** The public lands e-bike rush
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
Mountain biking near Fruita, Colorado, BLM Colorado ([link removed])
Interior Department agencies are rushing to figure out how to allow electric bicycles across America's public lands. The rush is due to an order by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ([link removed]) , who gave agencies just 30 days to write e-bike policies.
Kristen Brengel of the National Parks Conservation Association sounded the alarm at the sweeping nature and speed of Bernhardt's announcement, which treats all three classes of e-bikes as the same. “Not even considering conservation in this decision, it goes against the Organic Act of the Park Service,” Brengel told Outside.
National Parks Traveler editor Kurt Repanshek notes this morning that Bernhardt's timeline ([link removed]) has already led to Cuyahoga Valley National Park offering just one week for the public to weigh in on whether to allow e-bikes on some trails. That's a week more than Bryce Canyon National Park gave the public, which created confusion on Monday by announcing e-bikes could use the park's Shared Use Path, while its website said the opposite.
Quick hits
** Dozens of illegal oil spills continue even as California hits brakes on fracking
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Desert Sun ([link removed])
** Could a president ban all fracking in the U.S.?
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CNN ([link removed])
** No one seems to know which BLM jobs might be moving west
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Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])
** New top cop at Interior faces calls for firing on his first day
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E&E News ([link removed])
** Colorado Attorney General considers options after Trump clean water rule rollback
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])
** Farmers balk as former Colorado governor leads push for water pipeline from San Luis Valley to Front Range
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Denver Post ([link removed])
** State and national conservation groups push Congress for permanent conservation funding
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E&E News ([link removed])
** Opinion: Montana doesn't need oil and gas leasing in critical wildlife habitat
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Missoulian ([link removed])
Quote of the day
Anyone who has ever worked on a wilderness campaign knows that once a motorized use has been established in an area, you draw the boundary around it.... Practically speaking, you’re pretty much eliminating the possibility of new wilderness areas on BLM land. For people who care about wilderness, they should be concerned about this.”
—Brad Brooks, The Wilderness Society
Outside ([link removed])
Picture this
** @interior ([link removed])
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Cotton candy clouds dance over the rugged landscape at City of Rocks National Reserve #Idaho ([link removed]) #FindYourPark ([link removed])
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