contact Michael Garrity, Executive Director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, (406) 459-5936
On July 7, 2008, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Supervisor withdraw his August 29, 2007 Decision Memo on the Price-Powder Salvage project after the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court on June 23, 2008.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Missoula against the U.S. Forest Service and Regional Forester Tom Tidwell to stop the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest’s Price Powder Timber Sale which authorizes clearcutting 133 acres in the Fleecer Mountains, near the continental divide approximately 10 miles southwest of Butte. The groups contend the Forest Service is violating the Forest Plan requirements for big game, old growth and snags.
Michael Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies said, “This is good news for elk hunters. The Forest Service needs to follow the law and stop proposing these illegal timber sales in critical big game winter range.”
Dr. Sara Johnson, a former wildlife biologist for the Gallatin National Forest and Director of Native Ecosystems Council said, “I am thrilled to hear that the Forest Service is dropped their plans to clearcut in the Fleecer Mountains. The Forest Plan requires the Forest Service to designate replacement snags for wildlife but instead the Forest Service wanted to clearcut an area where the they admit there probably are not enough snags. It is bad for wildlife, it is bad for soils and is bad for hunting because the elk leave when their hiding cover is clearcut.”
Dr. Johnson said, “The Forest Service’s own studies concluded that clearcutting will harm old growth and snag dependent species such as the hairy woodpecker, pine martin, goshawk and pileated woodpecker and remove elk security cover.”
