Coalition Litigates CNF’s Travel Plan

FOR IMMDEDIATE RELEASE                                                             2-19-2010

BROAD COALITION SEEKS QUIET TRAILS

Billings, MT – A coalition of hikers, horseback riders, birders and conservationists – known as the Pryors Coalition — today challenged Custer National Forest’s Beartooth Travel Plan in US District Court. In its final decision, the Forest Service failed to adequately protect the area’s natural and cultural resources and address conflicts that interfere with quiet recreationist’s opportunity to enjoy the Pryor Mountains and traditional stock trails.

The Pryors Coalition is a group of organizations and individuals working to protect and restore the Pryor Mountains. Joining the Pryors Coalition in the lawsuit, filed by the Northern Rockies office of the Western Environmental Law Center, are the Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society, the Frontier Heritage Alliance, the Beartooth Backcountry Horsemen, and the Eastern Wildlands Chapter of Montana Wilderness Association. Also included in the lawsuit are former Beartooth District Ranger Phil Jaquith, and Missoula-based Wildlands CPR, which works on travel plans across the state.

The Pryor Mountains are an outdoor treasure for people in surrounding communities like Billings. For most people, the main attractions are the unique opportunities to hunt, camp, hike and ride horseback. Add to this the area’s exceptional cultural heritage and unique landscape, including an abundance of wildlife and plants, some of which grow nowhere else, and it is easy to see why the Pryors are so popular.

In recent years, the Pryor Mountains have become a destination for off-road vehicles such as ATVs, 4×4 trucks, jeeps and motorcycles. “It is understandable that people want to drive into this spectacular area; we all use vehicles to get to our favorite camping and hiking areas,” Dick Walton of the Pryors Coalition acknowledges. “The challenge is finding the right balance between opportunities to enjoy the quiet, pristine landscape while also providing adequate motorized access; a balance that Custer National Forest failed to achieve.”

In the Pryor Mountains, the Forest Service designated 124 miles (99%) of roads and trails for motorized use, and less than one and a half miles (1%) for those who rely on a quiet setting to enjoy traditional Montana activities.  There are eight designated motorized routes up the south and west slopes of Big Pryor Mountain and no quiet routes.

“It did not have to be this way,” explained Walton, “From the beginning the Pryors Coalition offered the Forest Service a balanced plan in which about 50 percent of the area would be for quiet recreation and the other for motorized users; an even split that would accommodate all types of activities.”

That plan would have preserved several significant areas for traditional, quiet pursuits — hunting, horseback riding, hiking, bird watching, and others — as well as protect fragile and valuable resources that belong to everyone.

“These areas would guarantee that people would continue to find the peace and solitude the Pryors have always provided,” continued Walton, “but the Forest Service chose instead to make the Pryors primarily a motorized use area.”

Also at issue are Meyers and Lodgepole Creek Trails in the Beartooth Mountains that are popular destinations for horseback riders and hikers, especially during the hunting season. In the new travel plan these narrow, and at times, steep trails were also designated for motorcycles, which creates serious safety concerns.

“When our stock is on a narrow trail with a steep drop off, it is simply dangerous for a motorcycle to be on the same trail. That is why we feel traditional stock trails should be protected, especially the Lodgepole and Meyers Creek Trails,” explains Beartooth Back Country Horsemen representative John Chepulis.

In addition to addressing conflicts with motorized recreationists, Wildlands CPR notes that the Forest Service failed to minimize damage to Pryor Mountain itself when it allowed people to ride their machines up to 300 feet from either side of roads and trails to set up campsites.

“This dispersed vehicle camping exemption defeats one of the main purposes of travel planning, which is to keep the machines on the road or trail instead of riding wherever they can,” says Adam Rissien, Montana Off-Road Vehicle Coordinator at Wildlands CPR. “The Forest Service is supposed to use this exemption sparingly, but instead the Forest applied it to nearly every road and trail on the district including every route in the Pryors.”

“The Forest Service’s new travel plan for the Pryor Mountains puts the interests of motorized users above all others, including the public’s interest in protecting and restoring the biological integrity of the Pryors and using at least part of the area for quiet recreation,” explained WELC attorney Matthew Bishop.

“As increasing population brings more people, the tranquility of the Pryor Mountain’s natural landscape will continue to disappear,” concluded Walton. “That is why we need balanced opportunities, otherwise our freedom to escape the noise and commotion of life in the city will eventually fade away.”