Judge Orders Packers to Reduce Wilderness Trips
A federal judge in San Francisco ordered that commercial packers in the Ansel Adams and John Muir wilderness areas cut a fifth of their overnight trips next summer and reduce the number of people and horses on each trip.
The reduction will be in place as the U.S. Forest Service analyzes the impact of pack animals on 800,000 acres of wilderness in remote areas of the Sierra and Inyo national forests.
The order by Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte followed her ruling in June that the Forest Service violated federal law by issuing permits to packers without completing an environmental analysis.
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