Soapstone Basin in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest – Photo by Recreation.gov
What happens when government agencies try to sidestep the law and exclude the public on major projects? Well, sometimes they get away with it — but not this time. The Forest Service tried to secretly log and burn a roadless area in northeast Utah but the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, one of the most successful environmental and conservation watchdogs in the West, sniffed out the plan and stopped it.
Here’s the story.
The project calls for logging and burning 4,400 acres (about 7 square miles) of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest in the Soapstone Basin area about 20 miles southeast of Kamas. This area in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah is known for its abundant recreational opportunities, scenic beauty, and pristine wildlife habitat.
Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This land is particularly sensitive since its Inventoried Roadless Areas include habitat for lynx and wolverines, which are listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, as well as elk and mountain lions. The area is of great interest to the public, including the Alliance, which regularly comments on projects affecting national forests throughout the Northern Rockies.
Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Forest Service neither informed nor gave the public an opportunity to comment on the project, it wasn’t listed on the agency’s projects page nor Schedule of Proposed Activities on its website. Nor was a Legal Notice published in area newspapers informing the public of the project as required by law.
Yet, on May 8, Deputy District Ranger Kenneth G. Verboncoeur, signed the Decision Memo authorizing the project.
We found pages 19-24 of the Decision Memo after it was posted on the agency’s website on May 9. But the first 18 pages were mysteriously missing — including maps and locations for the logging and burning or how many miles of logging roads would be bulldozed into the Inventoried Roadless Area.
Because the Forest Service never informed or gave the public an opportunity to comment on this project, we informed the agency that it was violating the National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision must be withdrawn or we would take prompt legal action.
Due to the obvious violation of these laws, the Forest Service notified the Alliance by email on Friday, May 16th that the agency rescinded the Decision authorizing the secret logging and burning project.
The Alliance appreciates that the Forest Service withdrew their decision after we pointed out that they were breaking federal law and didn’t make us take them to court. But we think the Forest Service should always follow the law like most Americans do, and not just when they get caught breaking the law.
Fortunately for the American public, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act are still on the books. We are a democracy, and according to the Constitution only Congress can change laws, not federal agencies, and not the president.
National Forests do not belong to the Forest Service; they belong to all Americans who have a right to review and comment on projects on national forests. Congress passed these laws because the Forest Service was destroying our public lands by putting clearcutting ahead of preserving habitat for biodiversity, preservation of species, hunting, fishing and the clean, vital watersheds national forests provide.
But bureaucrats can’t just operate in secret and pretend laws don’t exist when those laws get in the way of logging and burning the National Forests that belong to all Americans.
For now this decision has been rescinded. The Forest Service could sign a new decision in the future, but the Alliance will be watching — and holding the agency’s feet to fire to follow applicable federal laws.
Please consider donating to the Alliance for the Wild Rockies so we can continue the fight to ensure the Forest Service and other public lands management agencies follow the laws and work to protect, not destroy, sensitive wildlife habitat like the Soapstone roadless areas.
Mike Garrity is the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
