Federal lawsuit Seeks Reversal of U.S. Forest Service Public Access Restrictions

Above, at the windmill and cattle watering tanks in Six Mile
Canyon of the Cibola National Forest. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There's a lawsuit in Montana that RVers from everywhere should keep an eye on.

It involves restrictions on public use in the state's national forests that could severely impact dry camping (boondocking) on national forest lands.

According to RV Travel:

Two groups of recreational interests and three individuals have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and its regional administrator in the U.S. Federal District Court for the District of Montana. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief from the Forest Service’s closure of significant portions of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest (“HNF”) to motorized travel and dispersed camping.

The case is important to RVers because Forest Service administrative actions caused a total of 144 miles of roads within the HNF to be closed by the “Divide Travel Plan” promulgated by the agency. Dispersed camping, i.e., “boondocking,” would be severely impacted throughout the 2.8 million acres of the HNF.

The case involves the Capital Trail Vehicles Association (“CTVA”), a Montana outdoor recreation club, along with Citizens for Balanced Use (“CBU”), as well as Ken Salo, Jody Lewis, and Patricia Daugaard, all residents of Montana, against the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Helena National Forest, and Emily Platt, Forest Supervisor of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.  

The lawsuit cites violations of, among other things, the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”), the National Forest Management Act (“NFMA”), and the Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act (“MUSYA”). As set forth in Title 16, U.S. Code, the latter two statutes explicitly provide that the U.S. Forest Service “…must balance competing demands in managing NFS lands.” In addition, the federal government, including the U.S. Supreme Court, has long held that “… It has never been the case that the national forests were…to be set aside for non-use.” (United States v. New Mexico, 438 U.S. 696, 716 n. 23 (1978))

Speaking of national forests, Cibola National Forest, which is south of my community, will reopen to vehicles this weekend after being closed for the winter.

To read the full article, go here.