Nearly 50 snowmobilers and cross country skiers bundled into the Cache County Chambers on Jan. 10 to try to leverage county support for their contrasting causes.

A month earlier, the Cache County Council unanimously endorsed a letter from the Top of Utah Snowmobile Association to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. The group wants Huntsman to designate the 20,000-acre area, which is 25 miles up Logan Canyon, as a “winter recreation gem.”

On Jan. 10, nonmotorized-use recreationists asked the council to rescind that letter. They say the letter's emphasis on motor- ized use sends a bad message to the public. They say the Forest Service's 2005 plan was devised through a flawed and illegal process, with no public hearings.

Four conservation groups - Nordic United, the Bridgerland Audubon Society, the Winter Wildlands Alliance and the Bear River Watershed Council - have filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against the Forest Service plan.

Wasatch-Cache National Forest spokeswoman Lorraine Januzelli declined to comment on specifics of the issue, but said part of the Forest Service's mission is to carefully balance diverse user groups.

Councilman Darrel Gibbons suggested during the Jan. 10 meeting that the nonmotorized-use groups should draft a letter of their own for the council to consider supporting.

While both groups have for several years raced to lay claim to the Franklin Basin/Tony Grove area in Logan Canyon, motorized users say their hard work resulted in the Forest Service's 2005 decision to reopen the area to snowmobile use.

Garth Barker, public-lands coordinator for the Top of Utah Snowmobile Association, said nothing in the mediation-arbitration process was one-sided, and “everybody had equal opportunity” to participate.

abrunson@sltrib.com

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Tribune reporter Joe Baird contributed to this story