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| Arapaho Ridge Trail Closure and Radial Mountain Singletrack at Issue | | Sunday, December 1, 2002 | On October 22, 2002, COHVCO attorney D. Andrew Wight filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the U.S. Forest Service for failing to follow federal law and procedure in two connected projects in the Routt National Forest in northern Colorado.
The lawsuit alleges that the Forest Service failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act in its decisions to close the Arapaho Ridge Trail to motorized use and to add motorized trail mileage to the trail system in an area known as Radial Mountain. Among other things, COHVCO argues that the two connected and closely-related projects should have been analyzed together in a single government document, instead of being analyzed separately.
First, the lawsuit seeks to force the Forest Service to re-open the Arapaho Ridge Trail to motorized vehicles. The Forest Service had no real evidence that motor vehicles had damaged the trail and its surrounding environs, but closed it anyway because a recent revision to the Routt Forest Plan designated the area as \"non-motorized\" (despite the fact that the trail has been used by motor vehicles for decades). COHVCO refuses to sit back and allow this unique, beautiful, and challenging single-track experience to disappear, because it cannot be duplicated elsewhere.
The Forest Service admits in its draft environmental study that, \"it appears the trail receives low use and is in relatively good to excellent shape,\" and that, \"...motorized travel in the area is light and actual confrontations between motorized and non-motorized recreationalists are rare...\" Why, then, are they closing the trail? Perhaps because, \"motorized activity in the area…is disconcerting to many of the non-motorized factions.\" COHVCO\'s suit is intended to ensure that the public lands remain open to all types of uses, as is intended by the federal statutes that bind the Forest Service, regardless of the hurt feelings of a small \"non-motorized faction.\"
Second, the lawsuit seeks to force the Forest Service to re-examine the issue of adding single-track trail mileage to the Radial Mountain system near the Arapaho Ridge Trail. The Forest Service originally proposed to add 27.7 miles of new trails to the system, but subtracted a five-mile long loop after a group of \"environmentalists\" claimed that the loop would allow access to the Arapaho Ridge Trail, which they also demanded be closed. The Forest Service catered to these demands and re-issued its decision, this time only adding 22 miles of single-track.
COHVCO also seeks to force the Forest Service to consider adding motorized trail mileage within the 4,000 acres of Radial Mountain that are supposedly set aside for year-round backcountry motorized access, yet don’t contain a single mile of motorized trail. It\'s interesting that the Forest Service thinks it must close Arapaho Ridge because the Forest Plan calls that area \"non-motorized,\" while it completely ignores that areas designated \"motorized\" by the same Forest Plan don’t actually contain any motorized trails. I guess it takes a federal bureaucrat to figure that one out.
The Forest Service has until December 24, 2002 to respond to COHVCO\'s lawsuit. Look for updates in future issues of the OHV Trail User. |
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