[MCN] Secret clearcut on Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF discovered, conservation groups sue

Matthew Koehler mattykoehler at gmail.com
Thu Mar 10 16:04:41 EST 2016


No word on if the Beaverhead Partnership 'collaborators' (ie Montana
Wilderness Association, Montana Trout Unlimited, National Wildlife
Federation and some timber mill owners) knew about this secret clearcut
logging that apparently was conducted without any public involvement or
legally-required environmental analysis.


#KeepItPublic, right folks?

*Press Release*

March 10, 2016

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


*Conservation Groups sue Forest Service over secret clearcut on
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest*


The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a
lawsuit against Leann Marten, the Regional Forester of the Forest Service
in Federal District Court in Missoula, after discovering a secret logging
project, named Moosehorn Ditch Timber Sale, that logged an unknown number
of acres of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest near Wisdom, MT,
without any public involvement or legally-required environmental analysis.


"When I happened upon this, I couldn't believe my eyes,” Dr. Sara Jane
Johnson, Director of Native Ecosystems Council explained.  “I was visiting
the area to monitor some aspen livestock fencing projects when I came
across the massive clearcut. The area looked like it had been hit by a
nuclear bomb."


Dr. Johnson has a Ph.D. in wildlife biology from Montana State University
and was a wildlife biologist for the Forest Service for 14 years.  "Lynx
are listed as ‘protected’ under the Endangered Species Act and the Forest
Service has documented at least seven lynx sightings within 15 miles of
this clearcut.  Even the agency’s own studies show that logging destroys
habitat for lynx,” Johnson continued. “Yet, despite clear legal
requirements to consider the effects of logging projects on National Forest
lands, the Forest Service arbitrarily decided to ignore the requirements of
our nation's environmental laws.  The only thing they did was give this
secret clearcut a name, Moosehorn Ditch Timber Sale.”


“This logging is particularly egregious because of the numerous other
sensitive species that have been sighted within a 15-mile radius of the
timber sale,” Johnson explained. “Goshawks and a nest, wolverines, sage
grouse and a lek, Northern Rockies fishers, gray wolves, black-backed
woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, northern bog lemmings, Brewer’s
sparrows, and great gray owls have all been documented in the area."


"The shocking thing is to see what the Forest Service will do if they think
no one is watching,” Johnson concluded. “It was just pure luck that we
found this illegal timber sale.”


Apparently the Forest Service got so tired of losing court cases on their
timber sales that they now are pretending that our nation's laws don't
apply to them,” added Mike Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for
the Wild Rockies.  “When we asked the Forest Service for a copy of the
legally-required environmental analysis for this secret timber sale and
documentation of how the public was involved, the agency responded that
there was neither.”


“Fortunately for the American public, the National Environmental Policy
Act, the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act are
still on the books,” Garrity continued. “We are a democracy and only
Congress can change laws, not federal agencies."


"Congress passed these laws because the Forest Service was destroying our
public lands by putting clearcutting ahead of preserving habitat for
biodiversity, preservation of species, hunting, fishing and the clean,
vital watersheds national forests provide,” Garrity concluded. “Bureaucrats
can't just pretend laws don't exist when they get in the way of
clearcutting the National Forests that belong to all Americans.  In our
nation everybody has to follow the law and that certainly includes the
taxpayer-funded Forest Service."
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