{"id":2495,"date":"2020-12-16T07:53:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T07:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=139827"},"modified":"2020-12-16T07:53:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T07:53:48","slug":"conservation-groups-challenge-blackfoot-river-timber-sale-that-threatens-elk-grizzly-bear-bull-trout-and-lynx-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/16\/conservation-groups-challenge-blackfoot-river-timber-sale-that-threatens-elk-grizzly-bear-bull-trout-and-lynx-habitat\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation Groups Challenge Blackfoot River Timber Sale That Threatens Elk, Grizzly Bear, Bull Trout, and Lynx Habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Canadian lynx. Photo: USFWS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Two conservation groups, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Missoula on December 11th challenging the 1,112 acre Stonewall Logging Project in the Blackfoot River valley in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest about four miles northwest of Lincoln, MT.<\/p>\n

The proposed changes to the Forest Plan to eliminate Big Game Security and Thermal Cover standards in the project violate a number of federal laws and threaten the area\u2019s elk herd as well as grizzly bears, bull trout and lynx. \u2028\u2028When the project was originally proposed, the Forest Service used its normal fear tactic \u2014 claiming the area needed large-scale logging and burning to avoid \u2018catastrophic\u2019 wildfire. However, when a wildfire did start in the project area prior to the implementation of the project the results were dramatically different than the Forest Service\u2019s dire predictions.<\/p>\n

What happened, in reality, is that the Forest Service found the vast majority of the area within the Park Creek fire perimeter \u2013 70 percent \u2013 was unburned or burned in a natural mosaic pattern at low to very low severity with low tree mortality.  Only a very small portion of the area \u2013 8 percent \u2013 burned at high severity.  The fire mainly burned where the Forest Service planned a prescribed fire, so the wildfire accomplished the Forest Service\u2019s goals but the wildfire did it for free.<\/p>\n

Montana\u2019s big game management agency warned that due to the loss of public land elk security, elk are now spending more time on private lands, which causes conflict with landowners as well as increasing the difficulty of managing the herd size due to loss of hunting opportunities on public lands. As Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists told the Forest Service:  \u201cThe number of elk that spend the majority of the year on some nearby private lands has increased dramatically between 1986 and 2013. FWP has consistently urged the [Helena National Forest] to increase functional fall habitat security on the Lincoln Ranger District . . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stonewall logging project is in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act as the Environmental Impact Statement misrepresents or fails to accurately disclose the findings and recommendations of Montana\u2019s Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists regarding elk security and elk objectives on the Lincoln Ranger District.  The agency also ignored the \u2018best available science\u2019 regarding displacement of elk from degraded public lands onto private lands and the resulting impacts to hunting opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service has repeatedly issued \u2018site-specific\u2019 amendments to its Forest Plan to avoid complying with elk security standards in order to enable more clearcutting and road-building. The agency has issued at least eight such exemptions prior to this logging project, which includes another exemption.  There are at least three reasonably foreseeable logging projects that may also include this exemption in the near future.  This practice begs the question: \u201cWhat good is a Forest Plan if the agency repeatedly exempts itself from following it?\u201d  This question is particularly important in light of the documented loss of elk hunting opportunities on public lands in this area.<\/p>\n

There are laws in place to protect public land elk hunting opportunities, and protect important endangered species habitat.  The concept of \u2018law and order\u2019 does not just apply to individual citizens \u2014 it also applies to the government.  When the Trump administration violates our laws, it becomes the public\u2019s responsibility to hold Trump accountable.  In this case, we apparently have to sue the government to force it to follow the law.  So that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.  \u2028We are once again taking the Trump administration to court.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian lynx. Photo: USFWS. Two conservation groups, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Missoula on December 11th\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions\/2496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}