The conservation groups are correct in that roads into forested areas will cause habitat issues, problems in survival of endangered species and a corridor that opens migration of dangerous animals into civilized areas. Forest roads are not the same issue as roads for transportation. Completely different.
The USFW must correct there methods of determining roads into forests and prohibit over development of those roads as well as eliminating road building into habitat of endangered species. This is ridiculous. Who at USFW is doing a really lousy job. It is costing environmental groups far more than it should.
These lawsuits rarely are awarded court costs, but, the groups should begin to sue for costs affiliated with their lawsuits.
I know plenty of highly qualified individuals that can easily solve this problem if Interior can't get out of it's own way.
By Tristan Scott
A pair of local conservation groups (click here) have reprised their arguments over the consequences of logging roads in grizzly bear and bull trout habitat, filing a lawsuit this week in U.S. District Court alleging that federal agencies failed to adequately assess road density under the Flathead National Forest’s long-term management plan.
The new suit, filed May 31 by Friends of the Wild Swan and Swan View Coalition, says the plan’s shortcomings provide the federally protected species with insufficient safeguards. Specifically, it targets a forest management plan adopted by the Flathead National Forest that plaintiffs say allows for significant new roadbuilding without setting a sufficient standard for reclamation after a timber sale is complete. The groups say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) biological opinion greenlighting the plan failed to accurately calculate the density or consider the impact of road development and road use on federally protected species such as grizzly bears and bull trout.
“This isn’t rocket science,” Keith Hammer, chair of Swan View Coalition, said in a prepared statement. “The impacts of roads don’t go away simply because the agencies don’t count those roads in total road density. Fish and Wildlife Service squandered an opportunity to set the record straight by not requiring what gets put on paper to match what is on the ground. The lie continues and we’re forced back into court to disprove it once again.”...
The new suit, filed May 31 by Friends of the Wild Swan and Swan View Coalition, says the plan’s shortcomings provide the federally protected species with insufficient safeguards. Specifically, it targets a forest management plan adopted by the Flathead National Forest that plaintiffs say allows for significant new roadbuilding without setting a sufficient standard for reclamation after a timber sale is complete. The groups say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) biological opinion greenlighting the plan failed to accurately calculate the density or consider the impact of road development and road use on federally protected species such as grizzly bears and bull trout.
“This isn’t rocket science,” Keith Hammer, chair of Swan View Coalition, said in a prepared statement. “The impacts of roads don’t go away simply because the agencies don’t count those roads in total road density. Fish and Wildlife Service squandered an opportunity to set the record straight by not requiring what gets put on paper to match what is on the ground. The lie continues and we’re forced back into court to disprove it once again.”...
