by Michael Howell
Bitterroot National Forest officials recently notified several organizations that it was putting the Eastside Forest and Habitat Improvement Project on hold while it completes re-assessments of the project-specific effects on grizzly bears, wolverines, bull trout, lynx and white bark pine, all of which are listed as Endangered Species.
The project area covers the majority of the ‘eastside’ of the Bitterroot National Forest starting north of Stevensville at Eightmile Creek and extending south to Conner including the Sula Ranger District, covering more than a half million acres.
According to the decision-making document, the purpose of the project is to maintain or improve resilience to insect, disease, and stand replacing wildfire in forested stands by modifying forest structure, composition, and fuels to return the area to natural reference conditions, by treating vegetation to improve forest health and wildlife habitat using a mix of prescribed burning and non-commercial thinning in plantations, meadows and forested understory in existing stands. No commercial harvest is proposed, and no road building or road reconstruction would occur.
The Eastside Forest and Habitat Improvement Project, a half-million acre project across the Sapphire Front, is on hold as the Bitterroot National Forest consults with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about potential impacts on Endangered Species. Map courtesy USDA.
The Forest Service approved the project in December under an abbreviated process called a “Categorical Exclusion,” which does not require the same level of environmental assessment or opportunities for public comment as the usual review process. The Biological Assessments of potential impacts to endangered species included in that 30-page decision was primarily based on what the Forest Service calls “programmatic screens.”
Several conservation organizations, including Friends of the Bitterroot, WildEarth Guardians, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, objected to the decision and filed a Notice of Intent to sue in January, citing a lack of detail “about the precise location, timing and scope of the treatments,” among other things.
The groups claimed in the NOI that without this information the Forest Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service, with whom they are required to consult in the process, would be “unable to adequately assess the project’s effects to bull trout, bull trout critical habitat, grizzly bears, wolverine, and Canada lynx in violation of the ESA.”
In its March 7 letter to the organizations, the Forest Service said that due to new information and updates it rescinded the initial Biological Assessments (BAs) and reinitiated consultation with the USFWS on August 14, 2024 and began conducting informal consultation with the Service since that time. The Forest Service claims to have already submitted several revised BAs to USFW for review.
“Therefore, since reinitiation has begun and consultation is ongoing on the effects of the updated proposed action, all previous consultation processes that have occurred related to the Eastside Forest and Habitat Improvement Project will be superseded. Accordingly, your claims of ESA violations relating to the original consultation are moot. The Forest does not intend to implement the project until the reinitiated consultation is complete,” it states in the March 7 letter.
In a press release Adam Rissien, rewilding manager at Wild Earth Guardians, said that by using a Categorical Exclusion, “the agency was clearly pushing beyond the bounds of its authority, and we’re pleased it’s reversing itself to comply with the law.”
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