Lawsuit Over Roads

A national group representing off-highway recreationists is suing the U.S. Forest Service to try to overturn a new travel management plan they say is overly restrictive on national forest lands in the Sierra west of Reno. The Pacific Legal Foundation said in a lawsuit filed recently the agency plan adopted in 2010 illegally closed more than 800 miles of roads and trails the public has used for years in the Tahoe National Forest. Environmentalists counter that a crackdown is long overdue because the dirt bikes, Jeeps and all-terrain vehicles are causing profound damage to the land. Similar disputes are under way in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, primarily in northeast Nevada's Elko County, and in the Eldorado National Forest in California mostly west of Lake Tahoe. AP