MFMU vows to take case to Supreme Court

Montanans for Multiple Use could appeal its case against the Forest Service to the U.S. Supreme Court, the organization announced last week.

MFMU, a group that has long decried the closure of roads and trails to motorized use in the Flathead, first filed its case in 2003.

The group claims the Forest has illegally shut down roads and hasn't complied with its 1986 Forest Plan. They also maintained the Forest Service has not complied with the National Forest Management Act of 1976, which requires that forest plans must be at least once every 15 years.

But a Washington, D.C., appeals court last month ruled against the group and a host of intervenors on all counts.

Now MFMU will petition the appeals court for a review of the three judge panel decision by the full Circuit Court of seven judges. If the appeal court rejects that petition, MFMU will appeal to the Supreme Court, said Fred Hodgeboom, MFMU president.

"The issues in our lawsuit are just too important for us to leave any stone unturned in our efforts to get a fair judicial review of the harm that the U.S. Forest Service's actions and failures to act have caused to the citizens and natural resources of Montana and other Western states," said Hodgeboom.

The three-judge panel had other advice for the group, however: Lobby their Congressmen and elected officials.

"…It is clear that the plaintiffs' grievances lie with legally permissible policy decisions made by Congress and the Forest Service. Plaintiff's plea for a new approach to management of the Flathead Forest is therefore best directed to the legislative and executive branches," the court said in a eight-page decision.

The original case was not brought just by MFMU. It included the Northwest Montana Gold Prospectors, Leland's Honda, Leland J. Moore (the owner of Leland's Honda), Montanans for Property Rights, the Capital Trail Vehicle Association, the Flathead Snowmobile Association, North American Wolf Watch, Owens and Hurst Lumber, state Sens. Jerry O'Neil and George Everett, Flathead and Sanders counties and the Flathead Business and Industry Association.