A group of Wood River Valley residents is trying to upend a plan to build more than 80 miles of new trails mostly along federal land.
The Idaho Migration Alliance filed a federal lawsuit this month against the Bureau of Land Management.
In it, the group says the BLM failed to properly account for migrating wildlife, like elk, when it approved the new mixed use trail system in 2021. The new trails would range from Bellevue to Sun Valley.
“These trails crisscross big-game migration corridors, stopovers, and seasonal ranges, and these trails will displace big game from some of the only remaining large contiguous blocks of unfragmented habitat in the Wood River Valley,” the group said in the complaint.
The vast majority of the new trail system would be open to e-bikes, while about 20 miles of the project would be single track trails open to motorcycles. It would also build 21 new campsites, which could accommodate trailers and vehicles.
The Idaho Migration Alliance cited two letters from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in which state officials gave recommendations to BLM staff in 2017 and 2020.
The letters told BLM to consider spacing out new trails instead of creating a dense network, which Fish and Game said would diminish the quality of elk habitat.
The Interior Department’s office of appeals rejected similar arguments from a Elizabeth Lili Simpson last year, saying the government didn’t violate the law just because the plaintiff disagreed with its conclusions.
“Simpson essentially equates BLM’s failure to adopt her desired standing seasonal closures to the full extent of big game wintering activity as a failure by BLM to consider the information, but that is a false equivalency,” wrote the appeals panel.
BLM hasn’t yet responded to this lawsuit. But in its final plan for the project, it said it would close trails during the overwintering season and monitor for recreators scaring off wildlife.
Late last year, the agency partnered with the Wood River Trails Coalition to build up to half of the project. The coalition said in December it would start with a 6.5-mile stretch along Lee’s Gulch just outside of Bellevue.
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