Victory For Buzz's Team!

[BigHornRam]

Obstructionist vow to continue fight.

Judge OKs Middle East Fork fuel project
By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian



Montana's first Healthy Forest Restoration Act fuel reduction project officially passed legal muster Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy rejected all claims of the WildWest Institute and Friends of the Bitterroot lawsuit that challenged the Middle East Fork Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project on the Bitterroot National Forest.

Thomas Woodbury, the environmental groups' attorney, said the groups will probably appeal the decision.


“It's an important case and we'll likely appeal,” Woodbury said late Friday afternoon.

The ruling followed nearly eight months of contentious debate over the future of a project that proposed to treat about 5,000 acres in a 25,800-acre area about two miles east of Sula. The project was designed to reduce wildland fire threats to the Middle East Fork community and treat areas affected by a Douglas fir bark beetle epidemic.

The groups claimed the agency violated federal law while putting together the project by committing resources before a decision was made, censoring contrary science, selectively excluding the public, and not taking a hard look at soils.

Molloy summarily rejected all of the group's claims. He also took the groups to task for their apparent predetermination to appeal the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals following his earlier decisions on the case.

“Review by the court of a party's claims serves as more than merely a box to be checked off on the party's notice of appeals; it is designed to maximize the potential for obtaining correct results,” Molloy wrote.

Molloy said the nation's tiered federal court system assumes that both the trial and appellate court level is more likely to yield the correct result because issues are more fully aired.

“In my view, an already strained administrative process becomes nearly unworkable when claims or defenses are made that ignore the record and that provide little or no citation to it or to legal authority,” Molloy wrote. “It creates the appearance that all a disgruntled participant needs to do is go through the motions until it is time for appeal to the Circuit.

“The system Congress intended will falter, if not fail, if that is truly the way it works.”

Molloy earlier refused to grant the group a preliminary injunction, saying they didn't appear to have a “fair chance” of succeeding on the merits of the case. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled that Molloy didn't abuse his discretion in turning down the preliminary injunction.

The U.S. Forest Service has awarded the first contract in the project. Rocky Mountain Log Homes of Hamilton began logging operations at the site about a month ago.

WildWest Institute executive director Matthew Koehler said the group had yet to review Molloy's ruling Friday afternoon and no decisions had been made on what its next step might be.

“We don't feel that Judge Molloy has really taken a hard look at our concerns,” Koehler said.

Some of the issues the groups raised are larger than the Middle East Fork project, including concerns about soils and old growth, he said.

“Regardless of this ruling, we just don't believe this project is the best way for the Forest Service to move ahead with community fire protection,” Koehler said.

The groups are concerned about the ecological ramifications of logging larger trees in areas that have not been logged previously, he said.

Koehler said the groups have asked that multi-party monitoring be established on the project. Agency officials have tentatively agreed. Koehler said he hopes local residents opposed to the project and University of Montana faculty will be included as part of the team.

While the groups don't enjoy a good relationship with the Bitterroot National Forest, Koehler said they have been working cooperatively with other national forests to develop more conservative fuel reduction projects.

“As an organization, we have been willing to come to the table,” he said.

Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Dave Bull said he was pleased Molloy ruled in favor of the agency.

“This is a good day for the health of the forest in the Middle East Fork, and it's a good day for the residents of the Middle East Fork,” Bull said.

Bull said he appreciated Molloy's comments addressing the appeal issue.

“That's the kind of stuff that we've been concerned about for a long time as we try to implement collaboration,” he said. “People can come and sit around the table, but all they have to do is go through the motions until the decision is made. Then they file a lawsuit.”

Molloy's ruling says people need to have substantive facts and science behind their claims, Bull said.

“They just can't make a bunch of claims without any science or fact and hope that one will stick,” he said.

Ravalli County Attorney George Corn said county government officials were elated to hear the news of Molloy's decision.

“This is a big step forward for county safety,” Corn said. “It's one of the big reasons that the county came on board to help in the case. It's important to see these kinds of projects completed to help protect county residents for catastrophic wildfire.”

Ravalli County joined other county groups and individuals to intervene in the court case on the side of the Forest Service.

Corn agreed with Molloy's concerns over the groups' apparent predetermination to appeal the case.

“It was apparent that these groups were using Judge Molloy as a way stop or a ticket stamper to move their frivolous case forward,” Corn said. “It was just a shameful way to use the court system.”

 

[JoseCuervo]

If Molloy doesn't want to hear the arguments or force the FS to follow the laws, then he shouldn't be upset that his court is reduced to a mere formality as his decisions get overturned.

 

[BigHornRam]

Team Buzz Victory helps finance elk habitat enhancement work. Another victory for wildlife.

Major contracts could prove potential - Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2006

SUMMARY: New agreements involving Missoula-based conservation group represent a big step in land stewardship.

Many conservationists have long wished for greater say over management of public lands. Some have sought to influence land management through the courts, but the results have been limited. Lawsuits seem better suited to finding fault with the plans and actions of government agencies than in actually producing better results on the ground. Conservationists have much to contribute toward more enlightened land use, especially to encourage managers to keep multiple use and the broad array of resources in balance with revenue-producing activities, like logging and grazing. But for conservation groups to contribute meaningfully, they need to be able to do more than say “No.”

This is why we're cheering - and you should too - agreements signed in mid-December in Missoula by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
The so-called “stewardship agreements” make the Elk Foundation a contractor to the agencies, giving it responsibility for extensive land management work on 85,000 acres of national forest in western Montana and 174,000 acres of BLM-managed land in Wyoming. The areas covered by the agreements include national forest lands surrounding the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area northeast of Missoula and BLM lands in the Wyoming Range west of Pinedale, Wyo. The term of the agreements is 10 years, a relatively lengthy term, one long enough to get some things done and likely see results.

The agreements were awarded under relatively new “stewardship contracting” provisions in federal law. Standard management practice is for the Forest Service to auction off timber or grazing rights, sending the money to the Treasury, while awaiting appropriations from Congress to pay for work beneficial to wildlife, water quality, recreation and other forest resources and uses. Stewardship contracting allows agencies to plow money generated from resource sales directly back into on-the-ground work - almost always increasing what work actually gets funded and accomplished.

The Elk Foundation's main mission, as the contracted steward for the lands covered by the agreements, will be to improve wildlife habitat. Doing so will involve logging - thinning forests and harvesting timber. This will put loggers and truckers to work and help supply mills with raw material. That's all the timber industry - long the dominant contractor in the national forests - really wants. But with one of the nation's leading conservation organizations in the driver's seat, we should be able to trust that the logging will be done to an extent and in ways that improve forest health and productivity. Building trust, in part by more extensively involving local groups and businesses in meaningful, hands-on land management work, could be one of the most valuable commodities produced by these projects.

Stewardship contracting isn't going to resolve every issue. It's probably not suitable for every site or situation. But it's certainly a promising new tool. It's hard to think of a better way to prove its potential than by bringing in the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for such a long-term, large-scale demonstration.