Two local conservation groups represented by Helena’s Western Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a proposed U.S. Forest Service logging project in the South Fork Flathead River corridor.
In a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition are challenging the Forest Service’s Aug. 5, 2011 decision to authorize a Spotted Bear River logging project on the east side of the South Fork in Flathead National Forest.
In a press release, the environmental groups argue the South Fork is a protected wild and scenic river area that is home to “some of the most imperiled animals in the continental United States including lynx, wolverine, grizzly bear, gray wolves, fisher and bull trout.”
“Logging this critical wildlife area is an irretrievable loss,” Arlene Montgomery, program director for Friends of the Wild Swan, said in a statement. “It will take over 100 years for this forest to re-grow and in the interim wildlife are displaced from important seasonal habitats. This area needs to be managed for the diverse wildlife that lives here, not for industrial forestry.”
The Spotted Bear project proposes harvesting 1,193 acres and thinning another 660 acres of small trees, according to Joe Krueger, forest environmental coordinator for Flathead National Forest. Also, roughly 1,350 acres would be burned.
Krueger said his agency received a notice of intent to sue in late December under the Endangered Species Act. The complaint filed on Feb. 28 also claims violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and National Forest Management Act.
The Forest Service reviewed the notice with the U.S. Wildlife and Service and determined the project was on good standing to move forward. Krueger said the concerns raised in the complaint have been addressed through a multi-year public process and lengthy documentation.
“We’ve taken a hard look at the effect on those resources – a hard look,” Krueger said. “Look at the volume of documentation and the substance of the documentation and the public comments. That’s why it takes three years.”
Krueger notes that, in addition to thinning and harvest, the proposal extends the motorized season by five weeks and improves a parking and turnaround area at Silvertip Trailhead, “a key access point” for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area.
“There’s a lot of good work put into this project,” Krueger said. “We’re proud of it.”
Keith Hammer of the Swan River Coalition called the area “a critical wildlife connector.” Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center in Helena, said the “South Fork’s status as a protected wild and scenic river and critical habitat for imperiled species means something under the law.”
“I’m shocked the Forest Service would propose such an aggressive, destructive project in the South Fork,” Bishop said.
Listed as defendants in the complaint are the Forest Service, Flathead National Forest Supervisor Chip Weber, Acting Regional Forester Vicki Christiansen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its director, Daniel Ashe.
Before the lawsuit was filed, timber sales were expected to begin at Spotted Bear this summer, Krueger said.
“Now we’ll have to reevaluate whether we’ll want to still offer those timber sales depending on the outcome of the litigation,” Krueger said.
Meanwhile, Forest Service officials are facing two more challenges to logging projects proposed in Flathead National Forest.
Krueger said Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition filed a notice of intent to sue at the beginning of this month for another logging project proposed on the opposite side of Hungry Horse Reservoir from the Spotted Bear River Project. There is widespread beetle-kill in the area.
Additionally, Krueger said a thinning and brush-burning proposal in Flathead National Forest is being appealed by Friends of the Wild Swan, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council.
“We feel confident that our documentation is sufficient to withstand any challenge and litigation,” Krueger said.
For more information on the Spotted Bear River Project, visit http://www.fs.fed.us/nepa/project_content.php?project=30157.