Superior National Forest administrators can move forward with plans to designate routes for use by ATVs and other off-road vehicles, District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson has ruled.
The StarTribune has the story HERE.
The U.S. Forest Service plan, part of an effort to restrict the vehicles to designated roads and trails in national forests nationwide, will direct riders to designated routes in the forest.
The proposed network of loops and connections between the loops in the Superior National Forest, seeks to provide ATV riders with ample long-distance riding opportunities, according to the USFS. As part of the plan, some routes previously used by ATV riders would be marked off-limits and, in some cases, obliterated.
Three environmental advocacy groups — Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the Sierra Club, and Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness — filed suit against the plan, saying it violated environmental and land management laws, including increasing noise in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from nearby ATV trails.
The groups have 60 days to appeal the ruling.