Dissatisfied with forest plan process

Compassionately, the Flathead National Forest Collaborative Management Planning sessions are over for a few months. I attended every one of them from their inception in September 2013 through the recess in late spring, and I am exhausted from the ordeal. 

By my count (approximate) there were 17 meetings in Kalispell of 3-4 hours each and two one-hour conference calls. I had also served on the 2004-2006 plan never implemented. Where do we go from here?

The contentious meetings will pick up again in the fall but I feel that the results, so far, do need to be documented for our posterity... and for eventual lawsuits. Having studied psychology, political science, and law, and earned my living with engineering and mathematics degrees, I find these non-representative, non-collaborative meeting results fascinatingly irrelevant.

From a mathematics standpoint, with the size of the volunteer citizen committee being nearly 100 people but as few as 30-40 at times, having the membership makeup skewed by a 10 to 1 ratio favoring snowmobilers over environmentalists is hardly statistically significant. The only thing it represents, accurately, is the extreme partisanship of FNF management for snowmobilers’ wants over wildlife’s needs. In fact, further evidence of this was the majority of FNF staff on hand for consultation each meeting night being equally skewed in favor of forest employees having the word “recreationist” in their titles compared to the number having the word “biologist” in their titles. How will the FNF use such an obviously flawed accumulation of a few local citizens with “fringe” opinions to justify their attempts to modify the FNF plan, a plan supposedly for all Americans, to favor motorized recreational access for the Flathead County locals into what is the natural home and habitat of the wildlife that American tourists (and their money) travel here to see? I am sure FNF careers will be at stake here.

From a psychology standpoint, with the notable exception of FNF biologists, most of the FNF staff is not oriented to wildlife appreciation but instead relate to human beings and their compulsion for speed on their motorized vehicles. It is not enough that these people have the American interstate highway system and local Montana roads to use; they also want to intrude into the peace and quiet of our national forests with the reckless abandon of extreme noise, tailpipe exhaust fumes, and leaking oil and gasoline. Their egos have gone wild.

From a legal standpoint, the meetings were not accurately documented… with only subjective, selective notes taken by the FNF consulting firm partner, Meridian Institute. With the mistreatment of the environmentalists trying to save wildlife, it leaves them no other recourse but to file lawsuits. 

When 30-year veteran environmentalists introduced scientific forest ecology data, countermanding the flawed FNF data, they were publicly insulted and challenged to “prove it.” No proof was requested of uneducated-to-forest-ecology snowmobilers’ testimony that extreme noise does not bother animals, even though they have hearing ability six times that of humans. 

The choice of placating fun-loving “wreckreationists’ ” non-conforming assault on the forest vs. providing a safe haven and sanctuary for wildlife is a clear choice: Save the wildlife. Mother Nature never intended to have motorized or mechanized vehicles in the forest. And the U.S. Congress will never give approval for recommended wilderness designations for wildlife protection when there is such non-conforming motorized and mechanized use of the forest.

From a political standpoint the Forest Service is being attacked from both sides. The Republican conservative movement to transfer federal lands to the Western states’ governments’ control is gaining traction in this political season. In Montana, Republican candidates were required to pass a radical litmus test condoning such an action, on camera, if they wanted party support for their campaigns. That feeds into the attitude of Republican entrepreneurial businessmen who own snowmobile rental and touring companies. On the other side of the spectrum environmentalists, realizing that would be fatal to wildlife, are in support of retaining the federal government to be stewards of national forests. 

Environmentalists have had to split with the Montana Democratic Party on this issue as well as on the Keystone XL pipeline and the Montana dirty coal industry, much like the Tea Party split with the Republican Party on many issues, and need to carry forward on their own. The Forest Service, wanting to keep their jobs, is between a rock and a hard place. Which master should they serve?

The animals are at the mercy of humans. So, where do we go from here?

Baum is a resident of Martin City.