Judge sides with BLM over Scratchgravel Hills mountain bike plan

A U.S. district court judge has ruled the federal government showed it complied with guidelines in assessing environmental impacts and recreational usage when it developed the Scratchgravel Hills Recreation Area Management Plan that introduced mountain bike trails.

Judge Brian Morris issued a 31-page ruling July 1 that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) complied with the National Environmental Procedure Act (NEPA) in a lawsuit filed against the BLM and U.S. Department of the Interior by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council.

A mountain biker rides a trail in the Scratchgravel Hills Recreation Area in 2022.

THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record

The two conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the federal government in September 2022, saying the creation of 35 miles of mountain bike trails in the Scratchgravel Hills Special Recreation Management Area northwest of Helena was done without analyzing the impacts on other trail users. They said BLM not only violated NEPA, but the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) as well.

People are also reading…

View Source