Firms have alternative lynx plan
By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake
A coalition of forest-products companies and landowners has been formed to propose conservation measures for Canada lynx as an alternative to an expansive designation of critical habitat for the species.
The proposal was revealed this week by its leading champions - Plum Creek Timber Co., F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., and Stimson Lumber Co. - just as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launches a series of hearings on an economic analysis of the critical habitat designation.
One of those hearings is at the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell on Friday.
Loren Hicks, director of Plum Creek fish and wildlife resources, explained that the "Montana Partnership Conservation Agreement" offers the coalition's resources and networks as a means of reaching private forestland owners on practical ways to improve lynx habitat.
The critical habitat proposed by the government last February would designate 8.9 million acres in Montana, including 1.3 million acres of private forestlands.
The federal wildlife agency asserts that "designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership, establish a refuge or preserve, and has no impacts on private landowners taking actions on their land that do not require federal funding or permits."
The three-inch thick economic analysis that is the focus of the upcoming hearings estimates nationwide costs related to the designation of critical habitat for lynx will be to $1.49 million over the next 20 years.
But Hicks said the agency is referring to direct impacts on landowners when it comes to the so-called "nexus" of federal funding and permits.
Paul McKenzie, lands and resource manger for Stoltze, said the agency cannot adequately predict indirect costs and impacts on private landowners.
"The indirect impacts are kind of nebulous," McKenzie said. "They are the ones we don't know about, and those are the things that give us the greatest concerns."
There are implications for appraisals and values of properties that are encumbered by a critical habitat designation.
There are implications rising from cost-share agreements on roads that reach both federal and private forestlands. The agreements could amount to a federal nexus requiring the Fish and Wildlife Service to review management activities on the private lands through a "consultation" process.
There are implications for communities engaged in neighborhood planning with provisions for forest fuel reduction efforts that make use of federal grants.
"It's hard to quantify the trickle-down effect of this designation to local planning authorities," Hicks said. "It has implications that go well beyond the direct nexus."
Hicks said the critical habitat designation ultimately will amount to a disincentive for private landowners to take measures that can improve lynx habitat.
Roughly two thirds of the 1.3 million acres of private forestlands in Montana is owned by non-industrial entities.
The conservation agreement proposal offers funding and networking commitments to reach those landowners in a way that the Fish and Wildlife Service cannot match with its limited resources.
"We can educate landowners on the ground what is truly critical habitat," Hicks said, noting that many private landowners aren't even aware of the proposed designation and its implications for their properties.
The conservation agreement includes commitments from an array of organizations that can reach those landowners, including the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the Montana Logging Association, the Montana Wood Products Association, the Montana Forest Council and the Montana Tree Farm System.
But there is a catch to the conservation agreement proposal: Hicks and McKenzie said if the critical habitat designation proceeds, the offer is off the table.
"I've got to give them credit for taking lynx and lynx habitat seriously and organizing themselves into an impressive coalition," said David Gaillard, a spokesman for Defenders of Wildlife. "At the same time we have to make it clear that this should not be a substitute for a critical habitat designation."
The conditional nature of the conservation proposal is "unfortunate," Gaillard said.
"Even with the [critical habitat] designation, this partnership could go a long way toward streamlining the consultation process" that landowners might be subject to, he said. "But if they hold it out as a threat or a precondition to supporting critical habitat, we'll have to fight them on it."
Hicks and McKenzie concede that it is unclear whether the Fish and Wildlife Service has the latitude to approve the conservation proposal as an alternative to critical habitat designation, because the designation process is the result of litigation instigated by groups such as Defenders of Wildlife.
The proposed designation includes 11,304 square miles in the Northern Rockies, most of it state and federal lands, as well as 2,000 square miles in the North Cascades, 10,590 square miles in the Greater Yellowstone area, 8,266 square miles in Minnesota and 10,633 square miles in Maine.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting public comment on the proposal and the economic analysis until Nov. 20.
Friday's hearing in Kalispell starts at 5 p.m. with an informational presentation, followed by formal testimony at 6 p.m. Written comments also will be accepted.
Information on the proposed designation is available on the Internet at:
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com