BY PEPPER FISHER
WASHINGTON – The National Park Service (NPS) announced Monday a proposed rule to expand bicycle and e-bike access to our national parks.
NPS officials said in an email the proposal would remove unnecessary reviews and requirements for bicycle use across the entire Park System, allowing them to manage resources more efficiently and streamline the approval of new opportunities for visitors to use the parks.
Consistent with 3 executive orders signed by the President, (known as Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, and Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative), the proposed rule “would remove redundant procedural requirements that do not adhere to law and policy and cause unnecessary delays and administrative costs. It would create a clear and consistent baseline for allowing bicycle and e-bike use on roads, parking areas, and trails within park areas.”
The proposed rule will be available for a 60-day public review and comment period to help inform the agency’s consideration of the proposal. The email says the NPS will carefully review public comments before making any final decisions.
For more information, please visit federalregister.gov.
We looked the document over and, in summary, the proposal seeks to eliminate the need for Environmental Assessments (EA) and/or Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) before getting approval for some expanded trail opportunities for cyclists. It gives expanded discretion to Park Superintendents to apply “categorical exclusions” to some trails, which are classes of actions that a federal agency has determined do not have a significant effect on the human environment and therefore do not need to be evaluated in an EA or EIS.
The announcement did not include a link to submit public comment. We are pursuing that and will update this story when we find out how.