[MCN] Press Release from AWR: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals halts East Reservoir Timber Sale

[Matthew Koehler]

SNIP: “What’s astounding is that so-called conservation groups are among
those who intervened in the lawsuit to support these massive new clearcuts
and were represented by none other than the industry’s American Forest
Resource Council. Montanans should know that the Montana Wilderness
Association, the Yaak Valley Forest Council, Lincoln County, The Lands
Council, Troy Snowmobile Club, Cabinet Resource Group, F.H. Stoltze Land
and Lumber Company, Idaho Forest Group, and the Troy School District all
think logging is more important than restoring this already over-logged
area and recovering the lynx, grizzly bears, and bull trout as required by
the Endangered Species Act.” - Mike Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies


*Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals halts East Reservoir Timber Sale *

Calling it “one of the worst logging projects in decades,” Mike Garrity,
Executive Director for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies announced today
that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted its request for an
injunction halting a massive clearcut and logging project affecting tens of
thousands of acres of national forest and five major tributaries to the
Kootenai River and Lake Koocanusa.

A lawsuit was filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies in federal court
in May 2015 challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to authorize a
large logging, burning, and road-building project in habitat for threatened
lynx, bull trout, and grizzly bears in the Kootenai National Forest in
northwest Montana. Federal District Court Judge Christensen ruled the
logging could go forward in July and the Alliance immediately appealed
resulting in the injunction today to halt the project based on the Court’s
finding that the Alliance is likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal.

"The Forest Service's plans to clearcut lynx critical habitat were in
direct violation of a binding Ninth Circuit precedent on this issue, so we
are pleased but not surprised that the appellate court stopped this massive
timber sale," said Garrity.

"The East Reservoir Project area is huge,” Garrity continued.  “But there
are already over 22,000 acres of clearcuts within its boundaries. Add to
that the 8,845 acres of proposed commercial logging, of which 3,458 acres
will be new clearcuts, and the additional impacts to this already
heavily-logged area are simply unacceptable.

“Additionally, the timber sale is a huge money-loser which, by the Forest
Service’s own estimate, will cost taxpayers $2,589,535 to subsidize further
degradation of an already-degraded landscape,” Garrity explained.  “Much of
that cost will be to rebuild and maintain an astounding 175 miles of
logging roads, construct nine miles of new permanent logging roads, allow
an additional 13 miles of illegal, user-created roads to be added to the
legal road system, and open nine miles of previously closed motorized
trails.   When all the existing science shows more roads directly lead to
more grizzly bear deaths and more sedimentation of bull trout spawning
streams this project simply ignored the legal mandate for the Forest
Service to maintain existing species of fish and wildlife when conducting
timber sales.”

 “That the Forest Service could possibly even consider such a massive
logging project in an area in which only one percent of the remaining old
growth exists in small, isolated stands defies law and logic,” Garrity
continued.  “For old-growth dependent wildlife such as lynx, this project
is basically a death sentence to a species that is already in severe
decline due to road-building and logging.  That the Forest Service allows
this timber sale to log federally-designated lynx critical habitat isn’t
just sloppy work, it’s inexcusable and illegal.”

Garrity said his group has been involved with the project since it was
first proposed and throughout the planning and Environmental Impact
Statement processes.  “The Alliance raised all the objections long before
notifying the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that it
planned to take the agencies to court to halt the project,” Garrity
continued.  “Our point was simple: The agencies had to change the project
to comply with federal laws including the National Environmental Policy
Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Forest Management Act, and
the Administrative Policy Act.”

“As most Montanans know, there is incredible political pressure to ‘get out
the cut’ on National Forests,” Garrity explained.  “But the bottom line is
that federal laws require retention of functioning ecosystems and
maintaining the diverse wildlife and fisheries that rely on healthy forests
– not just treating our publicly-owned forests as commercial logging lots
to benefit a single industry’s profit margin.  In this instance, the
agencies have simply side-stepped those requirements, as well as the
Endangered Species Act, by judging their own actions to have ‘no adverse
impacts’ despite the massive scale of this project in bull trout, grizzly
bear, and lynx habitat, all of which are threatened species.”

 “What’s astounding is that so-called conservation groups are among those
who intervened in the lawsuit to support these massive new clearcuts and
were represented by none other than the industry’s American Forest Resource
Council” Garrity said. “Montanans should know that the Montana Wilderness
Association, the Yaak Valley Forest Council, Lincoln County, The Lands
Council, Troy Snowmobile Club, Cabinet Resource Group, F.H. Stoltze Land
and Lumber Company, Idaho Forest Group, and the Troy School District all
think logging is more important than restoring this already over-logged
area and recovering the lynx, grizzly bears, and bull trout as required by
the Endangered Species Act.”

“The Alliance for the Wild Rockies exists as a watchdog organization that
concentrates on activities occurring on our National Forests, which are
owned by all Americans and exist not simply to supply local timber mills,
Garrity concluded. “When faced with federal agencies literally exempting
themselves from the law with the blessing of collaborator groups, we have
no recourse but to challenge those decisions in federal court.  That is
exactly what we did on the East Reservoir Project to protect our
irreplaceable forests and wildlife resources for present and future
generations.”

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