Conservation groups say ‘massive’ Pintler Wilderness logging project should be stopped
A bull moose grazes near Georgetown Lake in Pintler Ranger District of Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Montana, Sept. 19, 2019. (Photo by Preston Keres of the United States Department of Agriculture via Flickr | Public Domain).
Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the United States Forest Service for what they’re calling a “massive” project that encompasses more than 73,000 acres and covers 115 square miles in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Area.
Those groups have urged the federal district court to take immediate action because they say the logging project has already begun. The Daily Montanan confirmed that the project has started.
Three groups have mounted the challenge, Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, Native Ecosystems Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies, in Missoula District Court. They allege that nearly 1.1 million acres of Canada lynx habitat is being ignored in order to proceed with the logging project. Furthermore, they said a similar project in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest found that the Forest Service had disregarded the endangered lynx in their analysis for a logging project.
The complaint filed on Monday shows that in 2020, the U.S. Forest Service determined that more than 1 million acres in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest likely contained lynx habitat. However, the complaint said that on Sept. 9, 2021, the Forest Service found that the Pintler Face Project would not impact lynx habitat.
The project is located 10 miles northwest of Wise River on the south face of the Anaconda-Pintler Mountains in the Wisdom Ranger District, and includes 11,224 acres of tree cutting, including 3,459 acres of clearcutting and more than 4,600 acres of cutting and burning.
The analysis also shows that there are 145 miles of unauthorized routes in the area, which has been a concern in previous litigation because roads often serve as a deterrent for animals, including lynx and grizzly bear, according to the court documents. Furthermore, they said that the Forest Service did not prepare an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement in order to remove the lynx habitat from consideration, which violates federal law, including the National Environmental Policy Act.
The groups argue that one or both of those must be completed before the agency can contemplate a logging project.
The lawsuit also claims that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has acknowledged the logging project is likely to adversely affect grizzly bear populations. Moreover, the analysis completed by the Fish and Wildlife Service is less than five pages long and fails to address concerns about the loss of habitat.
In its suit, the groups say that both agencies have intentionally ignored more than 100 miles of “unauthorized roads” that exist, but were not taken into consideration. They argue that the Forest Service’s inability to address those issues has adversely affected the grizzly bear population.
“It’s absolutely one of the worst places in the state for clearcuts,” said Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “For the Forest Service to propose a project like this in important habitat for lynx, grizzly, bear and wolverine — which are listed under the Endangered Species Act — simply makes no sense. Consequently, we’re left with no choice but to take the federal government to court and halt this clearcutting, burning, and bulldozing disaster.”
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