Forest Service stands ground on grizzly issues

When the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a lawsuit last month to challenge three logging projects in Kootenai National Forest, the news probably didn’t surprise officials within the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It’s nothing new to see conservation groups challenge the actions of government agencies. In this case, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies believes road construction in connection with the logging projects will threaten grizzly bear habitat in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem.

“In our view, we’ve designed good projects that ultimately we believe are not likely to adversely affect grizzly bears,” Paul Bradford, Kootenai National Forest supervisor, said last week. “The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed with us through consultation activities.”

The conservation organization doesn’t have those same views and insists that the projects will displace any bears living within the occupied habitat.

The three timber sale projects include:

• Grizzly Vegetation and Transportation Management Project.

• Miller West Fisher Project.

• Little Beaver Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project.

A primary issue that comes out of the alliance’s complaint involves road building and their belief that most bears are killed near roads.

“It's time the federal government did the right thing for these bears – before they disappear entirely from the Yaak Valley and the Cabinet Mountains,” Michael Garrity, executive director the alliance, said through a press release.

Bradford doesn’t agree with the argument that most bears are killed near roads.

“This year, there was one fatality in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem and from what I understand, the guy was six miles from a road, from a trailhead,” Bradford said. “But the group makes claims that grizzly bear numbers continue to decline every year and the most bears are killed near roads – those are their words.”

Wayne Kasworm of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed 12 known human-related grizzly bear deaths since 2004. Included in his numbers are bears that are killed within the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem north of the border in Canada.

Since 2004:

• Two grizzly bears were determined to be nuisance cases and were removed – both in Canada.

• Also in Canada, one grizzly was killed during a legal hunt. Those types of hunts have since been closed.

• Two grizzlies were killed by trains.

• Two grizzlies shot by humans were “misidentified” as black bears – one in the U.S. and one in Canada.

• Two grizzlies were killed in self-defense.

• Three cases involving grizzly deaths are still under investigation.

“What we continue to do is reduce mortality and I think in the last few years, when I look at mortality, it hasn’t necessarily been right off of Forest Service roads,” Bradford said.

In a press release about the lawsuit, the alliance says that based on Fish and Wildlife Service records, 24 bears died from 1999-2005 compared to 16 known grizzly deaths in the Cabinet-Yaak from 1983-98. Based on that information, the organization’s Liz Sadler said the grizzly decline has been accelerating.

Based on Kasworm’s numbers, however, only a dozen have died in the past six years – an average of two per year.

The actual number of grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem largely remains a mystery.

“I believe I’ve got a minimum of 40 to 45 bears,” Kasworm said. “How many are there more than that, I honestly don’t know but I can identify 40 to 45 bears … and I say 40 to 45 because some may have died.”

The grizzly population numbers come from various techniques performed in the field, such as captures, hair snags, DNA testing, photographs/video and track measurements.

“There are varying opinions throughout this community on how many bears there are,” Bradford said. “From our point of view, what we’re most concerned about is providing vegetative conditions – good grocery stores – for the bears. … We provide good habitat security within the bounds of the best available science. And those are the types of decisions that we’re making in these projects.”

Just last year, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies sued the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the Northeast Yaak Project in the Three Rivers Ranger District.

District judge Donald Molloy ruled that the agencies needed an adequate assessment of the effects of helicopter logging on grizzly bears.

“We modified that activity on the Northeast Yaak Project, ultimately requiring that helicopter logging only be done during the winter season,” Bradford said. “So, that’s when the bears would be in hibernation. In our view, it clearly has no adverse effect on grizzly bears.”

Molloy ruled against the alliance’s other claims – including concerns over the construction or decommissioning of roads. In response, the alliance appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The circuit judges ruled in favor of the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife.

“In the appeal resolution, we tried to work with them (alliance) on the helicopter units,” Bradford said. “At one point, there was an offer on the table to potentially drop those units. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies decided that they wanted to pursue legal action, so there it went.”

Among the new projects, the Little Beaver actually lies outside of the established Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem south of the Clark Fork River. As such, requirements are somewhat different. Within the ecosystem, the only helicopter logging would occur in the Miller West Fisher project.

“The Miller West Fisher has about 300 acres of potential helicopter logging but the requirement would be similar to the Northeast Yaak Project, which would mean strictly winter logging; the bears would be hibernating,” Bradford said.

Bradford believes the projects are very important for more than one reason.

“They provide better vegetative conditions out there and they provide a way for folks to go to work in the woods in a meaningful way,” he said. “In the long term, we believe these projects provide better vegetative conditions that ultimately support grizzly bear populations in an improved fashion.”

The lawsuit was filed just last month so the process will continue for several months. The defendants are currently working on their response to the complaint.

Bradford said it’s been difficult to find any common ground with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies – an organization that interestingly does not take part in Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition meetings. Several groups representing various interests make up the coalition, which reviews Kootenai National Forest projects.

“It’s just been tough to find a way to work with the group, to collaborate and find a place where we can come to a joint resolution that works for the group and one that we believe in from a land management standpoint,” Bradford said.