[MCN] RELEASE: Huge clearcutting plan next to Yellowstone National Park threatening grizzlies and lynx halted

[Matthew Koehler]

For Release: May 14, 2021




*Forest Service halts huge clearcutting plan next to Yellowstone National
Park that threatened grizzlies, lynxProposal called for 4,600 acres of
clearcuts, bulldozing up to 56 miles of roads on public lands just outside
of Yellowstone*

WEST YELLOWSTONE*, MONTANA—* Following a challenge by multiple conservation
groups, the U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday
<https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/112841_FSPLT3_5636861.pdf> that
it was halting a plan to clearcut more than 4,600 acres of native forests,
log across an additional 9,000 acres and bulldoze up to 56 miles of road on
lands just outside Yellowstone National Park in the Custer Gallatin
National Forest.

In April, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians,
Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council challenged
<https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/huge-clearcutting-roadbuilding-plan-next-to-yellowstone-national-park-opposed/>
 the South Plateau project, saying it would destroy habitat for grizzly
bears, lynx, pine martens and wolverines. The logging project would have
destroyed the scenery and solitude for hikers using the Continental Divide
National Scenic Trail, which crosses the proposed timber-sale area.

“This was another one of the Forest Service’s ‘leap first, look later’
projects where the agency asks for a blank check to figure out later where
they’ll do all the clearcutting and bulldozing,” said Adam Rissien, a
rewilding advocate at WildEarth Guardians. “Logging forests under the guise
of reducing wildfires is not protecting homes or improving wildlife
habitat, it’s just a timber sale. If the Forest Service tries to revive
this scheme to clearcut native forests and bulldoze new roads in critical
wildlife habitat just outside of Yellowstone, we’ll continue standing
against it.”

In response to the group’s challenge, the Forest Service said it was
withdrawing the South Plateau project until after it issues a new
management plan for the Custer-Gallatin National Forest this summer. Then
it plans to prepare a new environmental analysis of the project with
“additional public involvement” to ensure the project complies with the new
forest plan.

“This is a good day for the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and for the
grizzlies, lynx and other wildlife that call it home,” said Ted Zukoski, a
senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Forest Service
may revive this destructive project in a few months, but for now this
beautiful landscape is safe from chainsaws and bulldozers.”

The project violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to
disclose precisely where and when it would bulldoze roads and clearcut the
forest, which made it impossible for the public to understand the project’s
impacts, the groups said in their April objection. The project allowed
removal of trees more than a century old, which provide wildlife habitat
and store significant amounts of carbon dioxide, an essential component of
addressing the climate emergency.

“The South Plateau project was in violation of the forest plan protections
for old growth,” said Sara Johnson, director of Native Ecosystems Council
and a former wildlife biologist for the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
“The new forest plan has much weaker old-growth protections standards. That
is likely why they pulled the decision — so they can resign it after the
new forest plan goes into effect.”

“The Forest Service needs to drop the South Plateau project and quit
clearcutting old-growth forests,” said Mike Garrity, executive director of
the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “Especially clearcutting and bulldozing
new logging roads in grizzly habitat on the border of Yellowstone National
Park.”

Contacts:

Adam Rissien, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 370-3147,
arissien at wildearthguardians.org

Ted Zukoski, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 641-3149,
tzukoski at biologicaldiversity.org

Michael Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, (406) 459-5936,
wildrockies at gmail.com

Dr. Sara Jane Johnson, Native Ecosystems Council, (406) 579-3286,
sjjohnsonkoa at yahoo.com

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