USFS seeks comment on road closures

A two-year, $40 million mine exploration beneath a grizzly bear habitat has stoked interest from those who live and play there.

Hunters, at least one miner and a county commissioner showed up at a U.S. Forest Service public meeting to voice their opinions of the proposed mitigation.

The Kootenai National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks are working together to reduce the impact on the sensitive species in the Cabinet region. A bear expert with MFWP estimated recently that the grizzly population in the region stood at only 15.

Road closures are implemented to cut down on interactions between the bears and humans. For the Montanore Mines Libby Creek project, eight road closures have been proposed."What you have to do is look at the cumulative effects, effects of the Rock Creek mine, and the Montanore mine. You can't just look at this project in a vacuum," said Leslie McDougall, an advisory scientist for the Forest Service.

Lincoln County Commissioner Rita Windom spoke on the side of the public and criticized the closures as an overused technique for mitigation."When… are we going to talk about some other kind of grizzly bear mitigation besides pitting the recreating public against the mine? There have to be other ways of mitigating for grizzly bears without shutting down the forest to the public. All we ever hear is closed roads and that is not fair to the public," Windom said.

John McKay, a Forest Service geologist, said general habitat enhancement may also work. Such enhancement includes controlled burning and then replanting vegetation and grasses more suitable for bears' diets."We're trying to work out the most reasonable form of mitigation that works for everybody," McKay told The Western News Wednesday.The adit starts on private property about 12 miles south of Libby. It extends nearly 14,000 feet. Mine workers hope to cmplete about 40,000 feet or additional drilling. When adit operations begin, travel on Libby Creek Road is expected to increase only slightly above normal usage, said Eric Klepfer, a former Mines Management executive who now advises the company on environmental issues.

This travel will include almost nine trips per day for mine employees, supplies, environmental workers and engineers.The Forest Service has extended the public input deadline until Oct. 19. Call 293-6211 or contact the office via email at aobst@fs.fed.us