A California congressman has introduced legislation that, if passed, would allow mountain bikes to use trails in wilderness areas, such as in Shenandoah National Park's official wilderness traversed by the Big Run Trail/NPS

A California congressman has introduced legislation aimed at opening up wilderness areas to bikes and other non-motorized wheeled vehicles.

Republican Rep. Tom McClintock's one-sentence measure would amend Section 4(c) of the Wilderness Act "by adding at the end the following: “Nothing in this section shall prohibit the use of motorized wheelchairs, non-motorized wheelchairs, non-motorized bicycles, strollers, wheelbarrows, survey wheels, measuring wheels, or game carts within any wilderness area.”

Signing on as cosponsors are Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-California, Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, and Stevan Pearce, R-New Mexico. The measure has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee for consideration.

In lobbying for the measure's passage, the Sustainable Trails Coalition argues that there was never an intent to ban bicycles from official wilderness. While the wording of the act signed by President Johnson in 1964 clearly states that, "there shall be no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area," the Coalition points to a rule the U.S. Forest Service adopted two years later to implement the act in which the language reads, "(M)echanical transport, as herein used, shall include any contrivance which travels over ground, snow, or water, on wheels, tracks, skids, or by floatation and is propelled by a nonliving power source contained or carried on or within the device."

Those two sentences have been dissected down through the decades since the Wilderness Act was signed into law. In April 2003 the Campaign for America's Wilderness published a 14-page briefing paper on how the Forest Service got it wrong when it promulgated its rule.

With only very narrow exceptions, the Wilderness Act bars the use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, the landing of aircraft, and any other form of mechanical transport within wilderness areas. These prohibitions include wheeled cargo carriers, mountain bicycles, and other nonmotorized forms of mechanical transportation. A special provision of law allows wheelchairs, including certain forms of motorized wheelchairs.

In arguing that the Forest Service erred, those behind the briefing paper noted that the Wilderness Act "made no distinction between living or nonliving power sources, not mentioning these words at all." Furthermore, the paper points out, "it is the unambiguous words of the statute -- not the regulations -- that declare that 'there shall be ... no other form of mechanical transport.' Agency error in interpreting the plain meaning of the words in the statute does not change that. Supreme Court precedents set down the canons of statutory construction in such matters:

• "If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress."
• If an agency's "interpretation is ... in conflict with the plain language of the statute, deference is [not] due."
• "Where the language of the statute is clear, resort to the agency's interpretation is improper."

Along those lines, the Forest Service later corrected its error, according to the briefing paper, when it updated the Forest Service Manual in the section pertaining to the Wilderness Act. 

Mechanical Transport. Any contrivance for moving people or material in or over land, water, or air, having moving parts, that provides a mechanical advantage to the user, and that is powered by a living or nonliving power source. This includes, but is not limited to, sailboats, hang gliders, parachutes, bicycles, game carriers, carts, and wagons. It does not include wheelchairs when used as necessary medical appliances. It also does not include skis, snowshoes, rafts, canoes, sleds, travois, or similar primitive devices without moving parts.

Current Forest Service regulations for wilderness areas also specifically cite bicycles as being banned.