Huron-Manistee quiet areas may be nixed

In 2010, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found the 2006 Forest Plan for the Huron-Manistee National Forests in Michigan did not comply with U.S. Forest Service policies such as keeping areas designated as "semiprimitive nonmotorized" off limits to firearm hunting and snowmobiling.

So in 2011, USFS proposed to comply with the court order by amending the forest plan. However, instead of prohibiting firearm hunting and snowmobiling in semiprimitive nonmotorized areas as the court ordered, the USFS now favors reclassifying and essentially eliminating semiprimitive nonmotorized areas expressly for hiking, cross-country skiing and paddling.

Opponents of the move set up the website huron-manistee.webs.com where they argue that he semiprimitive nonmotorized areas consist of just 63.225 acres, less than 7 percent of the total Huron-Manistee National Forests and less than 1 percent of all the public lands in the lower peninsula of Michigan. Firearm hunting is allowed on almost all public lands, and prohibiting snowmobiling in the semiprimitive nonmotorized areas would close only 25 miles of 6,200 miles of snowmobile trails throughout the state.

USFS closed the comment period on the draft environmental impact statement late last month.