National Forest Legal News Blog

Oregon - The Hells Canyon Preservation Council ("HCPC") filed suit to force the Forest Service to shut down any part of the Lord Flat Trail to motorized access where it enters the Hells Canyon Wilderness Area. HCPC claimed the trail is situated within the wilderness. District court held that all of the council’s claims were barred by the statute of limitations.  The 9th Circuit agreed.  The LaGrande Observer reported:

In 2004, HCPC again brought suit against the Forest Service for allowing motorized vehicles to continue using the trail. Through a series of arguments about standing and statutes of limitations, the District Court of Oregon and then the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 25 found that “Plaintiffs do not have standing on a claim that a copy of a map of the wilderness boundary was insufficient for the original map.’’

The statute of limitations for issues regarding the wilderness boundary description expired six years after 1981, when notice of the boundary description was published in the Federal Register.

A claim that the Forest Service has violated the Wilderness Act by failing to close the trail to motorized use was found to be not sufficiently stated.