Judges nixes plaintiffs in forest road case

A group of residents from a small Idaho town won't be able to challenge road closures on national forest land. A federal judge has dismissed the Village of Yellow Pine Association and a private business from a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service's travel management plans for the region. The group claimed the agency effectively shut down more than 80 percent of the roads in a popular recreational area of the Payette National Forest in violation of administrative law. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Boise has not ruled on the merits of the lawsuit, but dismissed the association and the business from the case on procedural grounds. The group did not appeal a decision notice filed about two years after the 2008 plan was released, thus it hasn't exhausted the administrative process and can't argue the case in federal court, the opinion said...more