(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Conservation groups claim logging project near Helena will hurt elk, grizzly bear and lynx – Daily Montanan [1] ['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- September'] Date: 2023-09-27 Two conservation groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that a large logging project near Townsend would not just endanger lynx and grizzly bear habitat, but also would have detrimental impact on elk populations. Furthermore, Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said that the United States Forest Service has also failed to include data in its plans that demonstrates the negative impact on the animals, as well as ignoring multiple concerns by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The Middleman Project is located in the northern Big Belt Mountains, northeast of Helena, and touches on Lewis and Clark, Meagher and Broadwater counties. The project plans call for 53,151 acres of tree cutting and burning, 6,669 acres of commercial logging, and 45,934 acres of burning. It also includes 46 miles of new temporary road construction and 90 miles of road construction or reconditioning for long-haul trucking. The lawsuit also points out that there are nearly 2,000 acres of old-growth logging and burning planned as part of the project. The Middleman Project timeline is between 15 and 20 years. Judge Dana Christensen has been assigned to the case. The U.S. Forest Service has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Concerns about elk The groups argued in the 51-page filing in Missoula federal court that the United States Forest Service is not considering what the logging project would do to the elk population, “despite the exodus of elk in this area.” The groups say that elk hiding cover is already low and that logging and burning will reduce it even further. The forest plan calls for 50% hiding cover as a minimum, and they say even current levels are lower than that and don’t provide the necessary protection for the elk herds. The lawsuit also said that U.S. Forest Service is ignoring the concerns of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which responded to the proposal. It noted that after the Cave Gulch fire, there’s been a great deal of biodiversity in the area. “FWP does not support the harvest of live healthy trees via regeneration harvest techniques to create opening greater than 100 acres, particularly in areas that are adjacent to existing large openings. Creation of such areas will likely result in significant declines in deer and elk use,” it said. “FWP believes one of the primary issues driving the current distribution of elk is the lack of adequate security cover for elk on National Forest land.” The groups say that the U.S. Forest Service hasn’t provided any cover or security plans for the elk during the project. “It will likely be decades before cover has recovered sufficiently to provide adequate cover/security in the project area,” the lawsuit quotes from concerns raised by Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks division. Grizzly corridor Another portion of the lawsuit deals with grizzly habitat and corridors the bears use in traveling. It said that the Big Belt Mountains are likely to provide a corridor for grizzly bears as their population recovers, and also could play a part in diversifying the genetics of the bears. However, with more than 90 miles of roads being rebuilt for long-haul trucking, plus an additional 74 miles of new roads for the project, the conservation groups said that the extensive road-building component of the plan will have the opposite effect on grizzlies, forcing them away, rather than building up the population. It estimates that grizzly bears would lose 1,686 acres of secure habitat. “The project … provides no analysis of what amount of secure habitat, open road density, or total road density, or what amount of motorized use on a particular road are required to maintain connectivity for a usable grizzly bear movement corridor,” the lawsuit said. “ It also fail to analyze the key question of whether current high road density on national forest lands is the reason there are not more grizzly bears using the Big Belts for a movement corridor and/or permanent home ranges similar to the reason that most elk in this region see refuge on private lands.” Lynx habitat The Forest Service’s own records from as recently as 2020 show that a monitoring and surveying crew found lynx tracks in one of the areas of the project. Yet the conservation groups questioned why the Forest Service during the same time remapped the lynx units, cutting the size of those areas from 248,195 acres to 125,383 acres, a reduction of more than 120,000 acres. The lawsuit claims that the Forest Service failed to perform a National Environmental Protection Act analysis after it remapped the lynx habitat, something that is required by federal law. Furthermore the environmental analysis of Middleman logging project makes no reference to 2019 remapping. Roads (not) less traveled The lawsuit also alleges that the U.S. Forest Service is playing games with counting roads. They said that much of the supporting documentation the service used either omits some roads, or claims that the federal agency can’t accurately estimate the number of times that existing roads have been used illegally. It also said that more than 74 miles of roads were supposed to be “bermed” or gated, but said that despite the Forest Service saying those roads were closed, they remain open. Because the lawsuit alleges that those roads are not only still open, but that the Forest Service knows about unauthorized motorized vehicles on them, that it shouldn’t be allowed to exclude some of the roads in its analysis. “The Forest Service failed to even disclose, let alone address, concerns from Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ regarding too many roads and the loss of forest cover,” said Mike Garrity, the executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies, one of the two groups filing the suit. “These factors are already pushing deer and elk on to private lands. This causes conflict with land owners as well as increasing the difficulty of managing the herd size due to loss of hunting opportunities on public lands.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/09/27/conservation-groups-claim-logging-project-near-helena-will-hurt-elk-grizzly-bear-and-lynx/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/