests

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The Trailblazers were asked to support this effort this afternoon at the zero hour before the official paperwork was turned in.  Technically we were already in support by being a SORBA-IMBA chapter but the Trailblazers officially were added along with TORC(Triangle) and Boone Area Cyclist to the official list.  Long Live Long Rides!

Just saw this. Form submitted. Thank you for bringing this up. Was completely unaware of the proposed wilderness crap affecting pisgah.

As Tom mentioned above, we have been added to a coalition of interested groups including Mountain Bikers, Wilderness proponents, horsemen, etc. The coalition worked together to present a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which was released December 8th.

This proposal recommends creating two new National Recreation Areas (Pisgah and Grandfather) which would allow mountain biking and would protect the majority of the trails up there. The MOU also recommends about 109,000 acres be designated as Wilderness, but those areas do not currently have mountain bike trails.

This site is the best source of information about the coalition and the MOU: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

IMO, bringing together these groups (who often have conflicting agendas) was a great achievement, and this MOU is where we should be focusing our energy. It represents the best path toward saving our trails up there.

Gravitythief76 wrote on 12/15/15 at 5:02pm:


Short Answer:

Directly No-------Indirectly Yes

Anything that falls in the proposed sections which will be recommended for wilderness would be officially out of bounds for MTB. Not sure where Raider Camp is, but you can check the maps included in their proposal.

As for the rest, it's essentially status quo except we don't have to worry about it any more... the trails would be protected for MTB use.

Gravitythief76 wrote on 12/15/15 at 11:51pm:

That's actually some of us IMBA's position in certain areas and yes it's unpopular with some folks but not me.  Our forest and trees and our environment are more important than anything else, IMO.

You can read the MOU that was submitted as a group comment detailing the proposal for the NRA through a link on this webpage (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

More information is here (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

And yes I think Raiders Camp is within the proposed NRA.

This is why I support the Sustainable Trails Coalition, a group created to reverse the 1984 Forest service decision to ban bikes in wilderness. The original wilderness did not and was not intended to ban bikes. The STC is currently raising funds and has a bill with lobbyists in Washington looking for a congressional sponsor. We need more people supporting wilderness protection and lifting the ban would add millions of supporters overnight. We are not asking for access to all trails, just that bikes be considered a legitimate user group so local land managers can decide. I think the fact that so many towns in western NC depend on recreational tourism dollars is a big factor in proposing national recreation areas as opposed to wilderness. I also think that the so many organizations came out in support of NRA's in Pisgah speaks volumes. Even the equestrians agree along with the wilderness society! Just look at the list of supporters here: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Check out the Sustainable Trails Coalition here: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

From what I remember Raiders falls in the "Harper Creek and Lost Cove Wilderness Study Area". This was a sort of "wilderness" with a lower case W. Not technically Wilderness (that can only be designated by Congress) but something just shy of it. When the "study area" designation took over thats when alot of those Harpers Creek trails were officially closed to bikes... as I remember. Before that, Raiders, Persimmon ridge, Harpers, etc. were open to bikes and hikers (and even horses I think). WSAs do allow the use of motorized equipment, bikes, horses etc. but that access can be removed if the USFS deems it necessary to protect resources. Hence the closing of those trails to bikes. I might (probably) be way off on that though...

Either way people still ride those trails and little to no enforcement of the bike ban has happened.

As far as hiking trails being converted to bike trails....

I have it from PAS (Pisgah Area Sorba) that the USFS is not opening any new trail to bikes and definitely not cutting new trail for bikes. There is such a massive back log of work needing to be done on existing trails that it will be decades before they finish the repair work on what is open to us to ride. All those old fall line trails (upper Black, Pilot, Horse cove, Cantrell, etc. are going to be repaired to current USFS sustainable trail guidelines. That being said they just cut in a new Spencer Branch but technically that was considered a repair of the old Spencer Branch to prevent sediment runoff, environmental impacts, etc... so "new" trail may happen but it wont be the classic Pisgah gnar gnar... More like mellow grades, machine cut grade dips, and purpose built speed checks (big a$$ rocks) to keep speeds low to limit user group conflicts... 

Either way... I'd rather see bikes have access to boring trails as opposed to no trails. 

And the Nature Nerd in me would rather see miles of open, unlogged, and undeveloped land than trails... But dont take away what we already have...

And I support the bike ban in current Wilderness areas. When is the last time you went to Linville Gorge or Shining Rock... Hikers are destroying those trails just fine without the help of bikes haha. Its nice to have a place where only your two feet can get you around.

Its a really complicated issue for sure.

@banjopickin: Thanks for the excellent post.