Regarding David A. Lien\u2019s linking e-bikes threat to elk habitat. Mr. Lien fails to mention oil and gas development, residential development, deer\/elk proof fencing along highways. Mr. Lien also points to mountain bikes as threats while completely ignoring the \u201cexplosion\u201d of ATV\u2019s in the back country.<\/p>\n
While I am no fan of e-mountain bikes on traditional hiking, biking and equestrian trails, neither these \u201cbikes\u201d or single-track trails are reasonably responsible for fragmenting elk habitat.<\/p>\n
While I do share Mr. Lien\u2019s disdain for e-bikes and e- mountain bikes in particular. I feel that Mr. Lien singles out e-bikes without mention of the plethora of other threats to Colorado\u2019s elk population.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time four hunters would crowd into an old Jeep and crawl in low gear to their hunting spot, then disperse on foot for the day; These days four hunters each have their own ATV to themselves.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day elk populations are foremost threatened by human activity and development of all kinds; oil and gas fields, golf courses, homes, hay fields and traffic with highways lined with deer\/elk proof fencing which really breaks up habitat.<\/p>\n
In my experience the majority but not all hunters tend to vote Republican. Republicans are typically in favor of extractive resources such as mining, oil\/gas development and logging as well as any profitable enterprise that our private and public lands may offer no matter what the habitat. The enemy to elk is not e-bikes but humans and their activity in general.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lien, my daughter and I are both hunters, we own four Jeeps, I have lived in rural Colorado since 1980 and rural Texas prior to that, I don\u2019t need a $6,000 mountain bike, a $3,000 scope attached to a custom rifle, a $15,000 ATV or a helicopter pilot to understand what the actual threats are to elk and their habitat.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s not guns that kill people, but people, then it is not e-bikes that threaten elk, it is people.<\/p>\n
Marco A. Diaz
Redstone<\/p>\n