These ideological lawsuits undermine our hard-working public lands managers who understand the needs of these dynamic landscapes.
Activists have filed a lawsuit to stop the Round Star project on the Flathead National Forest that aims to reduce wildfire risks and protect our communities. In promoting their lawsuit, the groups are spreading disinformation on how this effort might impact Canada lynx and grizzly bears.
Their cynical lawsuit is the latest example of how anti-forestry litigation is failing communities across the West. The wildfires in Los Angeles underscore the urgent need to reduce unprecedented fuel loads that intensify today’s mega-fires. These ideological lawsuits undermine our hard-working public lands managers who understand the needs of these dynamic landscapes.
Activists have falsely claimed that no timber sales have been conducted under the Round Star project. To date, three timber sales have been completed, one has been finalized, and two more are active. Several additional sales are scheduled. Secondly, contrary to reports that the project authorizes logging on 9,151 acres, only 6,234 acres will undergo commercial treatment.
Their assertions that logging in lynx habitat will impact their survival is misleading. Public lands managers and their scientists have determined that opening up dense stands and allowing younger lodgepole pines to grow creates the habitat needed by snowshoe hare, the main prey of the lynx.
Finally, what their legal complaint conveniently omits—and what these groups likely do not want to acknowledge—is the primary purpose of the project: to reduce tree densities and fuel loads within the wildland-urban interface.
This work is essential to minimize the risk of intense fire behavior near communities and to improve egress access, facilitating safer wildland fire operations. The baseless claims in their complaints demonstrate not only a lack of understanding of the project but also a disregard for the Forest and the Whitefish community.
These groups seem to show little concern for the people living near the forest, whom this project is designed to protect. Dense stands, like those pictured below from the Round Star area, are just one lightning strike or careless campfire away from a catastrophic event.
Catastrophic fires are a real concern for those who reside in and around Whitefish. The community is surrounded by forests of various ownerships. The Forest Service has an obligation to keep residents living near the forest safe, and that is precisely the goal of the Round Star project. One only needs to look a few miles west to witness the devastation of the East Fork Fire, which burned over 6,000 acres in the summer of 2023 near Trego.
The Round Star project is expected to treat approximately 6,000 acres of dense stands, reducing fuels, creating habitat for lynx and grizzly bears, and generating sawlogs for the local milling industry. Post-project, we will be left with green, healthy stands. Should these environmental groups succeed in their claims, however, those 6,000 acres could face the same fate as the East Fork Fire—a preventable tragedy.
Forest management has emerged as a national issue. The lawsuit opposing the Round Star project is the latest proof that our current litigation-driven approach to federal lands management is not working for the American people. The new leadership in Washington DC is ready to embrace change. Let’s hope the courts are too.
Tom Partin is the Montana representative for the American Forest Resource Council, a trade association advocating for active forest management on federal lands. Partin has worked in forestry in the Pacific Northwest for over 40 years.