| Coalition for Public Accesse-ANNOUNCEMENT (October 27, 2010) |
Dear CPA Subscriber,
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has filed a lawsuit in a Federal District Court challenging the recently adopted Travel Management Plan (TMP) for the Bridgeport Ranger District (BRD). The lawsuit alleges the BRD violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, two Presidential Executive Orders, and certain implementing regulations. The CBD wants the court to declare that the BRD did violate various laws, orders and procedures and to declare the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and ROD to be invalid ordering the BRD to start over. Also the CBD wants the court to order the BRD to immediately close all 220 miles of newly added routes and any other routes the CBD specifically requests be closed during the court proceedings. Lastly, the CBD wants the court to award CBD its costs, attorney fees and other relief the court deems appropriate.
The outcome of this, and similar lawsuits the CBD has filed in recent months, is very important as they seek to essentially close the forests to motorized use. CPA has already had communication with the Blue Ribbon Coalition – a national non-profit organization dedicated to protecting responsible recreational access to public lands and of which we are a member organization – to seek their advice and assistance to ensure the FS vigorously defends the TMP and ROD. While CPA doesn’t agree with all provisions of the ROD, we do believe that the Environmental Impact Analysis was completed with relative fairness to competing interests and that the TMP attempted to strike a balance between motorized and non-motorized use of the forest.
CPA will continue to investigate what can be done to protect your rights of access to the BRD and will publish additional information as it becomes available.
Thank you,
Board of Directors, Coalition for Public Access