Page 27 - Flathead Beacon // 9.24.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM OPINION CLOSING RANGE Dave Skinner
What a Country
SEPTEMBER 24, 2014 | 27
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WELL, IT SEEMS U.S. district Judge Donald W. Mol- loy is still with us – issuing an- other court ruling closing down active logging work in the Stillwater State For- est.
According to a press release from Earthjustice, the suit was brought in March 2013. On behalf of Montana En- vironmental Information Center, Nat- ural Resources Defense Council and Friends of the Wild Swan, Tim Preso of Earthjustice sued against an “inciden- tal take permit” issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2011 to the state of Montana. These permits are needed for so-called Habitat Conser- vation Plans created to comply with the Endangered Species Act.
Had Greens won all five points of their complaint, the entire Habitat Con-
theirbuttsfortheduration,againwith payments to make and families to feed.
And, in reaction to statewide sup- ply problems, which Earthjustice’s law- suit clearly aimed to make much worse, Stoltze announced the termination of another 10 or so workers. Happy days for them, too. As I write this, Plum Creek just announced an hours cut (from 40 to 36) for 100 workers at Columbia Falls, based at least partly on the loss of the Stillwater wood.
What is the point of this exercise? To save grizzly bears? Not really – after all, satellite-collar tracks in the Swan pret- ty much prove seasonal access manage- ment works pretty well. But let’s pretend untouched land is the only way female bears can propagate successfully. So – how many bears are being saved – and what does it really cost to save them?
“WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS EXERCISE? TO SAVE GRIZZLY BEARS? NOT REALLY.”
According to the Uni- versity of Montana, the home range of a female grizzly is, translated to acres, 32,000 to 96,000 acres. A 1997 paper by FWP biologists Rick Mace and John Waller gives a home range for Swan Range grizzly females (those road-
servation Plan for 550,000 acres of state trust lands, not just the so-called “Still- water Block,” could have been blown out of the water. However, Judge Molloy re- jected “four and a half” of the five counts.
Statewide, the permit was OK on bull trout, OK on taking the “hard look” on impacts, presented a reasonable range of action options, even considered “cli- mate change.” Hey, 90 percent should be a passing grade, right?
Well, after dismissing all other al- legations, Judge Molloy ended up or- dering the entire habitat conservation plan to remain in effect, closing down only “the portion of the Plan that aban- dons secure core grizzly habitat in the Stillwater Block” until “the analysis re- quired by 16 U.S.C. § 1539(a)(2)(B)(ii) as it relates to grizzly bears” is conduct- ed and completed.
That analysis won’t be limited to the Stillwater, but needs to be conducted on all state trust lands – that’ll be expen- sive, slow, and could result in yet another Molloy bombshell later on.
So, on the 36,700 Stillwater acres, the immediate fallout is at least three logging sides shut down, at least $3 mil- lion worth of yellow iron not generat- ing income to make the payments, and at least 15 hardworking Montanans on
running, logging-unit tramping hus- sies) of between 11,366 to 67,212 acres, with some overlap.
So at most, the Stillwater block is home to three breeding bears, or two, or one. On average, probably one-and-a-half.
Now, pretend you offered to buy this land to protect that bear and a half. Be- cause it has not been roaded or logged, there’s probably a good bit of wood on it, say two grand an acre. Hmmm, that’s $73 million or so. At three bears a pop, the up-front cost of “saving” each bear is $21 million each. At a capital service benchmark of 6 percent, the annual cost per three bears, per year each, is $1.468 million a year, $4.04 million total.
If that was your money, would you pay? Yes? Then the Land Board and school trusts would be happy to take your check.
Do you think Earthjustice, with $38 million in income and a $21 million pay- roll (2012), or NRDC ($97 million rev- enues, $46 million payroll) might ante up? Of course not. Why should they, when the law allows them a reliable means of sticking others with irrational, unbearable costs?
What a country.
Mike (Uncommon Ground) Jopek and Dave (Closing Range) Skinner often fall on op- posite sides of the fence when it comes to political and outdoor issues. Their columns alternate each week in the Flathead Beacon.