Time to read between the lines, folks! Senate Bill 3205 “Human Powered Travel in Wilderness Act” is a classic wedge utilizing backwards language to attain a goal, much like buying a new car that comes with Sirius Radio for free for the first year or satellite TV that comes with several premium packages for free for the first few months.
The Trojan horse into your wallet in those cases is the footnote that “you have to notify the company at the end of the specified time period that you no longer want the additional product or you will automatically be billed for them for future years.”
Many people forget, and they are then stuck with the expensive product they may not want.
With SB 3205, the Trojan horse is the language stating that “this bill requires the Department of Agriculture (with respect to National Forest System land) and the Department of the Interior (with respect to public land) to authorize relevant local officials to determine all permissible forms of recreational use by nonmotorized transportation methods over any permitted routes within their jurisdictions.”
The bill defines “local officials” as officers or employees who are the heads of units or jurisdictions of the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Forest Service or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“If a local official fails to make such a determination about a permitted route more than two years after the bill’s enactment, then any form of recreational use by nonmotorized transportation methods shall be allowable on that route.”
Remember how a “relevant USFS official” finagled a certain land swap north of Durango a few years ago that was so incredibly financially beneficial to the recipients? That was a drop in the bucket compared to this nationwide wedge to open all wilderness areas to uses that are not natural to wilderness.
How many people in the nation will forget this timeline! Not to mention how many “relevant local officials” would really prefer to open all wilderness to “any form of recreational use by nonmotorized transportation methods!” And then?
Bob Thompson
Vallecito
