Work can continue on central Idaho trail crossing ranch
FILE - This June 1, 2012 file photo shows the Sawtooth National Recreation Area near Stanley, Idaho. A federal judge has ruled that work can continue on a public trail on an easement crossing private land that connects the popular tourist destinations of Redfish Lake and Stanley in central Idaho. U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, rejected a request by David Boren and Lynn Arnone to stop work on the trail that crosses Sawtooth Mountain Ranch. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP, File)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that work can continue on a public trail on an easement crossing private land that connects the popular tourist destinations of Redfish Lake and Stanley in central Idaho.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale on Tuesday rejected a request by David Boren and Lynn Arnone to stop work on the trail that crosses Sawtooth Mountain Ranch.
Boren and Arnone contended work should stop until the court has time to consider their environmental arguments on why the trail shouldn’t be built.
But Dale says she’s not persuaded that Boren and Arnone would win on the merits of their arguments centered on the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act.
The high-elevation area is one of Idaho’s most scenic outdoor adventure draws, with rugged mountains, rivers and streams and several mountain lakes.
The U.S. Forest Service has a conservation easement deed dating to 2005 that allows a trail 30 feet (9 meters) wide to cross about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) of the private property on Sawtooth Mountain Ranch. The Forest Service says Boren and Arnone were aware of the easement when they purchased the property.
Work on the trail is expected to be finished this fall.