And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 11:38:20 -0600 To: "Wild Rockies Alerts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Wild Rockies InfoNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Groups file intent to sue on Flathead NF Road program FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 23, 1999 Contact: Keith Hammer, Swan View Coalition at 406-755-1379 Arlene Montgomery, Friends of the Wild Swan at 406-886-2011 KALISPELL, MT - Two local conservation groups have put the Forest Service on notice that they intend to file a lawsuit over the Flathead National Forest's road reclamation program. In a notice required sixty days in advance of filing a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act, Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan's attorney, Dan Rohlf, explains that the Flathead has illegally redefined what constitutes a "reclaimed" road without also reinitiating formal consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service, which has the final say on the effects to threatened and endangered species. At issue are the effects that leaving stream-bearing culverts in roads "reclaimed" for grizzly bear security have on both the bears, fish (especially the threatened bull trout) and water quality. When the Flathead issued its Forest Plan Amendment 19 in 1985, it specifically required that all stream-bearing culverts be removed in order to prevent the inevitable blow-out of culverts and to eliminate the need to continually monitor them in areas intended to be secure for the bears. Last May, however, the Flathead substantially changed its definition of a "reclaimed" road by issuing Forest Plan Implementation Note #13. It allows culverts to remain in "reclaimed" roads and substantially reduces the degree to which the road must be obliterated to minimize human use. There was no formal public involvement in the making of the new rules, nor was there formal consultation with Fish and Wildlife Service. And that, the groups contend, violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act. "Amendment 19 was designed as an integrated program that purposefully requires culvert removals in order to protect fish, while also better protecting bears and saving the taxpayer unaffordable maintenance costs," said Swan View Chair Keith Hammer. "This new policy amounts to 'let's not and say we did.'" Arlene Montgomery, Program Director for Friends of the Wild Swan, noted that all environmental analyses conducted for Amendment 19 concluded that the effects on native fish would be positive only if the culverts were removed. "Now, in spite of the fact bull trout has since been listed as a threatened species, the Flathead has arbitrarily dropped the culvert removal requirement," she said. "An example of the unreasonableness of this new policy is Ranger Chuck Harris' recent decision to leave two already plugged culverts in North Lost Creek, even though Friends of the Wild Swan offered to pay for their removal. He dismissed the recommendations of his staff and Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists who warned that there is a high risk of 700 tons of road ending up in the westslope cutthroat and bull trout spawning streams below. Protection of our native fish and water quality should be in the forefront of Forest Service policy, obviously it is not." END Arlene Montgomery Friends of the Wild Swan P.O. Box 5103 Swan Lake, MT 59911 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ This list is a public service provided by WIN: http://www.wildrockies.org Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
