Appeals court backs snowmobile trail near BWCAW

7 YEARS LATER!!!!!! Appeals court backs snowmobile trail near BWCAW

The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has backed a snowmobile trail proposed at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

By: News Tribune, Duluth News Tribune

The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has backed a snowmobile trail proposed at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court last week released a ruling saying an environmental group’s claims against the trail, which focused on whether South Fowl Lake was intended to be inside the wilderness, were nullified because the statute of limitations had expired.
A lower court already had agreed with the Forest Service that the trail was outside the BWCAW and thus legal.
The lower court also ruled that an environmental review was necessary. The appeals court said it lacked jurisdiction to change that decision.
The Forest Service is under an injunction not to build the trail until after an Environmental Impact Statement is conducted. The project has been on hold pending court action, said Kris Reichenbach, Forest Service spokeswoman in Duluth. No decision has been made on when to proceed with the environmental review, she said.
The trail issue surfaced in 2002 when the Forest Service closed an existing snowmobile trail that did illegally enter the motorless BWCAW.
The agency then proposed a new trail route from MacFarland Lake to South Fowl Lake outside the BWCAW boundary, but environmental groups said it was too close to the line and that noise from snowmobiles would disrupt wilderness.
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/114515/
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