6 FEB 2004: Bill in Kansas legislature threatens trails on public land

WHAT CAN YOU DO
If you live (or ride/walk trails) in Kansas, please contact your state representative immediately and let them know that you support trails on public lands in Kansas and oppose HB2583.

The Kansas legislature has an online list of all House members with contact information. You can send an email or make a call in less than two minutes.

Members of the Environment Committee (which will be holding a hearing on the bill Tuesday) are

Environment: Freeborn, Chairperson; Tafanelli, Vice-Chairperson; Compton, Faber, Hayzlett, D. Johnson, Light, Powell, Powers, Schwartz, Sloan. Flora, Ranking Minority Member; Faust-Goudeau, Flaharty, J. Miller, Svaty, Thimesch.

DETAILS:
According to Ken Miner, Kansas State Representative of the International Mountain Bicycling Association, a bill has been introduced in the Kansas House of Representatives that threatens individuals and volunteer organizations that work on trails on public lands in Kansas.

Under the terms of the bill, any adjoining landowner would be able to sue individuals or organizations that put volunteer time into trails on public lands. Many (most?) trails on public lands are at least partly built or maintained by volunteers.

The resulting liability would essentially put a stop to such volunteer trail building in Kansas.

The bill is scheduled for a hearing on Tues, Feb 10th, 2004.

Click on the "Comment" link at the end of this article for more information from Ken, including the full text of the proposed bill.