Salvage logging no threat to grizzlies

Since when does yanking the paycheck out of someone's hand help with grizzly bear recovery?

That's effectively what's happened with a recent restraining order that stopped a good share of salvage logging planned this summer on the Flathead National Forest.

Two environmental groups, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition, have argued that helicopter logging in so-called "core" grizzly bear security areas presents an "imminent harm" to grizzly bears.

We don't think so. Neither does the Forest Service, nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy stuck by a rather literal interpretation of the Flathead Forest Plan to come up with his ruling.

Rather than weigh salient observations about the nature of helicopter logging in areas that used to be prime bear habitat, Molloy agreed with the plaintiffs, for the time being, that "motorized access" is prohibited in core areas during the summer, and that helicopters are indeed motorized.

But one should consider that the "core" areas in question were mostly blackened by wildfires in 2003, obviously reducing their attractiveness as hideouts for grizzly bears. One should also consider that the Forest Service, in this case, bent over backwards trying to be all things to all people, and all creatures. And it did so with consultation and eventual endorsement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with grizzly bear recovery.

The West Side Reservoir and Robert-Wedge post-fire projects prescribed salvage logging on just a fraction of national forest lands that were burned in 2003. They carefully avoided harvesting in roadless areas. And through a majority of the timber sale areas, they required the most expensive and least impacting method for removing timber - helicopters.

Speed is the driver behind helicopter logging in salvaging burnt timber that can deteriorate and lose commercial value. Helicopters can work their way through entire timber sale units in a matter of days, and then be gone. Hardly an "imminent" or "irreversible" impact on grizzly bears.

But there's a long list of timber mills, log home construction companies, logging contractors, truckers and various other subcontractors who are being negatively impacted by Molloy's order. How that helps grizzly bears is beyond us.

Public support should be a central ingredient in protecting and recovering grizzly bear populations, and we have seen no sign of popular support for the efforts of the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan.

In fact, if they don't change tactics soon, the Friends of the Wild Swan will have no friends left at all, outside of Judge Molloy. Preserving the grizzly bear in Montana is an admirable goal, but it should be done by professional foresters and biologists, not by judges, lawyers and self-appointed representatives of the bear.