The Interior Department, BLM and NPS all declined to comment on the lawsuit. While the agencies began drafting a comprehensive management plan after the trail’s 2002 establishment, in 2014 they announced that they would instead follow a “comprehensive administrative strategy” that designates where each agency has jurisdiction and does not require an environmental assessment.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and Basin and Range Watch, as well as two individual trail advocates who have previously worked for the National Park Service.
The groups blame the alleged trail mismanagement on “bureaucratic politics” within the Interior Department. Both NPS and BLM have been given jurisdiction over the trail’s plan development, and the lawsuit alleges that the agencies have clashed over details of the trail management process, such as protections surrounding the trail.