Fight brewing over elk habitat in Clearwater National Forest

Three environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the Clearwater National Forest's travel management plan for allowing too much access to motorized vehicles.

The groups, which include Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Sierra Club, allege the travel plan violates the forest's 1987 management plan by allowing motorized use in areas the agency had pledged to protect as prime habitat for elk.

"They are allowing motorized uses in places we think, in their (forest) plan, they promised to the public they would protect," said Gary Macfarlane of Friends of the Clearwater. "These are places that are important for wildlife and in some instances very high-quality watersheds for fish habitat."

The groups also claim the agency violated decades-old executive orders that mandate it minimize damage to soil, vegetation and water quality caused by motor vehicles and that it violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not conducting site-specific analysis on the potential effects of motorized use.

The travel plan, completed in early 2012, spells out which roads and trails on the forest are open to motorized use. It closed the entire forest to off-trail use by all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and full-sized vehicles and restricted motorized use to designated roads and trails. It also closed snowmobile use in areas that have been proposed for wilderness designation.

In total, about 200 miles of trails and 1 million acres of forest were closed to motorcycles, snowmobiles or ATVs under the plan. But, according to the lawsuit, the agency should have closed another 30 trails and a portion of one road.

The travel plan was previously appealed by the same environmental groups.

Idaho and Clearwater counties also appealed the plan, on opposite grounds, insisting it went too far in its restrictions on motorized travel.

Both appeals where denied by the agency.

The counties are also planning a legal challenge to the travel plan. Idaho County Commissioner Skip Brandt said Thursday both counties are working on a joint lawsuit that has not yet been filed. When the counties appealed the plan, they said the agency was wrong to close areas proposed for wilderness designation and that it closed certain trails to protect wildlife habitat without offering any data indicating motorized use was harming wildlife. The counties said in their appeals that the closures would harm rural communities that depend on income from motorized recreation.

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.