News ReleaseJuly 23, 2004Contact:The Alliance for the Wild Rockies - Michael Garrity, (406) 459-5936Bear Creek Council - Hank Rate, (406) 223-0702 or (406) 848-7294Native Ecosystems Council - Sara Johnson, (406) 285-3611
GROUPS FILE LAWSUIT TO STOP LOGGING GRIZZLY BEAR AND WOLF HABITAT BORDERING YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK AND ABSAROKA-BEARTOOTH WILDERNESS
GARDINER, MT - In order to protect "Situation One" grizzly bear and wolf habitat on the border of Yellowstone National Park, one local and two regional conservation groups, Bear Creek Council , the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and Native Ecosystems Council, announced today that they filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court to stop the Darroch-Eagle Timber Sale in the Gallatin National Forest.
The Darroch-Eagle (pronounced "Derrick-Eagle") timber sale promotes the construction and reconstruction of 4.5 miles of roads on the north border of Yellowstone National Park east of Gardiner, Montana, to enable logging approximately 1.5 million board feet (MMBF) of timber next to the park.
The logging area is currently crucial occupied habitat for grizzly bears and wolves, the groups contend. "Just this year, a new wolf pack, has been discovered in the area the Forest Service is trying to cut, adjacent to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park," said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. "The Darroch-Eagle area is home to Yellowstone's newest wolf pack."
Garrity, a natural resource economist, said the Darroch-Eagle timber sale will cost American taxpayers $400,000. "This is ridiculous," he said. "We should not even be considering spending taxpayer's money to destroy some of the world's best wildlife habitat. "
"Logging activity is set to begin July 26," said Hank Rate of the Gardiner-based, Bear Creek Council. "We had to file this lawsuit. The Forest Service rejected our appeal of their decisions to reopen old logging roads and cut the few remaining old-growth strips between old clearcuts in the Bear Creek and Darroch Creek drainages. Although the agency reached it decision July 8, 2004, Rate said concerned citizens did not receive notice of the proposed road building and logging until late last week.
"The Darroch-Eagle Sale is in 'Situation One' grizzly habitat next to Yellowstone Park -- That's the best habitat there is," Rate said. In addition to adjoining the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park, the roads and logging are wedged between two inventoried roadless areas.
There is considerable confusion regarding the timber sale, Rate said. "The sale was sold while being litigated in 2001, so the Forest Service locked itself into a contract it has been unable to fulfill. The Forest Service tells the public it is proposing to harvest 1.5 million board feet, but somehow the agency has already sold 2.9 million board feet. The Forest Service says they will reopen only 3.6 miles of overgrown logging roads, but they have allowed for 10.9 miles in the logging contract."
Even the exact acreage involved in the roading and logging is in question, Rate said. "Not only is the sale inappropriate, but that the public has been kept grossly uninformed."
Garrity said, "The General Accounting Office [investigatory arm of Congress] recently reported the Forest Service's financial statements are unreliable and the Darroch-Eagle Timber Sale is an example of their incompetent accounting. A May 1, 2003, Government Accounting Office report states the Forest Service has not been able to provide Congress and the public a clear understanding of what its 30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion it receives every year," said Garrity."When you add up the numbers, this Yellowstone sale is a disaster," Garrity continued. "The Gallatin National Forest loses $870 for every logging truck of timber cut on the forest. Losing money destroying grizzly and wolf habitat just doesn't make sense."Dr. Sara Jane Johnson, director of the Montana based Native Ecosystems Council and a former scientist with the Gallatin National Forest, said, "The Forest Service failed to apply the legal protection for the grizzly bear required under the Endangered Species Act and the Gallatin National Forest Plan. This timber sale will displace grizzlies from crucial habitat and could directly result in dead grizzly bears."
"It's really alarming," Johnson continued. "The Gallatin National Forest has seven timber sales planned in occupied grizzly habitat and they have not looked at the cumulative effects of this logging on the bears.""It is time to leave some trees for grizzly bears and wolves," Garrity concluded. "We don't need anymore clearcuts on the border of Yellowstone National Park."
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Hank Rate worked for the Forest Service for 10 years including 4 years as the Ranger of the Stillwater Ranger District of the Custer National Forest, just east of the project area.Michael Garrity is Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. He taught natural resource economics at the University of Utah from 1992-1998.Dr. Sara Jane Johnson holds a Ph.D. in biology from Montana State University and worked for the Forest Service for 14 years as a wildlife biologist, analyzing the impacts of Forest Service management on wildlife.
Groups: Bear Creek Council is a non-profit environmental group, based in Gardiner, Montana and a chapter of the Northern Plains Research Council.Alliance for the Wild Rockies, http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org , formed to meet the challenge of saving the Northern Rockies Bioregion from habitat destruction. We are a grassroots environmental group composed of thousands of individuals, business owners, and organizations that take a bioregional approach to protect and restore this great region. A membership-based non-profit organization, headquartered in Missoula, Montana, our board and advisors include some of the nation's top scientists and conservationists.Native Ecosystems Council is a non-profit science-based environmental group based in Willow Creek, Montana.
Further Information:GAO report #GAO-03-503 Forest Service: Little Progress on Performance Accountability Likely Unless Management Addresses Key Challenges is available at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03503.pdf
Darroch-Eagle timber sale refuses to die. By Hank Rate.
Forest Service reckless in approving Darroch-Eagle
Forest Service would have lost money on Darroch-Eagle saleBy Michael Garrity
Timber sale ruling shouldn't stop Taylor Fork land swapBy Hank Rate
Forest officials scramble to salvage land trades after court ruling
Renee Van Camp, Wolf Recovery Program DirectorMembership Director/Office Managerrenee@wildrockiesalliance.org406-721-5420
"A lot of animals have adapted to humans, like coyotes, who've expanded their range. Wolves haven't budged an inch, the price they pay is their lives."-Dr. Douglas Smith, Yellowstone Wolf Project Leader
ALLIANCE FOR THE WILD ROCKIESPO Box 8731Missoula, MT 59807-8731406-721-5420 fax: 406-721-9917Securing the ecological integrity of the Wild Rockies bioregion through citizen empowerment and the application of conservation biology, sustainable economic models and environmental law.