The National Park Service (NPS) has drafted new climbing regulations which would ban power drills but allow (probably limited) bolting. The US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) initially suggested it would prohibit bolts, but now will allow some bolting under permit.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) threatened to ban and remove bolts in its wilderness and wilderness study areas (WSAs); this summer the BLM released its Interim Wilderness Management Policy (IWMP), which states that "the use of rock drills or bolts is not allowed."
Despite some exclusionary language, the IWMP is being interpreted as a wholesale ban. The US Forest Service (USFS) has maintained that bolts cannot be allowed in wilderness due to their categorical prohibition by the Wilderness Act.
To achieve a broadly acceptable solution to the bolting issue, the Access Fund has recommended that the Park Service's proposed regulations be approved. To support this recommendation, we prepared a legal analysis of the Wilderness Act's direction on fixed anchors and compiled an inventory of wilderness climbing areas, providing estimates of how much climbing and bolting take place there.
In addition, we have worked with national and local land managers to develop climbing management plans and policies based on sustainable, resourced-based criteria. Additionally, we have worked closely with other organizations such as ORCA and NOLS to develop and expand climber education programs, and to explain to government officials, climbers, and others interested how climbing fits into the Leave No Trace ethic.
Our efforts have had mixed results. The Access Fund, and climbers in general, now have greater recognition and credibility with land managers and the environmental community. On the other hand, the agencies have not been willing to agree on a common policy for fixed anchors in wilderness, which has stalled movement on this issue altogether.
Although we received no guarantees that the bolting issue will be resolved quickly, these meetings were largely successful. Key players in the agencies now understand how important this issue is to climbers, and how committed the Access Fund is to achieving a solution before it can enter into lasting partnerships with the agencies.
The Park Service's position remains that bolts can and should be allowed in wilderness on a managed basis. Their proposed regulations would ban power drills and require each park to establish its own limits on bolting. This leaves open the possibility that a park may ban bolts (Canyonlands has already done so).
The Fish & Wildlife Service will adopt the climbing policy developed for the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma as its de facto national policy. This policy allows for new and replacement bolting by permission of a refuge manager, upon recommendation of a "bolting advisory committee."
The BLM is taking the hardest line on bolts, by prohibiting use of fixed anchors in BLM Wilderness Study Areas and proposing to do the same in its already-designated wilderness. The BLM's position is being driven by the experience of high-ranking agency officials who visited the Leslie Gulch WSA on the Oregon-Idaho border after climbers created an outdoor gym from the natural rock, see Are Use Fees an Access Problem?
In a startling about-face, Forest Service officials told the Access Fund that climbers "are the ideal wilderness user group" and that they hoped the bolting issue could be resolved in a way that we would find acceptable. In April 1994, these same officials told the Access Fund that bolts would be banned in National Forest Wilderness and if that meant the end of climbing in these areas, so be it. Unfortunately, their legal counsel continues to interpret the Wilderness Act as prohibiting bolts.
The Access Fund's position is that the appropriate level of fixed anchor use is different for each wilderness area and should be determined locally. Land managers already have formulas for determining where to "draw the line" (such as the Limits of Acceptable Change process), which provide for graduated levels of use and controls as one moves from the trailhead through the day-use zone and into true backcountry. The Access Fund further believes that climbers must be part of the wilderness management process and establishing an acceptable level of fixed anchor use for each wilderness.