Bikepacking Roots represents the unique interests of bikepackers. While we share many interests with other user groups, we have our own perspective on the experiences we seek and the trails that matter to us. We speak up when elected officials consider decisions that affect us. We cooperate with land managers and with other user groups to promote land conservation and access. We advocate for continued public ownership and increased protections for public lands, and for continued access for bikepacking - especially on trails that are infrequently used but create crucial connections. Below we elaborate on our stances on a few of these specific and critical issues.
Conservation and Access
Some of the best bikepacking is in big, wild places. Those places deserve protection. We believe that public land conservation and access go hand in hand. By protecting public lands from unsustainable, destructive forces, we maintain ecosystems, support local economies, and ensure there will be a future for bikepacking and recreation. We also believe that you can’t love what you don’t know. By facilitating the human-nature connection through bikepacking, we believe we are encouraging a connection that will inspire a conservation ethic and action.
We support federal, state, and other land managers as they increasingly recognize the link between conservation and recreation access. Though bikepackers may seem like newcomers, we are looking for the same qualities of experience that have always drawn people outdoors: quiet, natural, and expansive places to explore.
Public Land Designations
Public lands deserve the highest level of protection we can give them. We support designations that protect public lands while not adversely affecting appropriate access for bikepackers, whether those designations may be National Park, National Monument, Wilderness, Special Recreation Area, or something else.
We believe public land management requires respect, compromise, and cooperation. We also believe public land managers should take the latest science into account when considering access for human-powered travel. We will partner with land managers and organizations that support public lands, and we will speak up to protect and facilitate access to appropriate bikepacking destinations.
The Danger of the Federal Land “Transfer” Movement
Federal land in the United States is owned by the country's citizens and is managed by the federal government. Access to our public land - National Parks/Monuments, National Forests, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Fish and Wildlife Service areas is a special part of being a citizen or visitor to the United States . A critical threat our public land faces is the idea that they aren’t the public's at all. Politicians in many western states and in Washington D.C. are threatening to transfer ownership and management of public lands to individual states. In state hands, our public lands could realistically be closed, sold, or expended to resource extraction or development, squandering our invaluable inheritance and forever changing the wild, protected lands that are critical for ecosystem health and recreation opportunity.
We believe in keeping public lands public. While we will work with federal agencies to improve public land management, we oppose the transfer of public lands to the states.
Creating conservation advocates through bikepacking experiences
By empowering more bikepackers to experience and learn about wild places, Bikepacking Roots aims to foster a strong ethic of landscape conservation in the community by educating bikepackers about the places through which they ride. Bike travel allows riders to cover more ground than other means of quiet recreation, effectively requiring larger swaths of uninterrupted landscape for immersive backcountry experiences.
As individuals experience a place during extended backcountry travels and connect intellectually to the same place by learning about it, a passion to protect and conserve that place is developed. It was through such immersive and inquisitive wilderness experiences that American conservationists Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Henry David Thoreau developed the conservation ethics that inspired the environmental movement in the United States. And in the current political climate in which environmental protections are threatened and the privatization of public lands is a potential reality, conservation advocates are critical for ensuring that our access to public wildlands is preserved.
Beyond simply empowering individuals to strike out on bikepacking trips in new places, we want to help bikepackers connect to where they are riding. Most of our routes will feature written educational materials about unique elements of the landscapes, natural history, culture, and conservation stories along the way. Through this, we hope that riders will develop a strong sense of place that will help foster a conservation ethic and inspire the bikepacking community to engage in protecting the wild landscapes that still exist in the United States.
Conservation and Access
Some of the best bikepacking is in big, wild places. Those places deserve protection. We believe that public land conservation and access go hand in hand. By protecting public lands from unsustainable, destructive forces, we maintain ecosystems, support local economies, and ensure there will be a future for bikepacking and recreation. We also believe that you can’t love what you don’t know. By facilitating the human-nature connection through bikepacking, we believe we are encouraging a connection that will inspire a conservation ethic and action.
We support federal, state, and other land managers as they increasingly recognize the link between conservation and recreation access. Though bikepackers may seem like newcomers, we are looking for the same qualities of experience that have always drawn people outdoors: quiet, natural, and expansive places to explore.
Public Land Designations
Public lands deserve the highest level of protection we can give them. We support designations that protect public lands while not adversely affecting appropriate access for bikepackers, whether those designations may be National Park, National Monument, Wilderness, Special Recreation Area, or something else.
We believe public land management requires respect, compromise, and cooperation. We also believe public land managers should take the latest science into account when considering access for human-powered travel. We will partner with land managers and organizations that support public lands, and we will speak up to protect and facilitate access to appropriate bikepacking destinations.
The Danger of the Federal Land “Transfer” Movement
Federal land in the United States is owned by the country's citizens and is managed by the federal government. Access to our public land - National Parks/Monuments, National Forests, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Fish and Wildlife Service areas is a special part of being a citizen or visitor to the United States . A critical threat our public land faces is the idea that they aren’t the public's at all. Politicians in many western states and in Washington D.C. are threatening to transfer ownership and management of public lands to individual states. In state hands, our public lands could realistically be closed, sold, or expended to resource extraction or development, squandering our invaluable inheritance and forever changing the wild, protected lands that are critical for ecosystem health and recreation opportunity.
We believe in keeping public lands public. While we will work with federal agencies to improve public land management, we oppose the transfer of public lands to the states.
Creating conservation advocates through bikepacking experiences
By empowering more bikepackers to experience and learn about wild places, Bikepacking Roots aims to foster a strong ethic of landscape conservation in the community by educating bikepackers about the places through which they ride. Bike travel allows riders to cover more ground than other means of quiet recreation, effectively requiring larger swaths of uninterrupted landscape for immersive backcountry experiences.
As individuals experience a place during extended backcountry travels and connect intellectually to the same place by learning about it, a passion to protect and conserve that place is developed. It was through such immersive and inquisitive wilderness experiences that American conservationists Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Henry David Thoreau developed the conservation ethics that inspired the environmental movement in the United States. And in the current political climate in which environmental protections are threatened and the privatization of public lands is a potential reality, conservation advocates are critical for ensuring that our access to public wildlands is preserved.
Beyond simply empowering individuals to strike out on bikepacking trips in new places, we want to help bikepackers connect to where they are riding. Most of our routes will feature written educational materials about unique elements of the landscapes, natural history, culture, and conservation stories along the way. Through this, we hope that riders will develop a strong sense of place that will help foster a conservation ethic and inspire the bikepacking community to engage in protecting the wild landscapes that still exist in the United States.
