Ellen Engstedt - May 08, 2006
Montana Wood Products Association
Lawsuits
The beat goes on and I wish I could say it is upbeat but it is not. Two more lawsuits were filed recently – one in Ravalli County on the Middle East Fork and the other in Park County on the Main Boulder. These two projects proposed thinning and fuels reduction on national forests – the Bitterroot and Gallatin.
The Middle East Fork is a Healthy Forests Restoration Act project in which the local residents of Sula met repeatedly with Forest Service personnel and developed a preferred action alternative for fuels reduction and restoration. A couple of preservation groups tried to highjack the process with a conceptual alternative that did not meet the purpose and need of the project. The Forest Service made the mistake of attempting to analyze the concept going so far as to work with the individuals to try to make it into an alternative.
The idea behind the Healthy Forests Restoration Act is that local people most affected by action, or more often lack of action, in and near their homes and lives should be the ones with the voice in how to actively manage land. This really comes down to majority rule, a principle upon which our country was founded and that used to function. By allowing, and even encouraging, a vocal minority to shout everyone else down the decision making process used by land managers has become fatally flawed.
The lawsuit filed on the Main Boulder is even more egregious. The proposed fuels reduction project on 2,500 acres south of Big Timber is one of crucial importance because of the safety and welfare of Montana’s citizens living and recreating in the area. The Main Boulder consists of “one way in and one way out” on about 30 miles in a canyon. There are four church camps along with about 200 homes, many of which are year-round residences.
More than 20 meetings were held over a number of years with the final study issued in January of 2005. The purpose and need for the project indicates the work would reduce the intensity and speed of wildfires by eliminating some of the fuel load and would buy more time for evacuations if necessary. Estimates are at any given time during the summer months there are upwards of 2,000 people in the designated project area.
The two entities filing the lawsuit are putting imaginary dangers to grizzly bears, fish, and lynx ahead of the real danger of probable wildfires and the lives of not only children at the church camps but of the firefighters who will be charged with getting them out of the area. It is an unnecessary and unconscionable risk that could and should be avoided.
There is broad support for the Main Boulder among local folks, fire officials, and two conservation groups – the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Trout Unlimited. Three letters were written by local residents, including Montana State Senators, to the representatives of the two plaintiffs with an invitation to view the project. The two refused to participate. This is yet another example of a broken system under which the minority rules while the majority pays the price.
A recent announcement of the merging of two entities raised a number of eyebrows, including mine, because there have been op-ed pieces in Montana papers by one of the individuals rattling on about how his new and improved organization believes in working for compromise on forest health issues. These are the same people involved in the lawsuit on the Middle East Fork. I wonder what the Sula residents think of the compromise foisted on them under litigation filed by those individuals.
There are a few legitimate attempts at collaboration going on with some proposed national forest projects. Unfortunately, all of us know that no matter how much time and effort we put into ensuring all voices are heard and that local folks are in charge of their own destinies, the vocal minority can ride in at the end with a lawsuit in hand using any alleged claim and, with the complicity of a court, stop meaningful land management.
We have truly reached the point where the silent majority needs to speak up with a loud voice letting the minority extremists know they have gone too far. Our very lives depend upon it.
For the Montana Wood Products Association based in Helena, I am Ellen Engstedt. Thanks for listening.
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