Wildlife advocates ask judge to stop BLM logging project
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) The Bureau of Land Management wants to log and burn thousands of acres in the Garnet Range east of Missoula, but environmental groups are asking a judge to pause the project while evaluating the BLM’s decision.
On Tuesday, in Missoula federal district court, five environmental groups filed for an injunction to stop the Missoula BLM Office from starting work on the Clark Fork Face project. The Clark Fork Face project, approved in April, covers a mix of federal, state and private land in the Garnet Mountains mainly north of Interstate 90 from west of Clinton to east of Drummond and north to Greenough.
Almost half of the 247,200-acre planning area is private land that was owned by the Stimson Lumber Company as recently as 2013, but which has been subdivided and sold to new residents. The BLM owns 10% of the land, scattered mostly on the eastern side of the planning area, and that’s the only land the project would affect.
The Missoula BLM Office conducted an environmental assessment, first published in December 2022, and issued a decision this past April to log almost 8.300 acres, thin almost 1,400 acres, use prescribed burning on more than 4,600 acres and build about 6 miles of temporary road along with the restoration of 19 miles of road. The project would take 10 to 15 years to complete.
The five groups allege the BLM has failed to consider how the project’s logging and 19 miles of roads could negatively affect wildlife, specifically lynx and grizzly bears, especially when combined with all the activities occurring on nearby non-BLM land.
“After decades of industrial exploitation, this region is just beginning to heal, with grizzly bears and other wildlife starting to return. Instead of encouraging restoration, the BLM is charging ahead with another logging project that will obliterate any chance these embattled species have at making a true recovery,” said attorney Kristine Akland, Center for Biological Diversity Northern Rockies director, in a release.
The plaintiffs include Center for Biological Diversity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council, Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, and Council on Wildlife and Fish.
No logging contracts have been signed yet. The plaintiffs want the court to put all work put on hold while they try to show why the BLM should conduct a full environmental impact statement instead of the less in-depth assessment.
They question whether the 19 miles of road, some of which is considered “impassible,” was part of the regional road density calculation. Wildlife like grizzly bears and elk avoid areas with higher road densities because roads bring in people and lead to conflict. They also want the BLM to consider how the forest could be affected if many of the logged trees fail to grow back due to increasing heat and drought brought on by climate change.
The BLM consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which concluded in November 2022 that the project would “affect and be likely to adversely affect” grizzly bears and lynx, both of which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The Garnet Range is an important connectivity corridor for carnivores moving between the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and wild areas to the south. According to the environmental assessment, “FWP considers the planning area to be an important ‘stepping stone’ for linkage between grizzly population centers.” The increased logging and roads on BLM land could reduce the value of the Garnet Mountains as a connectivity corridor, the plaintiffs say. However, the BLM concluded that “while disturbance could cause short-term impacts to individual bear energy expenditure and fat deposition, secure grizzly bear habitat would be minimally affected by this project.”
Five grizzly bears have denned in the Garnet Mountains over the past 20 years, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. In 2020-21, a grizzly dubbed “Lingenpolter” traveled through the area on his way from the Mission Mountains to the Flint and Sapphire mountains south of I-90. In 2022, FWP biologists collared two sibling bears in the Bitterroot and placed them in the Welcome Creek Wilderness in the Sapphire Mountains. The bears then moved back north through the Garnet Mountains to the Scapegoat Wilderness.
Finally, Canada lynx may use the area, but the plaintiffs say the BLM ignored that because the 2021 Missoula BLM Office Resource Management plan doesn’t assess lynx habitat in the area. The BLM says the project area contains less than 250 acres of lynx habitat, but the plaintiffs say the BLM used an arbitrary definition of “lynx habitat” that contradicts the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Canada Lynx Conservation Strategy and Assessment and best-available science.
The BLM resource management plan also ignores lynx habitat if it occurs in a wildland-urban interface where the BLM choses to do fire mitigation, so that could also account for the BLM’s minimal acreage, plaintiffs said. The wildland-urban interface within the project area didn’t exist prior to about 15 years ago when Stimson Lumber started its land sales. The sell-off has further degraded habitat in the area.