News Releases

Conservationists Step In to Defend Wildlife and Natural Solitude. (2008-12-09)

The Montana Wilderness Association Intervenes in a lawsuit to defend the U.S. Forest Service’s travel plan for Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Great Falls, MT – Today, the Montana Wilderness Association (“MWA”) filed to intervene in a lawsuit to defend the U.S. Forest Service’s travel management plan for the Little Belt, Castle, and north half of the Crazy Mountains in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Sarah McMillan of the Western Environmental Law Center is representing MWA in this matter.

MWA is defending the Forest Service against a lawsuit brought by off-road vehicle user groups and industry trade groups who object to the limitations on motorized travel in the new travel plan for the Little Belt, Castle and north half of the Crazy Mountains. MWA member Norm Newhall explained the organization’s decision to defend the trail plan in court, “We aren’t happy about everything in the new plan, but it is a reasonable effort to reach a compromise among conflicting user groups and it does provide more protections for wildlife, clean water and the natural quiet of the forest.”  Despite changes in the travel plan, use will  be heavily weighted in the motorized vehicle users favor.
National Forests across the nation are engaging in this so-called travel planning process to satisfy a 2005 federal rule that required all national forests to minimized damage caused by off-road vehicles. The Lewis and Clark National Forest updated the forest’s  1988 Travel Plan which reserved only 10 percent of the trails in the three mountain ranges for quiet non-motorized use. Since then, vehicle use has increased with bigger, faster and more powerful vehicles. Not surprisingly, the damage from vehicle traffic has also increased.  MWA member Jim Haggerty, an avid hunter and horseback rider from Riceville said, “We agree that everyone has a right to enjoy public lands, but no one has the aright to abuse them. There needs to be quiet non-motorized places too.”
The new summer plan strikes a better balance with the number of quiet non-motorized trails increasing from a mere 76 miles to 573 miles. Opportunities for quiet recreation will be improved and fisheries and wildlife habitat will be better protected. However, most of the routes with the Forest will remain open to motorized vehicle use. According to the final Record of Decision, “…the analysis area (Little Belt, Castle and north half of Crazy Mtns.) remains largely motorized, with 75 percent of the total acres being motorized.”  
The new winter plan is very similar to the negotiated agreement between the Montana Wilderness Association, the Great Falls Cross Country Club, the Montana Snowmobile Association and two Central Montana snowmobile clubs. It  preserved the existing groomed snowmobile trails and most snowmobile play areas while also expanding the Silver Crest ski area and designating areas for quiet backcountry skiing and snowshoeing. The new winter plan also provides more protection for wildlife.

Signatories to the winter agreement which resulted in the new travel plan include the Montana Wilderness Association, Island Range Chapter of the Montana Wilderness Association, Great Falls Cross Country Club, Montana Snowmobile Association, Little Belt Snowmobile Club, and the Great Falls Snowmobile Club. Despite signing the agreement and agreeing to defend it, the Great Falls Snowmobile Club took the forest Service to court to have the plan overturned.
 
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