Marin County environmental groups have challenged a recent federal directive to allow electric bikes on national park bike trails.

The lawsuit filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Marin Conservation League, the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, the Point Reyes Station-based Save Our Seashore and five other plaintiffs alleges the rule change earlier this year violated the National Park Service’s own rule-making process and circumvented environmental review.

“An e-bike going 28 miles per hour on any narrow multiuse trail in Point Reyes National Seashore is a recipe for conflict with and injury to other trail users,” Save Our Seashore President Gordon Bennett said in a statement after the filing.

National Park Service acting assistant communications director Jeremy Barnum said their agency strongly disagrees with the lawsuit. The parks service will continue working with park superintendents to implement the “commonsense” e-bike policy, he said.

“National parks provide visitors opportunities to experience the outdoors through recreational opportunities that are accessible, desirable, and relatable to people of all abilities and clarifying National Park Service policy for the use of e-bikes is aligned to this mission,” Barnum wrote in an email. “This policy enhances fun and healthy recreational opportunities for visitors to our national parks and support active transportation options.”

In a directive to park superintendents nationwide in late August, U.S. Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt gave park superintendents 30 days to identify their e-bike-friendly trails. No public comment period was required for the change, but the park service recommended park superintendents use the 30-day window to garner public input.

For Marin County, the directive applies to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore, both of which have since posted their e-bike friendly trails.

The lawsuit argues that the National Park Service proceeded with the rule change without amending its existing bicycle use rules and without proper environmental review under the National Environmental Protection Act. In addition, the complaint argues that National Park Service officials who made the original directive in August lacked the authority to do so under federal law.

Tim Whitehouse, the director of one of the other plaintiffs, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and a former enforcement attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, described the e-bike order as “an improper and destructive way to manage our National Parks.”

“Concerned groups and individuals are joining PEER in demanding that the Park Service follow the normal regulatory processes and assess the additional impacts that higher speed e-bike riders pose both to other trail users and to wildlife in the parks,” Whitehouse wrote in a statement.

The plaintiffs are calling on the court to find that the National Park Service directive violated federal laws and to issue a mandatory injunction prohibit further e-bike use on national park bike trails until the alleged violations are corrected.

Other plaintiffs in the case include San Francisco resident Amy Meyer who played an instrumental role in the creation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area; New Jersey residents Phyllis Koenig and David Perel; and the Montana-based Wilderness Watch environmental organization.