[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6917 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6917

To amend the Wilderness Act to allow recreation organizations to cross 
    wilderness areas on established trails, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 16, 2008

    Mr. Lamborn (for himself and Mr. Smith of Texas) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

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                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Wilderness Act to allow recreation organizations to cross 
    wilderness areas on established trails, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4(d) of 
the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1133(d)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following:
    ``(8) Use by Recreation Organizations.--A recreation organization 
is an organization of hikers or horseback riders whose purposes include 
one or more of the following: (i) to promote the development and 
preservation of trails throughout Federal lands; (ii) to promote and 
encourage education of the public about the fragile nature of mountain 
and forest ecology and the necessity for its protection and 
preservation; or (iii) to gather and disseminate information regarding 
the use and enjoyment of wilderness areas and other Federal land--and 
whose leadership has by reputation and practice over a period of at 
least ten (10) years demonstrated compliance and consistency with one 
or more of said purposes. Members of a recreation organization acting 
as an organized unit and regardless of their number shall have the 
right to cross wilderness areas on established trails without 
restriction as part of a journey along a connecting system of trails 
across public, private or wilderness area lands, provided such right 
shall be exercised within one day and shall continue during the process 
thereof without unreasonable delay. The exercise of such right shall 
neither be deemed inconsistent with the purposes of a wilderness area 
nor to affect any wilderness area's opportunities for solitude or a 
primitive and unconfined type of recreation. The agency administering 
any wilderness area may limit the exercise of such right within any 
specific wilderness area to not more than ten (10) wilderness crossings 
annually and may establish fair procedures to implement this provision, 
provided the right of a recreation organization hereby granted shall 
not be impaired during such process.''.
                                 <all>