The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted earlier this week to join a legal battle over a short snowmobile trail that skirts the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The U.S. Forest Service has proposed the trail, from about McFarland Lake to South Fowl Lake on the Ontario border, to replace an illegal trail that ran just inside the BWCAW boundary line.
Critics of the new trail in August filed suit in federal court, saying the new trail is still too close to the BWCAW and would result in noise and other impacts within the wilderness. Critics said other routes farther from the BWCAW line are available.
Cook County's vote was to join Conservationists with Common Sense and the Arrowhead Coalition for Multiple Use in defending the Forest Service proposal for the 2.2 mile trail that runs in parts within 300 feet of the wilderness line.
The Izaak Walton League of America, Sierra Club North Star Chapter, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness and Wilderness Watch filed the suit to stop the trail. No court date has been set.
