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Michael Garrity, Executive Director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, (406) 459-5936
Steve Kelly, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, (406) 886-2011

Calling it “a great win for the lynx,” Mike Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, announced that Federal District Judge Donald W. Molloy released his full order halting the Colt Summit Timber Sale on the Seeley Lake Ranger District on July 11th. “The court found that the US Forest Service is not protecting or restoring a very special and sensitive animal across its range in Montana,” Garrity said. “Consequently, Judge Molloy remanded the project to the Forest Service for further analysis since it must consider whether any site specific project does so before authorizing it.”

The Federal Court first halted the project on June 20th and said the full order would follow.

“Judge Molloy agreed with us that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to analyze the project’s cumulative impacts on the lynx, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act,” Garrity explained. “Judge Molloy enjoined the timber sale and wrote in his order the ‘…Forest Service must prepare a supplemental EA that adequately addresses the cumulative effects for lynx, and if necessary after that review, an EIS.'”

Friends of the Wild Swan, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council, and Montana Ecosystems Defense Council brought the lawsuit against the Lolo National Forest and were represented by Matt Bishop of the Western Environmental Law Center. Importantly, the groups did not challenge the road reclamation work associated with the project, but focused on the effects to lynx.

“We are pleased that the court recognized that the analysis of effects to lynx by the Forest Service was inadequate,” said Arlene Montgomery, Program Director for Friends of the Wild Swan. “We continue to believe this area is a critical wildlife linkage corridor between the Swan Range in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area to the east and the Mission Mountains Wilderness Area to the west. It was designated as lynx critical habitat and deserves extra protection.”

“This project was very controversial because it was supported by groups and individuals associated with the Southwest Crown of the Continent Collaborative,” Garrity explained. “But although the Montana Wilderness Association, the National Wildlife Federation and the Wilderness Society claimed they were heavily involved in the development of the project, the project records gave no indication of that. The project was proposed by the Forest Service and then supported by those groups — despite the fact that there were no discussions of the impacts to lynx between the collaborators and the Forest Service.”

George Wuerthner, an independent ecologist, author, and photographer, recently flew over Colt Summit to photograph the area. “I was shocked to see how much of the Seeley-Swan Valley is already logged that is not readily visible from the main highway or even by driving back roads,” Wuerthner said. “The problem for the Forest Service is that they are up against limits. You can’t continue to cut more and more of the valley without jeopardizing other values. There is such a thing as cumulative impacts and death by a thousand cuts.”