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Michael Garrity, Executive Director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, (406) 459-5936
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council are pleased to announce that the Gallatin National Forest has withdrawn the planned East Boulder Fuels Reduction Project in response to their joint Appeal. The timber sale called for logging 650 acres and building 2.5 miles of new temporary roads off the East Boulder Creek road south of Big Timber, Montana . The groups contended that the logging would have violated the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and the Gallatin National Forest Plan.
“The Forest Service made the right decision in pulling back from this bad project,” said Michael Garrity, the Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “The proposal called for logging grizzly bear, lynx, pine martin and wolverine habitat. The problem is that the Forest Service couldn’t find any of these species in the project area because past logging in the area had driven them off.” The National Forest Management Act requires the Forest Service to ensure that there are viable populations of wildlife in the forest after they log, Garrity explained. “In this case the agency simply wasn’t following the law.”
“Past clearcutting in the area has destroyed big game habitat,” added Dr. Sara Johnson, Director of the Native Ecosystems Council and a former wildlife biologist for the Gallatin National Forest. “This area stills needs remediation and time to heal from previous timber sales. Considering the existing compromised condition of the area, it’s premature to move forward with another big timber sale at this time.”
“We would be happy to support a decision which limited the logging to next to the road, where it was needed,” said Garrity. “But we couldn’t support a timber sale that went right up to the roadless area boundary and had nothing to do with public safety. This was an illegal timber sale that focused on getting the cut out for a non-existent timber market.”
Ron Archuleta, the District Ranger for the Yellowstone Ranger District in the Gallatin National Forest , withdrew the East Boulder Fuels Reduction project Decision Notice on August 27, 2010.
Appeal, July 19, 2010
