SB 2535 will severely limit or restrict outdoor recreation
    Off-highway vehicle and mountain bike activities
    Fishing, camping, boating, backpacking
    Especially for the elderly and disabled who rely on vehicle access

Rebuttal

The Wilderness Act of 1964 declares that "wilderness areas shall be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use."  An example of recreational emphasis from National Park Service policy is that commercial activities are generally excluded from wilderness, but "[commercial] Activities such as guide services for outfitted horseback, hiking, mountain climbing, or river trips and similar activities may be appropriate and may be authorized." Comments in the Congressional Record concerning the BLM wilderness management policies indicated that wilderness uses identified either expressly or implicitly in the Wilderness Act include education, conservation, scenic and historic appreciation, ecology, philosophy, photography, art, spirituality, hunting, fishing, and trapping.

A major part of the purpose of protecting land as wilderness is to protect our ability to enjoy it through outdoor recreation.  Most of the typical uses of wilderness are achieved through day hiking, backpacking, and mountain climbing.  Protection of land as wilderness preserves the value of these activities and enables our ability to engage in them in the future.

SB 2535 will severely limit or restrict outdoor recreation
    Off-highway vehicle and mountain bike activities
    Fishing, camping, boating, backpacking
    Especially for the elderly and disabled who rely on vehicle access

Rebuttal

Most wilderness land is inappropriate for OHV and mountain bike activities.  For example, the shortest way into the existing Desolation Wilderness Area is a hike from Twin Bridges (on U.S. 50) to Horsetail Falls.  This is a strenuous hike, climbing so steeply that at some points it requires using hand holds on rock.  Most years one or two hikers die here; one risk is to enter the water at the top and to be carried over the falls, another is to miss a step on part of the trail and to tumble down about 500 feet of steep granite face.

Even if wilderness trails were generally passable by OHV's and mountain bikes, there remains the issue that they are more capable than hikers of damaging the trails they use, disturbing wildlife, and impairing the ability of other wilderness users to experience a truly natural area.

Not all elderly are physically unfit.  One of my concerns in recent years is that the proportion of hikers I've seen in remote areas has been increasingly elderly -- much of our youth seems to be missing what nature offers.

On the other hand elderly such as my 84-year-old mother with arthritic knees are physically limited in even ordinary places, such as the sloped driveway at my own house and the stairs within the house.  With regrets, my opinion is that it's neither feasible nor appropriate to remodel wilderness to make it ADA-compliant for the benefit of the disabled and the physically limited elderly and for disabled people.