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

[Matthew Koehler]

If anyone cares, or is interested, here are photos of this timber sale.

http://forestpolicypub.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Moosehorn-Ditch-logging-photos.pdf



On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 1:04 PM, Matthew Koehler <mattykoehler at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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