Friends of the Bitterroot, a local non-profit conservation organization, has asked a federal judge to put a hold on and, ultimately, declare unlawful the implementation of the Darby Lumber Lands Phase 2 Project, also known as the Taber Mountain timber sale on the Bitterroot National Forest in the Sapphire Mountains south of Darby.
According to information provided by BNF officials, Phase 1 of the project was completed in 2016 and focused on improving watershed and stream health including reducing chronic sediment from an extensive road system built decades ago for timber management. It also created a sustainable motorized access system and loop-based motorized routes, including 44 miles of connector trails for motorcycle and ATV travel.
Phase 2 was billed as “continuation of the original project” that “also incorporates vegetation management activities” that will “improve watershed conditions through management of a suitable transportation system, improve forest health and reduce potential fire severity and provide timber products and related jobs.” Proposed treatments include commercial timber harvests, non-commercial thinning, and prescribed burning to improve forest health. The project could provide 5.7 million board feet, or approximately 1,200 truckloads of timber to Montana sawmills.
The lawsuit, filed last Wednesday, February 19, in U.S. District Court in Missoula is the first lawsuit that Friends of the Bitterroot has filed in over ten years. The organization claims that it is necessary to save crucial, roadless elk habitat surrounded by an area still recovering from decades of overharvest.
“The Forest Service has missed a great opportunity to do true restoration on the most ecologically damaged lands on the Bitterroot National Forest,” said Jim Miller, president of Friends of the Bitterroot (FOB). “The Darby Lumber Lands have not recovered from decades of industrial-scale logging and roadbuilding, yet the agency plans to log the last vestiges of intact forest ecosystem in crucial elk habitat and to illegally build roads to get the big trees.”
The group contends that, not only is the Darby Lumber Lands project a violation of the law, it represents a broken promise by the agency to restore the area.
“The Forest Service worked with numerous stakeholders to develop a project that would put the area on the path of recovery, a process that began all the way back with the Phase 1 of this project,” said Miller. “Now under Phase 2, the Bitterroot National Forest has decided to include harmful logging and road building instead of keeping the promise to truly restore the area.”
The group claims in its lawsuit that the Forest Service did not identify a minimum road system that would still meet all the project’s needs and objectives as required by NEPA. They argue that under the current Forest Plan adopted in 1987, much of the project area and planned logging is in a management area [Management Area 8b] that prohibits commercial logging. It also prohibits the construction of new roads, except those that may cross it to reach adjacent management areas where work is planned. The whole project, covering 27,453 acres in Rye Creek, Little Sleeping Child Creek, Harlan Creek, Roan Gulch, Burke Gulch, North Fork of Rye Creek, and Robbins Gulch, contains 959 acres slated for timber harvest and 347 acres of that is in Management Area 8b. The group claims that the roads being put into the area are also in violation of the planning standards because they do not access any adjacent management areas.
The group also objects to the use of site-specific amendments to suspend Forest Plan standards for Elk Habitat Effectiveness. The group notes that the Forest Service has used a site-specific amendment to suspend EHE rules in 10 different projects to date and suspended the rules for thermal and hiding cover seven times. Although the commercial harvest may increase big game forage production, one thing the plan allows in this kind of management area, the group claims the need for increased forage was not demonstrated. In fact, elk numbers in the area currently exceed what the plan requires.
They ask the judge to declare that the project, as approved, violates the law. They ask him to vacate the decision and set aside the Finding of No Significant Impact and enjoin the implementation of the project. They also ask for award of costs, expenses, expert witness fees, and reasonable attorney fees.
“The BNF Forest Plan is a foundational management contract with public landowners,” said FOB member Larry Campbell. “It lays out legal limits to ecological harm. We are asking a judge to decide if the BNF can waive legal protections of elk habitat yet again. We are drawing a line at the Darby Lumber Land project area because it is an island of prime elk habitat surrounded by a sea of habitat destruction.”
“We hope that, beginning with this project, the Bitterroot National Forest will follow the law and bring to an end its practice of tax-subsidized timber sales that damage the environment, reduce opportunities for hunters and anglers, and cost the taxpayers of Ravalli County hard-earned money,” said FOB President Jim Miller.
Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Matthew Anderson said, “We have not had a chance to read the lawsuit thoroughly as we just received it. It is unfortunate that the project, which drew community support, has been litigated. This is an important project that improves forest health, reduces potential fire severity, and is good for our local economy and jobs. We believe we did our due diligence under the law.”
The Darby Lumber Lands – Phase 2 Project was subject to public objection under Code of Federal Regulations §218. The Objection Reviewing Officer who reviewed the project found that it complied with all applicable laws and the Forest Plan.
The DN/FONSI are available online at www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=49700 and at the Darby Ranger District and Forest Supervisor’s Office in Hamilton.
For additional information contact Eric Winthers, District Ranger, Darby/Sula Ranger District at (406) 821-3913.