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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- Recreation and environmental groups have dropped a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service after agency officials agreed to restore a snowmobile ban on 4,000 acres of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest.
The ban applies to about half of 9,000 acres in the Franklin basin area of Logan Canyon which was closed as part of 2003 forest management plan, but reopened to snowmobile use in July 2005. The reversal goes into effect June 1.
The lawsuit was filed in December 2005 by a quartet of environmental groups fighting the July decision. Members of Nordic United, the Bridgerland Audubon Society, Winter Wildlands and the Bear River Watershed Council said efforts at mediation and arbitration that would protect wildlife and allow for non-motorized recreation had failed.
USFS officials in Washington, D.C., which had considered land management proposals from both environmental and recreation groups, sided with a plan drafted by snowmobiler's in reopening the area last summer.
But in a prepared statement Friday, USFS officials announced the reversal and said the agency will conduct an environmental analysis and collect public comment on the Franklin Basin area.
"Opportunities for public comment, as part of the environmental analysis, are expected to begin this month," Wasatch-Cache Forest Supervisor Faye Kruger said in the statement. "Later in the summer, there will be another opportunity as more of the analysis is completed."
Environmentalists hailed the Forest Service's willingness to settle the land use squabble out of court.
"This settlement agreement illustrates the willingness of skiers and conservation organizations to work with the Forest Service to resolve winter recreation conflicts in the Bear River Range," Wally MacFarlane, president of Nordic United, said in a statement. "We are optimistic that this agreement indicates brighter things are up ahead and that the Forest Service will be willing to work openly and lawfully with the public."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
