BOZEMAN – A Bozeman group has sued the Gallatin National Forest over an interim winter-use plan that restricts snowmobiling in the Gallatin Mountains.
The group called Citizens for Balanced Use claims that the U.S. Forest Service overreached its authority with a plan released last November for the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area. Forest Service officials say the interim plan cut snowmobile access in the area by an estimated 75 percent.
Congress created the WSA in 1977 and directed the Forest Service to preserve the area’s “wilderness character” while policymakers decided if the 155,000 acres should be designated wilderness. But more than three decades later, Congress has still not decided what to do with the area.
The winter-use plan followed U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s ruling last fall that the government had allowed too much motorized use in the Wilderness Study Area under the forest-wide travel plan. Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman Marna Daley says the forest is appealing the ruling, and the interim plan was created to comply with the decision in the meantime.
Citizens for Balanced Use says the plan reduces snowmobile use below what was allowed in 1977, and therefore runs afoul of the Montana Wilderness Study Act that created the WSA.
Defenders of the plan say that while the Forest Service is putting tighter regulations on snowmobiles now than it did in 1977, the interim plan was designed to keep snowmobiles in the area where they were most often found when the WSA was created.