One of the country’s largest forest management plans is facing controversial changes that strongly recommend logging in response to increased wildfires.
Michael Hoyt writes, "The Mud Creek Project uses the euphemism “vegetation” to obscure what it really is, a logging project that will release vast quantities of CO2 from trees and the soil and intensify global warming."
The groups say the Forest Service didn't include enough details about where exactly the logging project will take place to assess the impact on wildlife.
Steve Kelly writes, "Today, more than 23 million acres of these undeveloped landscapes – in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Eastern Oregon and Washington – remain unprotected, imperiled and ever increasingly vulnerable to being exploited and destroyed."
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.
The Flathead National Forest is taking public comment on another logging project in the Swan Valley, but environmental groups question why the project doesn’t seem to address issues mentioned in a recent court order.