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Isle
Royale appeal:
Boaters say they’re being run off
Park service
brief due in December
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By
STEVE NEAVLING
Gazette Writer
HOUGHTON — In a legal brief recently filed in a U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, the Isle Royale Boaters Association says the National
Park Service is unlawfully squeezing boaters out of the remote island
park.
The 800-member association contends a U.S. District Court ruling in
June ignored key elements of the park service’s new General Management
Plan, which guides operations at the national park over the next 15
to 20 years.
“The district court went astray,” said Fred Bieti, chief
operating officer for the association, which sued the park service
to stop implementation of the plan. U.S. District Court Judge Gordon
Quist of Grand Rapids dismissed the suit in June.
“Some evidence may have been overlooked by the district court,”
Bieti said.
The group’s legal brief, submitted last week to the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the first action taken since
August when the boaters group filed its appeal.
The boaters claim the park’s management plan, adopted in August
1999, significantly limits boater access to the seasonal Lake Superior
park, which is located about 60 miles northwest of Houghton.
The group maintains the park service is transferring boating docks
away from the main island to remote peninsulas and small islands where
it is nearly impossible to access Isle Royale trails and overnight
camping shelters.
“This is a case of bureaucratic betrayal,” Bieti said.
The boaters said Quist failed to recognize the effects of moving docks
away from the main island.
The park service denies limiting access to the park. Officials said
22 docks are available for boaters, and only a few are located away
from the main island. They said the boaters association misunderstands
the management plan, which has not been fully implemented yet.
“Isle Royal is a maritime park and we will continue to provide
access for boaters as we have in the past,” said Betsy Rossini,
acting superintendent of the Houghton-based park.
The association and NPS agree boaters have a right to access the park
under the Isle Royale Wilderness Act, passed by Congress in 1976.
The boaters group maintains the NPS failed to comply with the act,
however, by incorporating a management plan that limits their access.
According to the association’s appeal brief, the NPS must provide
an adequate number of docks with access to the park’s trail system
and shelters.
The brief reads: “Defendants are not entitled to move docks several
miles, in a manner that drastically reduces boaters’ access to
island docks, shelters and trails.”
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