5 Places Where Ted Stroll's Testimony to Congress is wrong.

On Thursday, December 7, 2017, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Federal Lands had a hearing about HR1349, the Bill that will allow mountain bikes in Wilderness Areas.  Ted Stroll of the Sustainable Trails Coalition submitted a written testimony in advance of this hearing.  At this time I am going to point out a few thing where Ted's testimony is wrong.  Places where he is misleading, exaggerating, or just plain making up stuff.  There is a link to Ted's Testimony at the end of this post. And just to be clear, this is responding to Ted's and STC's written testimony that he submitted before the hearing.  There are more things wrong with his actual testimony before the committee

Here's the first thing

Mechanized Conveyances
Ted writes: 

Really, the Act was meant to forbid people from using stuff like wagons and ski lifts, but somehow doesn't also cover mountain bikes.  A wagon is basically a metal structure connected to some wheels, but wait a minute, so are mountain bikes.  Take a look at this quote from Congressman Compton White Jr at the hearings for the Wilderness Act in 1964

Representative White seems to think according to the Act, Wilderness Areas should only be accessed by foot or horseback.  Sounds like Congress did mean to forbid everything except people on foot or horseback.

Purity Doctrine
Ted Writes:

Did you notice in the quote it said  "...permissible in wilderness areas..."  Well, Ted, Why don't you provide the whole quotes without the "..." in it.  What are you hiding.  Well, for one thing, the whole paragraph is about something different.  Morris Udall and Frank Church were complaining that the Forest Service was being too picky on what lands would be Wilderness.  This had nothing to do with bikes or any transportation in Wilderness Areas.


Forest Ranger
Then Ted goes on to write a story about a Forest Ranger

Which Mythical Forest Ranger was that?  Perhaps it the same one that saved Bugs Bunny from being shot by Elmer Fudd.  There are very few Wilderness Areas that most people would want to take their infant child into with a stroller.  And if they really wanted to take there baby there, all they need is a baby backpack.  Not having strollers in Wilderness Areas is not the end of the world for parents with babies.   But anyway, it was an entertaining story, Ted.  Next time when you quote a Forest Ranger, try to get her name.

Gila Wilderness
Ted writes about a story that a backpacker wrote in "The Taos News"

Well, that's nice, now let's see the real article.

You can clearly see that the article says "Deeper snow might have caused us to alter our course this time around, too"  There's a link to the article at the bottom of the blog.  And if you actually read the article it explains that the backpackers did the trip between March 14 and 18.  That's before the typical trail maintainer is out clearing the trail in the Spring.  No wonder the backpackers had overgrown trails. They had a winter's worth of downed trees on the trail that had not been cleared yet.

And here's another thing to add about the subject of clearing trails.  The Sustainable Trails Coalition keeps complaining about the conditions of trails within Wilderness Areas.  But, as far as I know, STC has NEVER sponsored a trail clearing trip, inside or outside of a Wilderness Area.

Singletracks Poll
Ted writes

Again, Ted refers to the Singletrack Poll that has proven to be faulty.  There's a link to that poll below.  And here's a screen shot of some of the comments from that article.

As you can clearly see, Singletracks did not define what Wilderness is.  Some people may think the woods on the edge of their town is wilderness.  So, should they be able to ride in the woods at the edge of town, sure.  And for most people the woods at the edge of town is a totally different thing than a Federally Designated Wilderness Area.

Ted Stroll knows that the Singletracks Survey is flawed, yet he continues to mention it.


Well, There are some more things that are wrong, but that's all the time I have for now, Seeya, Tman


Ted's Testimony
https://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/testimony_stroll.pdf

Gila Wilderness Backpacking Story in the Taos News.
http://www.taosnews.com/stories/gila-wilderness-a-tough-but-rewarding-hike,7387

Singletracks Poll about Bikes in the Wilderness
https://www.singletracks.com/blog/trail-advocacy/96-of-mountain-bikers-think-wilderness-should-be-opened-to-bikes/