Judge slaps snowmobile ban on area in Idaho

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Snowmobiles are again off-limits in the Trapper Burn area in northern Idaho out of concern the machines are harming the lower 48's last herd of caribou.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley in Spokane closed the area to snowmobiles following a three-day hearing. The exact boundaries of the closure were still being worked out.

About 40 caribou are thought to live in the area and across the border in Canada.

Snowmobilers vowed to fight the ruling that closes an area favored by riders for its expanse of treeless powder snow.

Whaley has been listening to arguments about the area from snowmobilers and conservation groups for several years.

He banned grooming on trails in the area last season, which area businesses said cost them about $1 million. Last September, Whaley banned the machines from about 300,000 acres of federally designated caribou-recovery area around Idaho's Priest Lake.

However, just before snowmobiling season started, he reopened the area.

That caused environmental groups to ask for the latest hearing, in which they argued that protecting the migration corridors for caribou, including the Trapper Burn, increased the chances of the herds interbreeding and surviving.

Snowmobile groups say their machines cause less harm to the caribou than logging and predators.