Congress?

"The Protecting America’s Rock Climbing provision would recognize rock climbing as an accepted use within the National Wilderness Preservation System, a network of roughly 112 million acres of wilderness land managed by the U.S. Forest Service. It allows for the maintenance of fixed climbing routes already in wilderness areas and the creation of new routes."

!@#$. So much for "leave only footprints." Cue Mt. Bikes? This is incredibly bad news for anyone that understands what Wilderness is truly supposed to be.

Public recreation inside wilderness is one of the greatest threats to that wilderness.

We all need to understand that wilderness has greater value than simply as an all-things-recreation resource to human beings. We all benefit from the preservation of intact ecosystems and clean watersheds. We all benefit from the preservation of endangered and threatened species that are native to those ecosystems.

Sometimes one of the best things we can do for a wilderness area is to stay out of it. We can stay out of it to reduce impact and crowding. We can stay out of it to give wildlife breathing room. We can stay out of it to keep the watershed clean.

Wilderness is not just our playground, our trophy collection, or another item in our bucket list. It is not merely a testing ground for our gear collection. The need for wilderness is not merely to benefit the balance sheet of gear companies or the economies of gateway communities.

Human recreation can be a serious threat to wilderness. That is something we also need to remember when we vote.