Lawsuit Challenges Forest's Motorized Travel Plan
ICL and The Wilderness Society fear that the new Salmon-Challis NF travel plan fails to protect clean water and pristine backcountry areas from damage by motorized vehicles.
BOISE, Idaho — Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the new off-road vehicle plan for the Salmon-Challis National Forest fails to protect land, streams and wildlife across hundreds of thousands of acres of eastern and central Idaho backcountry.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Friday also asks a judge to block the forest from implementing its new travel management plan, the policy rewritten last year to designate appropriate routes and areas for all-terrain vehicles and other off-road recreation.
Brad Brooks, of the Wilderness Society, says the forest's plan is fraught with flaws, creates new miles or off-road trails in areas previously without designated roads and fails to balance off-road use with hikers and campers who head to the forests for peace and solitude.
