Lawsuits didn't stop logging

A Hungry Horse News article claims that because of a lawsuit against a couple of Spotted Bear timber sales the Trail Creek fire burned in timber sale units that would have already been logged and ostensibly wouldn't have burned. While that project was in litigation there was no court ordered temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction that held it up. In fact the Forest Service let contracts on the project at its own pace and logging began during the time the lawsuit was in progress.

To be clear, just because a project is under contract does not mean that logging begins immediately. The Forest Service routinely allows years for project contracts to be completed. For example, the Six Mile Fuels Reduction Project to thin forests around the community of Swan Lake had the decision signed in 2006 and the contract was issued in 2007, yet here we are in 2015 and the thinning project is still not completed.

Our lawsuit against the Spotted Bear timber sales expressly asked that the thinning around the Meadow Creek and Gorge Creek trailheads and Stony Mountain communication site proceed because research shows it is the few hundred feet surrounding structures where thinning can help keep them from burning. It is the logging in the backcountry, away from campgrounds, trailheads and communities like Swan Lake that remain contentious due to impacts worse than wildfire.

Many factors play into fire behavior including prolonged high temperatures, drought conditions, wind, and lightning. This year they all converged to create large fires.

Political grandstanding and finger pointing are not productive nor do they address this year's climatic conditions that are driving this fire season or the fact that climate warming has already increased the length of the fire season in general.

Arlene Montgomery

Friends of the Wild Swan

Keith Hammer

Swan View Coalition