Flathead Forest finally OKs winter plan
By JIM MANN
The Daily Inter Lake
After more than five years in development, a winter motorized recreation plan was approved Monday by the Flathead National Forest.
Forests Supervisor Cathy Barbouletos signed the record of decision for the 24th amendment to the Flathead's long-term forest management plan.
The decision implements travel maps and seasonal regulations for snowmobiling largely according to a 2001 settlement agreement reached between the forest, the Montana Snowmobile Association and the Montana Wilderness Association.
The wilderness association had sued, claiming the Flathead Forest had failed to adequately manage snowmobile use.
The forest has since been using terms of the settlement deal to determine where snowmobiles can and cannot go. The new policy largely adheres to the agreement in terms of snowmobiling areas, while also defining extended spring seasons in four particular areas.
"While the settlement agreement did not bind my decision in any way, the fact the Montana Snowmobile Association and the Montana Wilderness Association reached agreement on a winter use plan was an important consideration in making my decision," Barbouletos stated in the decision document.
The approved policy, like the settlement, allows for continued snowmobiling on about 787,000 acres, or about 91 percent of the terrain - mainly popular trail systems and play areas - that have historically been used by snowmobilers. The Montana Wilderness Association wanted restrictions on other parts of the forest that had been wide open to snowmobiling in practical terms, despite restrictions in the 1986 Flathead Forest Plan on motorized use in "primitive" and "semiprimitive" areas.
John Gatchell, conservation director with the wilderness association, said the goal was "to see if we could come up with a win-win landscape allocation that set some limits but also allowed for all kinds of winter recreation."
He said the policy will provide some management clarity for the forest, and he noted that the policy does a good job of protecting limited mountain goat habitat.
"And that's important because their winter range is really limited and it's very site-specific," Gatchell said.
The inclusion of extended seasons, however, has raised concerns among others concerned about impacts on grizzly bears.
Keith Hammer, chairman of the Swan View Coalition, maintains that the forest has not enforced a previous forest plan provision that banned motorized use in prime grizzly bear habitat after March 15.
The new plan extends the general snowmobiling season to March 31.
And it allows snowmobiling on groomed routes in the Canyon Creek area through April 14; on 3,100 acres in the Sixmile area until April 30; on 17,500 acres in the Challenge-Skyland area through May 14; and on 31,800 acres in the Lost Johnny area of the northern Swan Mountains through May 31.
Those extensions compound impacts on grizzly bears emerging from their dens, Hammer said.
But Flathead Forest officials and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service don't see it that way.
What matters, forest planner Rob Carlin said, is that the new policy vastly reduces impacts on grizzly bears by limiting the places where they can go. Prior to the 2001 settlement, snowmobiles could travel on some 133,000 acres that have been modeled as "potential grizzly bear denning habitat" with no seasonal restrictions.
Under the new policy, snowmobiles can travel on 31,900 acres of potential grizzly bear denning habitat during the general season, and the extended season areas account for just 2 percent, or 6,700 acres, of the forestwide total potential habitat.
"But 92 percent [of potential denning habitat] is protected, and that's the way to look at this," Carlin said.
In a biological opinion issued in March, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the forest's approach would not jeopardize the continued existence of grizzly bears on the Flathead.
The opinion emphasized that issue was not whether the policy would jeopardize individual bears.
Hammer has maintained that line of thinking amounts to a "mathematical game to play down the impact that this has on in individual bears."
Carlin said the new policy will not take effect when the snowmobile season starts, because a 45-day appeal period is under way until Jan. 5, followed by an additional 45-day period for the Forest Service to respond.
The new policy is available online, along with maps outlining snowmobiling areas on the forest. The Flathead Forest Web site can be found at:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/flathead
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com