Off-roaders sue US Forest Service over Tellico trail closure

Jon Ostendorff

MURPHY — Off-road vehicle advocates are suing the U.S. Forest Service over the agency's plans to close the popular Upper Tellico trail area in the Nantahala National Forest.

The move is the latest development in a four-year legal battle between four-wheel drive enthusiasts, environmentalists and the government over use of the area.

Tellico had attracted off-road enthusiasts from across the county with its nearly 40 miles of trails. The trail system is about two hours west of Asheville and 11 miles from Murphy.

The Forest Service last year said it would close the area after finding that off-road driving caused sedimentation that had damaged water quality in creeks and streams.

The lawsuit filed last week by the Southern Four-Wheel Drive Association and two other advocacy groups claims the agency broke the law when it started decommissioning trails without telling the public about its plans.

“The entire premise behind this closure – that water quality is uniquely flawed in the Tellico River – is simply untrue,” Roger Theurer, president of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, said in a written statement. “We hope through this suit for an opportunity to present the full story.”

Environmentalists vowed to fight the lawsuit.

“The Forest Service decision to close Tellico was the result of a multiyear public process and exhaustive analysis of trail conditions,” said DJ Gerken, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “At the end of the day, the agency was required by state and federal law to remedy water quality violations caused by the Tellico ORV area.”

He said his group would intervene in court, as it has done in the past, on behalf of Trout Unlimited and two environmental advocacy groups.

The two sides in 2008 agreed to set aside their legal challenges to give the government time to come up with a management plan for the area.

The Forest Service last year produced an environmental assessment that called for closing the area to off-road vehicles, citing the same conclusion on water quality problems that the environmentalists raised.

The agency asked in April for bids from contractors to work on the trail system.

Off-road advocates said the work would “obliterate, or otherwise decommission the bulk of existing roads” in the area.

The agency had not responded in court on Friday.

Forest Service spokesman Terry Seyden could not be reached.

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Source: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100524/NEWS/305240028

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