Judge allows South Fork timber sales
A federal judge last month upheld a court ruling that allows two timber sales to go forward on the Flathead National Forest south of Hungry Horse Reservoir near Spotted Bear.
The watchdog groups that challenged the timber sales have not exhausted the appeals process. Michele Draggoo, the Flathead Forest’s leader on the projects, said Thursday that the groups have 60 days from the Feb. 23 order to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 2012, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition sued the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service over the Soldier Addition II and Spotted Bear River logging projects.
The groups sought an injunction to stop both projects, but a U.S. magistrate recommended a ruling against the injunction.
The groups appealed the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled against them, except to say that one count of their argument that dealt with runoff potential into the South Fork of the Flathead River might prevail in the lower court.
“These are really key bull trout spawning streams in the South Fork River and Bunker Creek, and that’s one area that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said we may prevail on if we come back to them,” said Keith Hammer, director of the Swan View Coalition. “Part of it is that figuratively and literally it’s compounded by the fact that we have two projects on each side of the South Fork — which is also a Wild and Scenic River — and yet they were reviewed independently.”
The case was transferred to U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, who upheld the previous court rulings in late February.
Christensen ruled that the Forest Service had adequately analyzed the cumulative impacts of both sales when it conducted an environmental analysis of both projects. Hammer, however, said the agency should have performed a more rigorous, single environmental impact statement to examine the cumulative impacts.
The 3,200-acre Spotted Bear River project on the west side of the reservoir calls for logging on about 1,193 acres and thinning on 660 acres in several units near the Spotted Bear River. The estimated timber yield from the project is 10 million board feet.
The Soldier Addition II project, also estimated to yield 10 million board feet, calls for logging 1,128 acres and thinning 823 acres on the west side of the reservoir near Taylor Creek.
Logging operations have started in both project areas since the injunctions were denied. Draggoo said the Ten-Mule timber sale on about 600 acres spanning both project areas was contracted out to Whitefish-based Quiram Logging.
Work has been ongoing since summer 2013 and is expected to yield about 6 million board feet. Quiram Logging is also under contract for the 275-acre Chipmunk Meadow sale within the Soldier Addition II project. It is expected to yield 5 million board feet, but operations have not yet begun. A smaller sale is being prepared by the Forest Service in the Spotted Bear River project area.
The Spotted Bear project was initially approved in 2010, and the Soldier Addition II project was initially approved in 2011. The Flathead Forest maintains that the projects would improve forest health by thinning trees and helping ponderosa pine stands.
Of last month’s ruling, Hammer said his organization was disappointed but it wasn’t unexpected because a magistrate had already made the recommendation more than a year ago, after which the case was a matter of waiting on the federal judge.
“I think what these lawsuits bring up is how difficult it is to win a lawsuit in a federal court against a federal agency,” Hammer said. “You have to prove they abused [their] discretion, while the judges are required to give substantial discretion to the agencies in the first place.”
The two environmental groups are still deciding whether to appeal the latest ruling.
Daily Inter Lake reporter Samuel Wilson contributed to this story.