South Fowl hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis

Oral arguments were heard before Judge Tunheim at the U.S. District Courthouse in Mpls. MN on December 21, 2006 in the case of the Izaak Walton League, Sierra Club, Northeastern MN for Wilderness and other preservation groups vs. USFS concerning a proposed snowmobile trail outside of the Boundary Waters.

Conservationists with Common Sense (CWCS) was an intervener in the case siding with the Forest Service, along with Cook County and Arrowhead Coalition for Multiple Use.

The Tilbury Trail was built in the early 1960s before the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Some say the trail was illegally built, but as with many trails built at that time, it was built by users, following old logging roads. The trail went from McFarland Lake to South Fowl Lake north of Hovland. Snowmobiles were an allowable use.

With the 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act, the Tilbury Trail was included in the Boundary Waters. According to Sec. 18(a) of the Act, the government was to build snowmobiles trails outside the Boundary Waters to provide motorized recreation experiences similar to those previously available in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. For over 25 years the Forest Service neglected to close the Tilbury Trail.

The Forest Service closed the Tilbury Trail in 2003 and proposed a similar trail following a northern route from McFarland Lake to South Fowl Lake outside of the wilderness. CWCS supported the closure of the Tilbury Trail and stopping of illegal use because it is now partially in the Boundary Waters. We also approved the proposed northern re-route.

Preservation groups oppose the re-route because it will be too close to the wilderness. At its nearest point it will be 600 to 700 feet from the boundary line above the Royal River. The Forest Service has said less than a dozen winter wilderness visitors would be affected by this re-route. The sight of snowmobiles through the trees would be for about five seconds, and their sound would be the equivalent of bedroom conversation.

Vehicles, snowmobiles and ATVs are allowed to drive right up to Brule Lake and other wilderness lakes on maintained roads. Why would this snowmobile trail, much further away, have more impact on the wilderness?

The preservation groups claim both North and South Fowl Lakes are within the Boundary Waters, when in fact they are not. According to the legal description of the Boundary Waters and all Forest Service maps, the wilderness ends at the high water mark on these two lakes. It is the opinion of CWCS’s attorney David Oberstar that the two lakes were mistakenly listed in the Act, and that North and South Fowl Lakes should have been stricken from the legislation.

The Department of Justice attorney Pat Cangemi commended Gunflint District Ranger Dennis Neitzke for being a true guardian of the forest with his extensive, personal, hands-on environmental assessment of the proposed snowmobile trail re-route in regard to user impact and to Canadian Lynx habitat.

Oberstar argued the proposed trail reroute area and North and South Fowl Lakes are not within the Boundary Waters. He also argued that the 10hp motor limit shouldn’t have been implemented, as the Wilderness Acts do not mandate the regulation of lands and waters not within the wilderness.

CWCS, Cook County and the Arrowhead Coalition for Multiple Use hope Judge Tunheim will use common sense in interpreting the plain language of the 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act in making his decision and allow the proposed snowmobile re-route; affirm that North and South Fowl Lakes are not wilderness lakes; that they do not require motorboat quotas or banning of snowmobile use; and remove the 10hp restriction that has been wrongfully enforced on North and South Fowl Lakes.