Environmental groups sue to stop salvage sales
Hungry Horse News
Two environmental groups are seeking a federal court injunction to stop salvage logging activities on the Robert-Wedge and West Side Reservoir fire areas, claiming the logging and roads will harm grizzly bears.
The lawsuit was filed last week by the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan.
"The Forest Plan has provisions for making sure the needs of wildlife are met before allowing projects to go forward," Arlene Montgomery, program director of Friends of the Wild Swan. said in a prepared release. "These agencies have segmented their analysis by amending the Forest Plan six times in the Moose, Robert-Wedge and West Side Reservoir projects without considering what the broader impact is on grizzly bears."
Both groups maintain the Forest Service has failed to meet the requirements of Amendment 19 to the Forest Plan, which sets standards for road densities in grizzly bear habitat.
They claim the road densities are too high, even though many roads that are currently open will be closed to vehicle use after the salvage logging project is completed.
The West Side Reservoir project, for example, puts approximately 30 miles of wheeled motorized restrictions on open roads, "decommissions" 49 miles of road, where roads are torn out, and places wheeled-motorized-vehicle restrictions on 27 miles of trails.
The other salvage sales also close many miles of roads. Multiple-use groups have claimed the Forest Service is actually closing too many roads and has sued on a different front-claiming the amendments to the Flathead Plan are simply illegal.
That case is sitting in a Washington, D.C., district court.
But the Forest Service is complying with Amendment 19, spokeswoman Denise Germann said. Amendment 19 allows for flexibility in road closures, and that's what the Flathead is doing, she said.
The groups also take issue with project-specific amendments the Forest Service made that allow for higher road densities during logging. They also claim that helicopter logging set to begin in June will disrupt or injure grizzly bears.
As such, the groups' attorney, Thomas J. Woodbury, of Forest Defense, P.C., in Missoula, is asking the court to make a ruling prior to June 1, before helicopter logging starts again.
Portions of the burned areas were already logged this winter. In total, the salvage sales amount to about 65 million board feet of timber.
One way or another, the suit is expected to finally put Amendment 19 implementation to a test.
The suit names Flathead National Forest supervisor Cathy Barbouletos, Region 1 Regional Forester Abigail Kimbell, Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth and Interior Secretary Gail Norton.