E-Mountain Bike Advocacy

The Bridger-Teton National Forest Jackson District has released a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) regarding E-Mountain Bike use.

Your attention and public comment is needed!

AMPL is advocating for high quality e-mountain bike (EMTB) opportunities in the Jackson District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF).

Currently, EMTBs are managed as motorized vehicles by the National Forest Service while the state of Wyoming, and many other states, manage EMTBs as bicycles. These differing designations have made regulating EMTBs and their use on trails complicated. To further add to the confusion, EMTBs come in many shapes and sizes. There are two classes of EMTBs that require pedaling to receive power from a motor, and one class of EMTB that has a “throttle”. Between the confusing EMTB classes and a great deal of misinformation, we suggest you watch THIS VIDEO to further understand the bikes we are advocating for.

The Environmental Assessment

The Jackson District of the BTNF has been working since 2023 to address the needs of this new and growing user group that is EMTB riders. After receiving 334 public comments and consulting with state and federal agencies, the Jackson District of the BTNF released its Draft Environmental Assessment (EA), which is a document that takes into account both the social and environmental impacts of a proposed change in use on public land. The BTNF is taking public comments about the EA through February 24, 2025.

This is your chance to help guide their decision. The team at AMPL has read this EA in full and is here to inform you on the important details of this 67 page document. 

When writing your public comment, be specific about the elements of both the Proposed Action and the Alternative 1 that you either support or disagree with. Specific comments have more weight than generalized comments.

AMPL has prepared its own public comment in response to this EA. Below you will find a list of a few of the important points that AMPL has included in our comment. We hope this helps you organize your thoughts and opinions as you write your own public comment. 

Your input makes a difference!

AMPL’s thoughts:

Safety

As quoted in the EA, studies show that EMTBs travel at nearly the same speeds as traditional mountain bikes. “People on traditional bikes travelled faster than e-bikes on downhill sections (15 mph vs 13.5 mph) and people  on e-bikes travelled faster than traditional bikes on uphill sections (13.8 mph vs 12.9 mph)” (Nielson et  al., 2019b), page 21 of the EA. Therefore, the speed at which EMTBs travel should not be factored into making this decision.

Recreation Experience

EMTBs are so similar to traditional mountain bikes in speed, noise, and appearance, anyone choosing to recreate on a trail in which bicycles are already allowed will hardly be able to recognize if EMTBs are permitted to access the same trails.

It is worth noting that in the EA, user impacts are only considering the impacts to non-motorized users. In the Alternative 1 proposal, the EA does not adequately address the impacts to dirt bikers. Funneling EMTB users to the already limited motorized trail systems will undoubtedly impact users riding their dirt bikes. 

Classification of EMTBs

In the EA, there is concern about the similarities in appearance between the 3 different classes of EMTBs. It would be challenging, if not impossible, for law enforcement to be able to identify what class of bike a user is riding from a reasonable distance. AMPL agrees that this presents a challenge to enforcing a class 1 only law (as originally proposed by the BTNF), and therefore supports allowing all 3 classes on non-motorized mountain bike trails. While a class 3 bike can receive power up to 28 mph, as quoted above, average climbing speeds of EMTBs is only 13.8 mph. With this in mind, users would be traveling similar speeds no matter what class bike they are riding. 

Constructing New Trail

When making the decision to construct new trails, AMPL feels it is important to be very critical. 

In areas such as Shadow Mountain, AMPL feels new construction/adopting popular non-system trails is a great idea. Shadow Mountain would be a perfect place to allow EMTBs if those trails were purpose built. With a climbing route and some downhill trails, users would be able to ride without shuttling and further congesting the already busy road that accesses the popular camping in this area. 

In Mosquito creek, the proposed new trail on the west side of Mill Creek has potential to add value to the motorized trail system that already exists. The proposed new trail generally parallels an existing section of Crankshaft that descends down an old road bed along Mill Creek. In the spring and during large rain events, water flows down long sections of this trail, despite our trail crew’s efforts to create effective drainage. The proposed new trail would be further removed from the drainage and offer riders an alternative, high quality option to complete the Crankshaft loop. AMPL feels this secondary route option would benefit not only the EMTB community, but also those who dirt bike these trails.

With the continual budget cuts that the Forest Service has faced over the past decade, and the recent termination of seasonal employees, the Forest Service will be unable to staff a trail crew. This means that the burden of trail construction will fall on the shoulders of local non-profits, who are already working hard to maintain the trails that are already in existence. If Alternative 1 is selected, EMTB riders will have little change in riding opportunities until the necessary funds are raised through donations and grants. AMPL urges the Forest Service to not rely solely on new trail construction to meet the purpose and need of this proposal.

EMTBs And Teton Pass

AMPL feels that these trails are vital to providing EMTB riding opportunities that will match the Purpose and Need outlined in the EA. Arrow Trail, Snotel Trail, Phillips Ridge, and Phillips Canyon offer a traditional mountain bike experience close to the town of Wilson. The community’s bike paths that connect the towns to these trails offer riders an opportunity to pedal their EMTB to and from the trailhead, making this a high value trail network. Only including the designated downhill or jump trails will only serve the most adventurous riders and would miss the majority of users. 

Allowing EMTBs on Old Pass Road and the downhill specific trails also makes a lot of sense. This gives those riders who already enjoy those trails the opportunity to self shuttle on their electric bicycle, rather than relying on vehicles to take them back to the top of Teton Pass. 

Season Extensions of Big Munger and Horsetail

AMPL believes in effective seasonal closures to provide habitat security for vulnerable species. In the Proposed Action, season dates for Horsetail and Big Munger would have been extended from their current dates open to motorized (July 1-September 9) to July 1st through December 1st. Under Alternative 1, the dates for Horsetail would stay the same as they are currently (July 1-September 9), lower Munger trails would change to July 1- November 30, and Big Munger would stay open July 1-September 9.

AMPL would like to see more consistency and more leniency for the seasonal dates on the Horsetail Trail as well as the Munger Trails. We propose keeping the start dates as they are now, July 1st, to ensure elk have an opportunity to calve without being disrupted by humans. For the fall closure date, we believe there could be an extension to allow for more EMTB opportunities without negatively impacting mule deer and pronghorn migrations, and therefore propose a season closure date of October 31. 

Development of an App to report Illegal EMTB use

AMPL is strongly opposed to such a tool. We feel like this would violate user’s privacy, encourage false reporting, and lead to division of user groups. While AMPL does not tolerate illegal use on the National Forest, we also feel we need to establish a higher level of trust amongst public land users. We feel that if EMTB users are allowed adequate, high quality opportunities to recreate on public lands, illegal use will vastly decrease. Creating a reporting platform would be counter productive and we do NOT support this idea.