Ecology group files lawsuit against Kootenai

Missoula center challenging legality of nine logging projects

A Missoula environmental group has sued the Kootenai National Forest, challenging the legality of nine logging projects.

The Ecology Center cites the U.S. Forest Service's "past and continuing failures" to follow long-range forest-plan standards as the main focus of the lawsuit that was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

"We want to put an end to the pattern of abuse on the Kootenai National Forest that has resulted in decades of unsustainable logging practices that have harmed clean water, fish habitat, old-growth forest and old-growth dependent wildlife species," said Jeff Juel, executive director of the Ecology Center. "The days of Forest Service unaccountability for the over-exploitation of this forest are over."

The sales involve harvesting about 90 million board feet of timber from project areas totaling about 19,000 acres, according to the Ecology Center. Logging would occur on about 2,000 acres of "effective old-growth habitat," the group claims.

The center is asking for an injunction to block the sales.

Kootenai forest officials were reluctant to comment on the lawsuit's claims.

"We've just received the lawsuit and we're working with the office of the general counsel to review the lawsuit," said Cami Winslow, the forest's administrative officer. "We can't comment at this time because we are in litigation."

It was the Ecology Center that challenged five timber sales in 2003, basically halting most of the Kootenai's timber program for that year. That lawsuit alleged that the forest had failed to maintain a minimum amount of old-growth habitat.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the forest had failed to adequately assess its old growth prior to approving those logging projects. After the forest did so, the projects proceeded.

Since then, Lincoln County's last independent sawmill - the Owens and Hurst mill in Eureka - has closed, with its owners claiming litigation has made the Kootenai's timber program too inadequate and unpredictable to stay in business.

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