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Bryant: Stop maligning mountain bikers

Howie Wolke’s opinion piece “Mountain Bikes, Wilderness Don’t Mix” is an excellent example of the presentation of prejudice as fact. While Mr. Wolke laments the damage allegedly done to the wilderness by mountain bikers, he smoothly glosses over the much greater damage done by equestrian use. In fact, any human intrusion into the forest causes impact, the hiking groups guided by Mr. Wolke included. There are a number of studies which show that mountain bikers are not more damaging to the environment than other non-motorized trail users. If you are interested in learning the facts, please visit https://www.imba.com/resources/research/trail-science/natural-resource-impacts-mountain-biking for more information. I would suggest Mr. Wolke review this material as well before using his personal bias to lobby for the exclusion of a group of trail users that he clearly doesn’t understand.

Dick Bryant

Silverthorne


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