HELENA - The developer of a proposed ski resort south of Missoula is accused of unlawfully cutting about 400 U.S. Forest Service trees, clearing at least some so a snow grooming machine would have enough room to travel a forest road.

A federal lawsuit names Tom Maclay, who wants to develop a year-round resort on his family's ranch land and adjacent Forest Service property near Lolo. Maclay envisions a resort rivaling those at Vail, Sun Valley or Lake Tahoe. In marketing to skiers, he wants to offer an extraordinary 5,342-foot vertical drop by providing access to federally managed Lolo Peak.

Some of the 400 trees removed on orders from Maclay were in the Carlton Ridge Research Natural Area, a unique ecosystem that is to be protected in its natural state, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court at Missoula.

The suit seeks a finding of trespass against Maclay, and an order against any future reopening of closed forest roads, illegal logging or other "unauthorized ground disturbing activities." Damages sought include money to restore the land.

In a statement released Wednesday, Maclay said that "there appears to be a misunderstanding about our family's rights to access roads on what are now national forest lands _ lands that we have used for recreation and ranching for over 100 years, since before Congress created the U.S. Forest Service."

Opponents of the resort Wednesday seized the lawsuit as new ammunition.

Maclay wants access to a vast federal area for his Bitterroot Resort, and the court case will heighten public concern about the way in which he would care for the land if given access, said Bob Clark, a Sierra Club representative in Missoula.

Maclay was denied a Forest Service permit for the resort after the agency last year found his proposal incompatible with plans of the Lolo and Bitterroot national forests.

"We have no (new) proposal for the alpine ski area and we don't expect to work through any of that process until this litigation is completed," Missoula District Ranger Maggie Pittman said Wednesday.

Last March, officials in the Bitterroot National Forest investigated complaints that trees were cut, and that a machine for ski grooming was parked on Forest Service land. Officials contacted Maclay, who admitted he used the machine on Forest Service lands and cut trees, according to the lawsuit.

"It appeared the trees were cut to allow the (machine) clearance to travel the road" in the national forest, the suit says. It says investigators identified seven areas with new road construction and determined that old logging roads closed by the Forest Service had been reopened.

"There are many situations in which landowners' historical use of roads is subject to unresolved disagreements with the federal government," Maclay said in a statement released by Scott Peyron & Associates, a public relations firm in Boise, Idaho. "We regret that it appears these issues will have to be addressed in the context of litigation."

Maclay has carved ski trails on part of the 2,960-acre ranch where his great-grandfather settled in 1883. Besides alpine skiing, plans for Bitterroot Resort include Nordic ski trails, 2,200 houses and condominiums, a golf course, a hotel and a resort village.

Critics accuse Maclay of wanting to exploit public property to develop real estate. They say his project threatens to spoil the northern Bitterroot Valley and industrialize land next to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Maclay maintains the impact of his project can be managed, and says real estate sales are necessary to support a first-class resort.