Lawsuits planned over salvage projects

Two environmental groups have announced plans to sue the Flathead National Forest, citing failures to improve grizzly bear habitat security in conjunction with the West Side Reservoir and Robert-Wedge post-fire projects.

Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition submitted notices to the Forest Service last week announcing plans to sue the agency after 60 days.

Salvage logging is well under way on both projects.

In their notice, the groups contend the two post-fire projects violate the Endangered Species Act "in many ways."

The move prompted a scathing response from the the Montana Wood Products Association and the Montana Logging Association.

"These fringe groups are using the remote possibility of 'taking' of grizzly bears as the reason for their action," said Ellen Engstedt of the Montana Wood Products Association. "What a reach. When they don't have a legitimate concern they dig in the bag of Endangered Species Act to stop Montanans from making a living."

Engstedt said a lawsuit would have the potential to impact several timber salvage sales that have been purchased by western Montana mills, including Pyramid Mountain Lumber, F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber and Plum Creek Timber Co.

According to Julia Altemus, the Montana Logging Association's resource specialist, "Not even an act of Congress can keep the obstructionist industry from thumbing their noses at active management, community involvement and community stability."

She referred to 2003 Congressional legislation that set up a unique collaborative public effort to plan timber salvage work.

"We all worked very hard to compromise and develop a package that was right for the land and the community," Altemus said in a press release.

"Now, after the deal has been struck and, at the 11th hour, these two dissenting voices are again eager to halt all management activity from occurring on time and ecologically sensitive conditions. Not only is this not the way honest folks do business in Montana, but halting all management actively will shut down 10 active salvage sales, of which six were awarded to small businesses, and will ultimately tie up the rest of Flathead National Forest's entire timber program for the year."

Primarily, the Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition are taking aim at the Flathead Forest's use of site-specific amendments to road density standards that are part of the Flathead Forest Plan. The standards call for reducing road densities to improve habitat security for grizzly bears, which are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Flathead Forest officials have used site-specific amendments on several projects as a means to deviate from the strict road density standards and provide continued access for recreation, forest management and, in some cases, continued Forest Service road access to private properties.

Forest officials contend that they are making progress in reducing road densities, and there is language in the forest plan that provides flexibility to deviate from the strict road density standards.

The Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan consider the site-specific amendments to be "illegal end-runs" that ultimately violate the Endangered Species Act.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com