[MCN] New Report: Flathead National Forest Shirks Its Road Reclamation Duties

[Matthew Koehler]

Source:
http://forestpolicypub.com/2016/05/24/report-flathead-national-forest-shirks-its-road-reclamation-duties/

*Report: Flathead National Forest Shirks Its Road Reclamation Duties*

A new report from the Swan View Coalition
<http://www.swanview.org/reports/Roads_to_Ruin.pdf> in Montana gives a
thorough rundown on how the Flathead National Forest in particular – and
the Forest Service and Congress in general – are using the Collaborative
Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) and other collaboration and
“restoration” initiatives to keep its bloated road system and fool the
public into thinking the problem in America’s forests is too many trees and
not too many roads.

For those involved in bull trout and water quality issues, the report also
documents ongoing road-related travesties in Bunker, Sullivan, Coal, and
other key watersheds on the Flathead National Forest. The report also
describes how the Flathead National Forest is trying to cheat its way out
of road decommissioning and begin to instead rebuild roads decommissioned
previously.

Read the full report here
<http://www.swanview.org/reports/Roads_to_Ruin.pdf>.

*Executive Summary*

In order to protect water quality and fish, the Flathead National Forest is
required to either remove or monitor annually all culverts and bridges in
roads closed in threatened bull trout habitat. Similarly, the Flathead is
required to develop a monitoring plan for each road it chooses to simply
close in providing Security Core habitat for threatened grizzly bear,
rather than conducting the preferred reclamation by removing all
stream-crossing structures.

Our investigation finds the Flathead has developed none of the required
stream-crossing monitoring plans for roads closed to provide Security Core.
Nor has it annually monitored stream-crossing structures on closed roads in
bull trout habitat. Though the Forest Service set forth these requirements
and the need for them, the Flathead has failed to implement them. Rather
than correct the problem, it has instead set upon a course to do away with
such requirements – as culverts and bridges continue to fail on roads both
open and closed to motor vehicles.

This report will discuss how the Flathead tracks its roads and
stream-crossing structures, discuss how it does and does not monitor them,
and provide examples of the consequences when it fails to adequately manage
them. It will conclude with recommendations on how to get the effort back
on track rather than abandon it to the detriment of fish, wildlife and
taxpayers.
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