The U.S. Supreme Court has previously upheld the federal government's right to preserve unused railroad right-of-ways for future railroad use by converting it to trails. Bruggink's ruling Friday in Washington will not interfere with public use of the Katy Trail or Grant's Trail in south St. Louis County, but it does mean the federal government owes the landowners compensation in a yet-to-be determined amount.

"I'm disappointed, to say the least," said Stephen Mahfood, who directs the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The DNR manages the Katy Trail as part of the State's park system.

Mahfood said the decision could add to the cost of acquiring railbed for trail development, thus limiting the state's ability to develop new trails.

Two of the underlying suits involve the Katy Trail easements. They include a class action by prominent St. Charles County landowner Dorothy M. Moore and about 330 others, and a claim filed by Maurice and Delores Glosemeyer.

The third case joined by Bruggink was brought by the town of Grantwood Village and involves Grant's trail. Bruggink's decision also will impact a fourth case, a class action suit of landowners with interests in the Grant's Trail easements.

Mark F. Thor Hearne II represents Grantwood Village and the class action litigants in the Grant's Trail case. Hearne said the suits before Bruggink have attracted national interest because they involve the rights of landowners whose property and privacy are affected by the biking and hiking trails created under the federal Rails to Trails Act of 1983.

Bruggink said that under Missouri law, the railroad easements revert to landowners when a railroad abandons them. The federal rails-to-trails law imposed a new recreational easement, Bruggink said, and in so doing, created a federal debt to the affected landowners.