Outdoor recreation groups file suit against the Forest Service
CAPITAL TRAIL VEHICLE ASSOCIATION (CTVA) CITIZENS FOR BALANCED USE
P.O. Box 5295 P.O. Box 606
Helena, MT 59604-5295 Gallatin Gateway, MT 59730
Contact: Doug Abelin Contact: Kerry White
406-461-4818 406-600-4228
dabelin@live.com kerry@balanceduse.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 25, 2022
LAWSUIT AGAINST HELENA NATIONAL FOREST
Helena- Capital Trail Vehicle Riders Association (CTVA), a non-profit organization advocating for all forms of motorized access to public land by representing motorized recreation enthusiasts throughout Montana, filed a lawsuit in federal court today challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s Travel Management Plan which restricts motorized travel in the Helena National Forest located around Helena, Montana. Joining in the lawsuit are Citizens for Balanced Use, a non-profit multiple use advocacy organization, and their members. Three members of the public are also named as individual plaintiffs.
The Helena NF Travel Management Plan Record of Decision was signed on March 1st, 2016 and severely limited the number of forest roads and trails that remain open to motorized use. Non-designated routes, including many that have been open to motorized travel for decades, are now off-limits to the public, including the disabled, handicapped, firewood cutters, campers, hunters, Christmas tree cutters, OHV and motorized enthusiasts and other recreationalists. As time has shown, the Forest Service’s public access closure decision affects everyone who uses roads and trails for access to the forest using pickups, cars, 4x4s, motorhomes, motorcycles, quads, tow rigs for equestrian trailers, travel trailers, and others. Thousands of recreationists, sportsmen, and many businesses have been negatively affected by this ill-conceived plan.
For outdoor enthusiasts who have suffered the indignities of the Travel Management Process during the development of the plan and the massive closures that resulted, this lawsuit has 7 claims for relief.
Among those legal claims are:
1) Inadequate analysis under NEPA in taking a hard look at the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of its final decision. Cumulative analysis of impacts must include economic, social, and environmental. The Forest Service failed to take a “hard look” at the Cumulative Impacts as required under the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations.
2) The failure of the Forest Service to complete site-specific road and trail analysis as required under NEPA in the Travel Management Rule. Broad area closures are more appropriate in Forest Plan revisions where Travel Management Plans are to be done on a site-specific basis. The Forest Service did not complete site specific analysis in the Travel Plan and closed entire areas and trail systems in the Travel Plan. This action then set the stage for the Forest Service to then designate large areas of Recommended Wilderness Areas (RWA) in the recent signing of the Helena Lewis and Clark Forest Plan, stating in the new Forest Plan, that NO motorized use was currently allowed in these new RWAs. The Forest Service had unlawfully closed these areas to motorized use in the Travel Plan.
3) The Forest Service decision was arbitrary and capricious in closing Sweeny Creek year-round to motorized use by not providing the public with an opportunity to comment on the closure during the scoping and comment period. Closing Sweeny Creek without proper public notice violates NEPA by depriving the public and interested parties of a meaningful opportunity to thoroughly consider and to provide adequate public comment on the final decisions that significantly impacts the environment.
4) The 1986 Forest Plan called for maintaining existing developed campgrounds and picnic areas, while emphasizing dispersed recreation opportunities across the forest. The Travel Plan violated these forest-wide standards in closing many dispersed recreation and camping opportunities in the Travel Plan.
Kerry White, Executive Director CBU, stated:
“The Forest Service violated NEPA in closing entire areas to motorized use in the Travel Plan and then used this flawed decision to further designate additional areas of Recommended Wilderness in the 2021 Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Management Plan revision and stating no motorized use existed in these areas. This ten-plus year effort by the Forest Service all seems to have been a predetermined agenda to cut off public access to large swaths of the National Forest without proper analysis and without meeting the requirements of law to ensure continued multiple use of the forest.” “With the Forest Service using its flawed Travel Plan as a pretext for adopting the 2021 Forest Plan revision, CBU and its members could no longer sit on the sidelines of these public lands access closure efforts. A lawsuit had to be filed to hold the Forest Service accountable for its actions in wrongfully shutting off recreation opportunities at a time when the public interest in outdoor recreation is exploding."
Doug Abelin, representing CTVA, stated:
“Accessibility for the handicapped, disabled and elderly was not considered, nor their needs accommodated. What the Forest Service has done seems like an incredible overreach of what a federal agency can do. The Department of Agriculture has recognized that most National Forest visitors use motor vehicles to access the National Forest system, whether for recreational sightseeing, camping, hiking, or hunting and fishing. Further, the Forest Service has acknowledged that most visitors to National Forests consider motor vehicle travel to be an integral part of their recreational experience. Yet, here we are having to challenge a Forest Service decision that flies in the face of the agency’s own findings. We have to bring fairness back, and we have to insist that it is part of our Cultural Rights to be able to access public land in an environmentally responsible way.”
The Helena National Forest is comprised of 2.8 million acres in Central and North Central Montana. The final Travel Plan reduced multiple use access by roughly 45% and closed an estimated 144 miles of road open to motorized use. Access to dispersed camping and recreation was significantly reduced decreasing the public’s ability to enjoy our public lands. The closures further diminished the ability for our land managers to actively manage this forest to reduce fuel loads and prevent catastrophic fires that destroy watersheds and habitat, sterilize the soil, and pollute our air.