[MCN] After TNC's logging on Forest Service lands ruled illegal, TNC terminated it's logging agreement w/ Plum Creek

[Matthew Koehler]

Press Release – February 25, 2016

Contact: Keith Hammer, Chair of Swan View Coalition, 406 755-1379

Arlene Montgomery, Friends of the Wild Swan, 406 886-2011

Mike Garrity, Executive Director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies,
406 459-5936

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) announces it’s logging agreement with Plum
Creek Timber on 111,740 acres of national forest lands is terminated after
Federal Court rules logging by TNC on Forest Service lands is illegal.

The public was notified of this in the Flathead National Forest’s draft
Decision Notice and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Chilly
James Project in the Swan Valley.  The Chilly James Draft Decision Notice
stated that on January 5, 2016, The Nature Conservancy notified the Forest
Service that their logging agreement with Plum Creek was terminated and
that they have no future logging  plans on Montana Legacy acquisition
lands.

Last summer, the federal district court in Montana reaffirmed and clarified
its September 2014 ruling that the U.S. Forest Service violated the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) when it approved logging procedures for 111,740 acres of
newly-acquired national forest lands.  The Court’s ruling requires the
Forest Service to halt logging until it complies with both the National
Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act requirements to analyze
“potential environmental effects, reasonable alternatives, and cumulative
impacts on those lands” and “comply with the consultation requirements of
Section 7 of the ESA with respect to those protected species affected on
the lands.”

These so-called "Legacy Lands" in Montana's Swan Valley were former Plum
Creek Timber Co. lands which were purchased by the federal government and
are now part of the national forest and subject to federal laws that
protect the environment and threatened or endangered species.  These lands
are critical habitat for grizzly bears, lynx, wolverine, bull trout, and a
very rare plant called water howellia.

TNC bought these lands from Plum Creek Timber in 2008. A condition of the
agreement called for TNC to sell Plum Creek Timber 92 million board feet of
timber off its former lands over the next 10 years, a condition carried
over even though the public then purchased the lands from TNC via a $250
million tax credit to TNC.

Four conservation groups Swan View Coalition, Friends of the Wild Swan,
Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit
in 2013 in Federal District Court challenging the logging by The Nature
Conservancy on these former Plum Creek lands.

It's good to know The Nature Conservancy won't be logging any more of the
few trees Plum Creek left on these lands," said Keith Hammer, Chair of Swan
View Coalition. "It's time for the Forest Service to now turn the page and
begin restoring these industrial lands to a more natural state by removing
a substantial number of the logging roads that came with them.”

"Since the Agreed Operating Procedures between the Forest Service and The
Nature Conservancy were deemed illegal by the court it is right and
appropriate that the logging agreement is terminated," said Arlene
Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan. "This protects what's left of the
trees in riparian areas and old cutting units on these heavily logged and
roaded lands and allows wildlife habitat to be restored."

"The U.S. Forest Service authorized logging procedures and thousands of
acres of clearcutting on these lands without any analysis of how the
logging might affect and harm endangered species in the area,” said Mike
Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.  “Of
particular concern to local conservationists is the lynx, a rare forest cat
that requires large expanses of unlogged area for survival.  The Swan
Valley is one of the best potential habitats in the Lower 48 states for
lynx, but lynx are declining in the area due to logging."

“The bottom line,” Garrity concluded, “is very good news for the threatened
and endangered species that call these lands home, since all commercial
logging on these ‘Legacy Lands’ by The Nature Conservancy has stopped.  The
American people paid $250 million for these lands.  The Nature Conservancy
should not have been allowed to continue clearcutting land they no longer
owned."

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