This story was originally published by Daily Montanan:
URL: https://dailymontanan.com
This story has not been altered or edited.
(C) Daily Montanan. Licensed for re-distribution through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
------------



Judge stops Forest Service plans in Castle Mountains – Daily Montanan

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- April']

Date: 2022-04-11 00:00:00

A federal judge in Montana has stopped a large-scale logging project northeast of Bozeman in the Castle Mountains because the United States Forest Service failed to properly inventory roads in its assessment and the plans would have violated protections for elk and the northern goshawk.

More than 1,800 acres in the Castle Mountains were scheduled for thinning and more than 8,000 acres had been targeted for prescribed burns. In all, the plan called for more than 22,000 acres of “treatment,” and it included more than 45 miles of new road construction.

Earlier in the case, the Forest Service had argued that it didn’t need to consider any new roads being built because they would only be “temporary,” a designation that the two groups challenging the finding disputed. Native Ecosystems Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies said the Forest Service has created many temporary roads throughout land it manages but then does not turn those back into wildland. They told the court that the Forest Service failed to analyze the impact, and that was a violation of law.

“(The groups) persuasively argue that the project raises both habitat effectiveness and road density concerns that the agency did not adequately consider,” said Federal District Court Judge Donald Molloy.

In his ruling, the judge said the Forest Service had not considered what new, even if temporary roads would do to animals nearby.

“Specifically, the plaintiffs argue that the Forest Service refused to conduct a habitat effectiveness analysis and misrepresented the impact of temporary roads,” Molloy wrote. “Plaintiffs are correct on both fronts.”

Even though Molloy acknowledged that the roads are “non-public and temporary,” he said the agency cannot “forgo its obligation to consider the environmental impacts of a project or that temporary roads can be excluded from analysis.”

The judge also pointed out that the Forest Service may disrupt the northern goshawk, lynx and even have a short-term effect on big-eared bats.

“This…reinforces the proposition that temporary roads do in fact have a cognizable impact on the environment within the project area,” Molloy wrote. “Because it was arbitrary and capricious for the agency to rely on assumptive conditions that are belied by the facts in the record and on the ground, remand is required for the agency to assess existing road conditions, recognizing the actual – not aspirational – implementation of the Travel Plan.”

The ruling also paid careful attention the northern goshawk. The area currently has 11 “known goshawk territories” in the boundaries, and the Forest Service estimated as much as 30 percent of the “existing nesting habitat” is likely to be disturbed. That is on top of research presented to the court that shows there has been a 47 percent decline in active nests in 2018, and a 60 percent decline in 2017.

“We are extremely pleased the court halted this project and sent it back to the drawing board to force the Forest Service to follow the law,” said Mike Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive director. “Public lands must be managed for the public and for our wildlife, not for the private profit of a few logging companies.”

[END]

[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/04/11/judge-stops-forest-service-plans-in-castle-mountains/

Content is licensed through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/