<div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Here's a link to a detailed analysis of Senator Tester's Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act: <a href="http://forestpolicypub.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Analysis-Tester-Bill.pdf" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">http://forestpolicypub.com/wp-<wbr>content/uploads/2018/02/<wbr>Analysis-Tester-Bill.pdf</a></span><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">The analysis was commissioned by the Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force, which includes the Montana Sierra Club, Wilderness Watch, Friends of the Rattlesnake, Western Watersheds Project, Swan View Coalition, WildWest Institute, Friends of the Bitterroot, Wildlands Defense and the Rattlesnake Watershed Group. </div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">Below is the executive summary of the detailed analysis.<br><br><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
<br><br>Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) in the U.S. Senate.
As of this report the bill had not yet received a number. The bill establishes two motorized recreation areas,
three additions to existing Wilderness areas and contains special management language for forest and fuels
management applicable to the entire Seeley Lake Ranger District, Lolo National Forest, Montana.
<br><br>It limits and expedites environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. It also shifts
emphasis towards motorized recreation uses. It authorizes these shifts absent any environmental review.
<br><br>The BCSA mandates a ten-year schedule of restoration projects that include commercial forest products. <b>It
allows private groups to construct and maintain trails for motorized and mechanized use within sensitive
wildlife and roadless areas, without environmental analysis of the potential impacts on threatened and
endangered species, habitat for important herds of elk and impacts on other recreational users.
</b><br><br>The language of the bill is crafted to qualify the private Southwest Crown of the Continent Collaborative and
the ten-year schedule of projects for federal funding from Congress and the Forest Service under the
Collaborative Federal Land Restoration Program.
<br><br><b>The BCSA gives inordinate management authority and influence to the private collaborative that put the bill
together and may be a step towards de facto leasing of National Forest System lands for management by
private interests</b>, while limiting opportunities for involvement by the general American public owners of these
national public lands.
<br><br><b>The political management of National Forests by Congressional fiat, District by District, Forest by Forest,
threatens the integrity and consistency of National Forest System management in a “balkanization” process</b><span style="font-weight:400">.
Agency management, based on the best available science as required by the National Forest Planning Rule, is
undermined. Protection of the Public Trust may be compromised.<br></span></div></div>