Two groups file lawsuit over timber sales
Two groups have sued the Flathead National Forest and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the Robert-Wedge and West Side Reservoir post-fire projects.
The Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan filed the lawsuit in Missoula Federal Court last week, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop work on the salvage logging operations, which are focused on national forest lands that burned during summer 2003.
The lawsuit makes nine claims under the Administrative Procedures Act, most of them charging that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was "arbitrary and capricious" when it issued biological opinions allowing the Flathead Forest to amend its forest plan six times to clear the way for post-fire logging.
The lawsuit also alleges that the agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to assess the cumulative impacts of these site-specific amendments.
"In the short term, this is a request for a preliminary injunction," Swan View Coalition Chairman Keith Hammer said.
He explained that as of June 1 in the North Fork and soon after on the Swan Mountain Range, logging operations will involve helicopters flying in grizzly bear security core habitat, where motorized use is prohibited during the nondenning season, roughly April through November.
Hammer said it's likely that additional claims will be soon be filed, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act.
"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 press 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."
Flathead Forest Plan Amendment 19, approved in 1995, requires the Flathead to meet open and total road density as well as security core standards for grizzly bears. The Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service set five- and 10-year schedules for meeting these standards, and those deadlines have not been met.
Prior to the 2002 Moose Post-Fire Project the Flathead was attempting to meet the schedule when it implemented projects.
Since then the Flathead has been issuing project-specific amendments to the Forest Plan allowing road densities to increase during the projects, to remain higher than standards
allow after the projects, and disrupting grizzly bear secure areas with helicopter logging during the nondenning season. Robert-Wedge and West Side logging temporarily ceased April 1 to protect spring grizzly bear habitat and for spring break-up of logging roads, but is set to resume June 1 and June 15, respectively.
Flathead Forest officials maintain that the site-specific forest plan amendments are entirely legal, and they contend that logging activity helps pay for many of measures aimed at improving wildlife habitat.
"Amendment 19 allowed for flexibility," said Denise Germann, the forest's public affairs officer. "These projects show the need for flexibility and Amendment 19 allows for that and we're using that."
Germann stressed that the post-fire projects involve many restoration activities, and they are generating $4.1 million in contracts that are supporting nine small businesses.
"I would say we are long on restoration, as well as salvaging wood and providing for some economic vitality," Germann said.
The logging contracts require purchasers to do road maintenance work, road reclamation, culvert replacement and other measures that make progress toward Amendment 19 standards, Germann said.
Requiring the forest to pay for those activities without corresponding logging work "would be a challenge" with the agency facing considerable budget cuts, Germann said.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com