Wilderness Deals for Wheels

[Steve]

[Wildebeat.net] This wild places program investigates the relationship of the popular sport of mountain bicycling to wilderness preservation. What do these groups want when they lobby for the protection of wild places?
Steve tells the story with the help of:

• Roger Abeh, a park ranger for the Department of Parks of the City of San Jose, California.
• John Kramer, the acting Wilderness Manager for the Pacific Southwest Region of the National Forest Service.
• Ryan Henson, the policy director for the California Wilderness Coalition.
• Mark Eller, Communications Director for the International Mountain Bicycling Association, also known as IMBA.

A recent point of contention between wilderness groups and mountain bicycling groups was over the establishment of the King Range Wilderness. This wilderness was established in October, 2006, as part of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act.
The bonus material linked below includes additional interview clips about responsible mountain bike riding in the backcountry. Steve talks to Tom Ward, the California Policy director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association and Ben Lawhon, the education director of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

• Show number 66 [MP3 format; length 9:48; 2,354,424 bytes]
• Show number 66, high-fidelity stereo [MP3 format; length 9:48; 9,414,180 bytes]
• Show number 66 script
• Bonus interview segment, Tom Ward of IMBA and Ben Lawhon of Leave No Trace [MP3 format; length 9:08; 1,097,689 bytes]

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