Stateline Trail News Today

Andy Kulla worried that the proposed action to revise the Lolos forest plan "ignores the history and cultural significance of the RNRA to the Missoula community" and "is a far cry from why the RNRA was designated, what Congress intended, how it was treated in the 1986 LNF Plan and what we’ve come to expect and take for granted."

By P.J. GLISSON news@yourdailyglobe.com A lack of snow has inspired officials in the tri-county area to allow ORV riding in February. The unusual

The Lolos proposed action comes as a variety of recreation, conservation and wilderness advocacy groups have brought attention to forest plan revision on the adjacent Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, which borders the Lolo over the state line in Idaho. The two forests share the storied Great Burn area west of Missoula and the Hoodoo Recommended Wilderness Area therein.

The conference room of an engineering firm in central Missoula seemed like an odd place to describe the ecological wonders of the Great Burn straddling the Montana/Idaho border.

Heres a roundup of local stories that ran this week.

The heart of the Great Burn landscape is the Hoodoo Recommended Wilderness Area, spanning from west of Lolo Pass to Hoodoo Pass, southwest of Superior. The Hoodoo RWA, in the same shape since 1986, takes up most of the Hoodoo Roadless Area — the largest roadless area of Forest Service land in the Lower 48. The looming change in snowmobile access comes as the Nez Perce-Clearwater and Lolo national forests each revise their forest plans.

The conference room of an engineering firm in central Missoula seemed like an odd place to describe the ecological wonders of the Great Burn straddling the Montana/Idaho border.

The conference room of an engineering firm in central Missoula seemed like an odd place to describe the ecological wonders of the Great Burn straddling the Montana/Idaho border.

The trail, a zigzag that drapes repeatedly across the ridge and the border between the two states about 47 miles west of Missoula, used to be a marquee backcountry ride for mountain bikers. That ended in 2012 when the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, which controls the Idaho side of the trail, approved a new travel management plan that barred bicycles from its portion of the trail.

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest supervisor trumpeted her new forest plan as the best compromise for all.